PG Score: 6.25/10
Venom: The Last Dance was released in theaters on 10/24/24
Sony Marvel was an early pillar of great comic book films and after a fast start, it has had its share of misses and flops. The partnership with Disney Marvel allowed a bit of a rebirth with John Watts's Spider-Man Home trilogy. Where does the Venom trilogy fit into all of this? Middling and serviceable are probably words that best describe it.
Kinda Fun
Far from No Way Home, but not nearly as bad as Morbius, Venom: The Last Dance completed the Tom Hardy (Inception) trilogy with a fun, if not flawed film. Lots of action and violence, The Last Dance gave a look into the origins of the symbiote and hinted at a big bad in the Galactic sense, Knull. The humor of the film is what worked best. Eddie Brock (Hardy) and Venom (also Hardy) had a lot of fun back and forth while they endeavored on this mission for survival.
An Interesting Cocktail
What do you get when you mix some Ted Lasso with three actors who have played comic book villains? It's interesting to note that Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Baron Mordo in the MCU, while Rhys Ifans plays the Lizard, aka Dr. Curt Connors, from another Sony project. Both have prominent roles in this film that are very different from their earlier iterations. Juno Temple and Cristo "football is life" Fernandez represented the Ted Lasso mixture of the film. Juno Temple's character had some very mediocre motivations that lacked depth and the American accent was hard to picture her with. Of course, the third former villainous comic character is Tom Hardy himself, as he played Bane in Christopher Nolan's critically-acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy, a masterclass in filmmaking.
What does any of that have to do with Venom: The Last Dance? Not much, but those were the thoughts I had while watching this installment. It's nothing to write home about and definitely not a top-tier ending to a mid-tier trilogy. Venom: The Last Dance has some good music, the occasional standout move, and an actor who is obviously having a lot of fun playing this character, but Hardy's enthusiasm isn't enough to make you spend your hard-earned money at the theater. Wait for this one to pop up on streaming.
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