Venom: The Last Dance is the third and final installment in the Venom trilogy. From Director Kelly Marcel and distributed by Sony Pictures, Venom: The Last Dance released in theaters on Oct. 24. It has a 40% on the Tomatometer and 6.2/10 stars on IMDB. This movie is either a 10/10 experience or an absolute miss, depending on why you’re watching; if you’re here for the fun dynamic and excellent portrayal of Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and Venom, or looking for more substance and a clearer, more engaging narrative, you’ll likely walk out of that theater with a variety of emotions.
The film follows Eddie Brock and Venom as they try to escape a never-ending army of Xenophages, a predator of the symbiotes. The Xenophages were sent by Knull, the god of darkness and creator of the symbiotes. Knull is trying to kill Eddie Brock and Venom because they represent a thing called a codex, which is the mystical artifact keeping Knull trapped in his home realm of Klyntar. If that felt like a lot of really important lore that you’re surprised is only getting brought up in the third film, that’s because it is. The beginning of the film is a lot of exposition dumping to catch you up on just how crazy things are about to get. TL;DR, god of darkness trapped in a realm—Eddie and venom are the key to his escape—god of Darkness sends horrifying monsters to go kill them. All caught up? Good. Fun little factoid to further emphasize that all this wasn’t planned from the start; Knull, the overarching antagonist of the film, made his comic debut appearance in June of 2018. The overarching antagonist of the trilogy was created just three months before the first film’s release on Oct. 5, 2018
There are an abundance of symbiotes used throughout the film. Many of them are original creations and many, while not officially named, pay uncanny resemblances to symbiotes from the comics. We see a largely built yellow symbiote, who may be Phage. We see Dr. Christmas bond to a green symbiote with several tentacles, who is almost certainly a nod to Lasher. Dr. Payne bonds with a long haired purple symbiote, likely Agony, though the film appears to give that symbiote electricity and super speed, both of which are new additions for Agony.
The story leaves a lot to be desired. There’s a clear difference between running to and running from. The film makes it abundantly clear that Eddie and Venom are running from the Xenophages, but where are they going? They spend the entirety of the film simply running…away. They don’t have a plan, it’s not clear how they intend to deal with being hunted. That makes for a story with a pretty large plot hole. It feels like they end up succeeding through happenstance, things just work out for them.
Additionally, it feels like Knulls inclusion in the film was very last minute; the film has a minute long monologue from Knull at the beginning just so you know why he is doing what he is doing. It felt oddly “tell not show” for a film that has as much visual effects and CGI as this does. It’s also odd that they included Knull in the promotional material when his overall screen time and involvement in the film is so limited, that it feels like he would’ve been better as a big reveal.
In terms of the feeling the film evokes, it’s a very fun and sentimental experience. It does an incredible job of showing that as dangerous as Venom can be, he is also very impulsive and almost child-like. There’s a scene where Eddie and Venom are carpooling with a family, and the family starts singing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and we see that Venom actually knows all the lyrics. He playfully encourages Eddie to sing along, but Eddie refuses. Venom continues to sing alongside the family in Eddie’s head.
Later on in the film, the duo run into Mrs. Chen, a side character in the earlier films. She invites them up to her luxury suit, and she offers to dance. Eddie politely rejects the offer, but Venom takes over and proceeds to do a perfectly synced doubles dance routine with Mrs. Chen, and Eddie makes a remark about them having the time to rehearse it. These types of scenes remind you that Venom isn’t just a black goo from another planet; he is a person, with likes and dislikes. He also demonstrated a potentially concerning gambling addiction, forcing Eddie to spend all the money they had.
By the end of the film, Venom sees that he needs to make a sacrifice to take down the Xenophages. He separates from Eddie and grabs all the Xenophages at once and pulls them all under a highly corrosive acid tank the military uses to dispose of waste. Eddie tries to fight him on it, but Venom makes a callback to an earlier heart wrenching scene in the film, where Venom says that this goodbye isn’t final, and activates the machine, seemingly killing all of the Xenophages alongside him. Don’t worry venom-lovers, the film’s end-credit scene shows a little bit of the symbiote bond to a cockroach, confirming Venom did not completely die.
Overall, I’d give the film an 8/10. It definitely left some things to be desired, but it was a very fun experience nonetheless. I had a huge grin on my face the whole time, smiling at every joke, getting all excited whenever I understood a reference to the comics. If all you care about is big cinematic interconnectivity, then maybe this ain’t for you. But if you enjoy a fun, funny, action packed standalone film, I’m sure you’ll love Venom: The Last Dance.
