By Seth Lukas Hynes
Venom: The Last Dance
Starring Tom Hardy, Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor
Rated M
3.25/5
The fifth film in the Sony Spiderman Universe franchise, Venom: The Last Dance is a sloppy but entertaining film, just like the rest of the Venom trilogy.
Fugitive journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his alien symbiote best friend Venom must go on the run from government forces and Venom’s creators.
Constantly clashing yet devoted to each other, Eddie and Venom have better chemistry than ever, resulting in plenty of charming, funny moments.
An endearing plot-thread has Eddie and Brock bond with an alien-obsessed hippie family on their way to Area 51, which feels like a cheeky nod to the 2019 social media campaign to storm the base.
Funnily enough, The Last Dance has two short musical sequences that more actively impact the plot than anything in Joker: Folie A Deux.
Like in the first two Venom films, Eddie and Venom’s amusing dynamic holds up a scattershot, poorly-made action movie.
The Last Dance’s pacing is slow and sparse, Chiwetel Ejiofor is unmemorable as Strickland, a shortsighted soldier tracking Venom, and Knull (Andy Serkis) is one of the blandest, most ineffectual villains in any comic book movie.
The action is chaotic and indistinct (but finally has a decent amount of blood; the Venom series is oddly bloodless for a title anti-hero who bites bad guys’ heads off).
Playing in most Victorian cinemas, Venom: The Last Dance is miles ahead of Morbius and Madame Web, and the best film in the Venom trilogy.
Kelly Marcel wrote the prior Venom movies, and so does a great job directing Eddie and Venom’s final adventure, but the elements surrounding the charismatic core are underdeveloped as ever.
