REVIEW #416 Venom: The Last Dance (2024)

SYNOPSIS

Now a fugitive on the run, Eddie Brock and Venom must escape a mysterious military outfit and hunters from Venoms creator.

REVIEW

Venom The Last Dance had the components there to give Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock a Logan style finale but unfortunately opted for the same goofy humour that has let the movies down in the past. That being said, I expected it, the first two movies had it and it would be silly of me to expect any different from the third film. I’d also be lying if I said none of that humour landed because it did and in fact, it’s still a fun film, albeit not a great one either. Equally though, some of those punchlines were just as cringeworthy too. The storyline itself was okay, incorporating the other symbiotes that’s crash landed on earth and that created the opportunity for some really cool action sequences in the final act. Knull, the king of the Symbiotes was in the movie for the perfect amount of time, enough to influence the plot but still a small presence to tease a much larger role further down the line.

For me the film was almost ruined by two completely ridiculous sub plot elements, those kind of inclusions that are so incredibly dumb and unrealistic, that they rip you from the immersion entirely. Firstly was the inclusion of Mrs Chen (included in the trailer), who just so happens to bump into Eddie in vegas, in the same casino and coincidentally, is also winning the jackpot to protect a down and out Eddie… Maybe Sony views it as fan service, perhaps thinking she was a fan favourite, but I hated it! The second element followed almost immediately after, where they just had to get a Venom dance sequence in, reminiscent of the rave scene in the 2nd movie. Safe to say I hated both of them! For reasons I’ll leave out to not spoil the plot, Venom and Eddie spend most of the movie trying not to go full form, at the risk of the entire universe, but they’re willing to risk it all to have a dance with Mrs Chen… In a film with symbiote aliens, these two parts of the movie were by far the most unrealistic and not even showing Venom as impulsive can justify any of it.

So to wrap up the review, I guess I got what I expected! A movie that’s fun but certainly not high quality, one that summarises all three of the films failures in regard to opting for cheap humour, instead of quality writing. I’ve made no secret of my desire for these films to have gone in a dark and gritty direction instead, but that’s not even the reason why these films aren’t great, it’s just simply surface level writing. You can still make a funny film an excellent one, but Sony just seems to struggle with any Spider-Man villain project, which is sad to see. But I will say that The Last Dance has a lot of heart and despite it all, it was a nice conclusion for Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock! 

Overall (5.5/10)

Thanks for reading.

Film Review Club