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Buried underneath the mess that is Sony’s Spider-Man-less Spider-Man universe, beneath “Morbius” and “Madame Web” and the like, is Tom Hardy’s (“Peaky Blinders,” “Mad Max: Fury Road”) unexpectedly charming odd-couple combo of Eddie Brock and the titular aggressive goopy space alien Venom. The pair have made it through their own trilogy, now capping off with a road-trip buddy film taking them from Mexico to Vegas and a bit beyond with “Venom: The Last Dance.”
The film follows Eddie Brock, played by Hardy, and Venom, voiced by Hardy, on the run after the events of the previous film. The pair decides to head for New York before getting derailed by a creature sent to Earth by Knull, voiced by Andy Serkis (“War for the Planet of the Apes,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”), the creator of Venom and the other symbiotes. Venom informs Eddie that he’s seeking a codex that is the key to Knull escaping and wreaking havoc on the universe. The pair go on the run from the creature, trying to figure out what to do and running into a myriad of colorful characters across the Nevada desert, including the fan favorite Mrs. Chen, played again by Peggy Lu (“Always Be My Maybe,” “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist”), hippie alien lover Martin Moon, played by Rhys Ifans (“House of the Dragon,” “Notting Hill”), military general Rex Strickland, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave,” “Doctor Strange”), and scientist Teddy Payne, played by Juno Temple (“Ted Lasso,” “Unsane”).
By now, any audience member going into one of these “Venom” films should know basically what to expect. Hardy continues an extremely physical performance that feels like a mixture between a modern action hero and the kind of old-school comedic physicality of Buster Keaton. His voice for Venom is also still a highlight and the pair have a fantastic bit of chemistry that borders on turning into a full-blown catty couple. The rest of the cast are all unfortunately not nearly as interesting, either taking the material far too seriously or tipping into even sillier territory than even Hardy. Ifans is an example of the latter, spiraling into a cartoon sketch of a hippie alien lover, and as great as Mrs. Chen is, unfortunately, she’s even more underutilized than in the past two films.
Screenwriter Kelly Marcel, most known for writing the first two “Venom” films, the first “Fifty Shades of Grey” film, and Saving Mr. Banks” makes her directorial debut here with a script co-written by herself and Hardy, and it's certainly a mixed bag of a film. On the one hand, whenever the film sticks to Brock and Venom, it's a great bit of pulp-schlock thanks to Hardy. It’s whenever it tries to branch out of that material into its B-plots that it falters. Admittedly, the material involving the rest of the symbiotes works rather well, but the rest of it all just feels routine and bland.
The film does manage to nail the “trilogy ending” feeling its going for. It’s able to be a nice finale for this duo, even if it still feels fairly anticlimactic. The rest of the characters get endings that range from either unsatisfying to blatant sequel/spinoff bait, but at least Eddie and Venom have a nice ending moment. It speaks to a larger success that Hardy has had with this series: everything about these films should have been complete garbage, but with him at the center, taking these characters so seriously and embracing their weird vibe, makes them work on a more basic level where it otherwise would not.
“Venom: The Last Dance” manages to be a perfect middle ground between the previous two films in terms of identity: it's not nearly as gung-ho and weird as “Let There Be Carnage” but not as routine as the first film. It's a well enough send off for the comic book industry’s resident odd-couple, maintaining Hardy’s invested performances and plenty of slimy, goopy action, but it fails to excel in any realm outside of that. It’s just well enough without making any kind of an identity for itself, trilogy ending or not. 3/5
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