Tom Hardy appears in a scene from Venom: The Last Dance.Courtesy of Sony Pictures/The Associated Press
Venom: The Last Dance
Directed by Kelly Marcel
Written by Kelly Marcel, Tom Hardy
Starring Tom Hardy, Juno Temple, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Stephen Graham
Classification PG-13; 109 minutes
How do you solve a problem like Venom? A Marvel universe outpost that has never been quite sure of what exactly to do with itself, it should come as no surprise that the third and – fingers crossed – final instalment in the Venom franchise, the very originally titled Venom: The Last Dance, is just as clumsy and unevenly footed as its predecessors.
2018’s Venom, directed by Zombieland (2009) filmmaker Ruben Fleischer, seemed to almost accidentally step into what is now the franchise’s niche – notably, screenwriting that is so-bad-it’s-funny and a technical filmmaking prowess that is, shall we say, utterly economic. At least with 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage, helmed by British actor and filmmaker Andy Serkis, audiences got a faint whiff of what might have been the beginnings of a fun, camp outing.
Despite a storyline that was dragged out to its prerequisite run time, the silly, homoerotic coding of Eddie and Venom’s relationship and Woody Harrelson empty-eyed delirium as serial-killer-turned-symbiote-host Cletus Kasady kept us fans of the absurd at least partly satiated.
Sadly, keeping audiences half-way entertained is what Kelly Marcel, screenwriter for the first two instalments, continues with Venom: The Last Dance, her directorial debut. With Marcel also at the helm of the script (alongside a story credit for Tom Hardy), the newest Venom chapter keeps the spirit of the previous movies inasmuch it is yet another Marvel cinematic outing that feels like it was written by artificial intelligence.
Hardy returns as Eddie Brock, now an on-the-run fugitive following the events of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Unlike Venoms 1 and 2, the enemies here exist largely off-screen: the shadowy government officials who have tasked their special forces with tracking down both Eddie and Venom, as well as the first appearance of Knull, creator of the symbiotes, who has instructed his army of ferocious xenophages to hunt down and kill Venom.
Knull remains in his ominous yet vague multiverse setting for the majority of the film, leaving the main stage of Venom: The Last Dance to Eddie and Venom in what is essentially a failed road trip that twists and turns with every new unnamed enemy that meets them.
At first, the duo are headed to San Francisco, then Las Vegas, then a soon-to-be-decommissioned Area 51. As is often the case in the Venom universe, none of these options have to make narrative, or even logical sense, because all of these options exist only to forward the film’s seemingly “on shuffle” approach to creating action. It’s a world with zero stakes because none of the narrative choices that are made mean anything outside of themselves. Instead, the series’ prerogative continues to be “Throw it all at the wall, why not? We are just filling up runtime, surely!”
Juno Temple’s otherworldly Dr. Payne, a scientist working alongside the military in their acquisition and studying of alien beings, is given the quickest of narrative setups to secure her place as alien ally; Stephen Graham returns in his role as Detective Mulligan, now host to a strangely sensual symbiote who foretells of the world’s end at the hands of Knull; and, as far as we know, Chiwetel Ejiofor’s special forces leader and soldier Rex Strickland, responsible for capturing Eddie and Venom, just likes following the rules.
It’s a complete mish-mash of storytelling that, rather than hitting the mark at least just as often as it misses – for example, a film like Chuck Russell’s charmingly bizarre 1994 Dark Horse Comics adaptation of The Mask, where the absurd and the silly are not just entertaining, but intentionally leaned into as a part of the movie’s manically bombast approach – Venom: The Last Dance remains steadfast in the franchise’s commitment to storytelling that, like a pot of water that never quite hits boiling point, is neither so-bad-it’s-good nor so bad it’s raucously entertaining, even if only unintentionally so.
One has to wonder: who exactly are these films for? Many fans of the comics have long abandoned the on-screen adaptations, noting that the changes in story and character seem to have abandoned the integrity of the source material.
Likewise, audiences in search of a high energy action flick will be met with visual effects that are decent enough and action set pieces that have potential, but are both so clearly hindered by the film’s unoriginal visual style and claustrophobic camera work.
It’s a franchise that feels held up solely by the often trial-and-error charm of Eddie and Venom as a duo, resting on one-off bits and banter instead of building out a larger story world that is actually exciting or engaging. It seems that, with Venom: The Last Dance, moviegoers have been treated to yet another $100-million-plus film that will be enjoyed – as it was at the screening I attended – by people only half-watching while busy scrolling their phones.
In the interest of consistency across all critics’ reviews, The Globe has eliminated its star-rating system in film and theatre to align with coverage of music, books, visual arts and dance. Instead, works of excellence will be noted with a critic’s pick designation across all coverage. (Television reviews, typically based on an incomplete season, are exempt.)