Venom: The Last Dance (2024)

I sometimes forget how much fun I had with the first two Venom movies, considering how low my expectations were for either of them. Both are an enjoyably refreshing mix of anti-hero shenanigans and superhero-type stuff, and Hardy has loads of fun in the central role. It's a shame that this is the final outing for the character in this iteration, but it's also definitely time to call it a day. This is the weakest of the three movies, and it's even messier than anything else we've seen so far, but at least it feels like a proper ending (in as much as these kinds of movies can ever feel like they have a proper ending nowadays).

Eddie Brock is back in our world, with everything established in early scenes that may confuse anyone who had forgotten about the multiverse shenanigans teasing treats in the previous movie. He and Venom continue to have a pretty good relationship nowadays, always finding the best lowlife criminals to enjoy as a tasty snack, but trouble is coming their way. The fact that they are such a successful fusion makes them valuable to a major villain who sends the alien equivalent of sniffer dogs to find them, and there's also a determined military man, Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who believes that Venom needs to be destroyed. Dr. Teddy Paine (Juno Temple) thinks otherwise.

It's no surprise to see that writer Kelly Marcel has finally been rewarded for her contribution to the series with a directorial gig here, and it's also no surprise that this is her directorial debut. Having worked with Hardy on the story idea, Marcel is also responsible for the screenplay. That makes it easier to know who to blame for this whole mess, although I think Hardy has broad enough shoulders, and enough invested in the series, to share the burden. There are individual moments of fun, but the third act is particularly painful to the eyes, as well as being hard to stay patient with while you wait for all of the characters to figure out how to make use of Chekhov's . . . well . . . something that was surrounded by neon signs and arrows pointing at it as soon as it was first shown onscreen.

Hardy is still good in the main role, although always more fun when he is free and loose to avoid acting heroic, and he deserves to be given this vehicle to bid a fond farewell to a movie series that seemed to succeed more due to his sheer willpower than anything else. Ejiofor brings his usual excellence to his role, despite the fact that he is just there to be the human-shaped threat in amongst all of the alien monsters and, to use the technical term, squiggly-wiggly CGI. Temple connects various plot points and provides extra exposition, and there's some comedy provided by Rhys Ifans, playing a believer in aliens leading his family on what will end up being a very eye-opening road trip. Stephen Graham and Peggy Lu both return, and both are given far less screentime than they deserve, and it's strange that the latter is involved with a scene that seems to directly reference a heavily-derided sequence from Spider-Man 3.

Fans of more variety in their symbiotes will find plenty to enjoy in the third act, there are set-pieces that at least maintain the mix of action and humour that has been a positive aspect of the trilogy, and you get more amusing exchanges between Eddie and Venom as the two discuss their plans and the path that they cannot seem to avoid hurtling along. I still have to end this review by reiterating that the whole thing is a big mess, but it's an intermittently entertaining big mess, helped by a 110-minute runtime that allows it to feel a step removed from the longer and more bloated blockbusters we've become used to in recent years.

6/10

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Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

Sometimes a movie comes along that really highlights the divide between audiences and out-of-touch movie critics. Venom was one of those movies. It was a mess, particularly during a CGI-filled third act, but it was also a whole lot of fun. Venom: Let There Be Carnage is a sequel that stays very comfortably in that messy fun zone. It's also just as good as the first film, and benefits from not having to set up the central Venom/Eddie Brock dynamic, positing them from the very first scene as a standard "odd couple", good friends who also irritate the hell out of one another.

After talking to the notorious murderer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson), Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) finds his star back on the rise. He might be moving from loser to less-dismissable loser. The fact that his story actually came from information detected by Venom means that his body-sharing symbiote personality is, to use the technical term, ready to go in a big huff. Venom rarely gets to eat the food that he likes best, he doesn't get credit for his work, and he's fed up of the way Eddie is resolutely not making the most of his life. He might even leave Eddie's body and look out for some other host. That timing wouldn't be very good, because Cletus Kasady has his own symbiote about to reveal itself, a red beast named Carnage. 

Andy Serkis is the director for this instalment, taking over from Ruben Fleischer, and Kelly Marcel is now the lone writer, although Hardy is credited with helping shape the direction of the series. Everyone involved maintains a nice consistency, developing the humour that was quickly set in place in the first film while also increasing the threat level. Not only is Carnage a stronger and more dangerous foe, he has a potential partner who goes by the nickname Shriek (Naomie Harris). Shriek has a power that you might be able to guess from that name, and that may well prove a vital advantage while fighting Venom.

Everyone here knows exactly what they are a part of, a silly film that can bob and weave around moments of seriousness. Hardy is a real hoot, playing an exasperated “partner” who has to admit that he should try harder in a relationship he unwittingly got dragged into. Harrelson plays his deranged killer with a good balance of sadism and wit, and just a hint of a tragic past informing his motivation. Stephen Graham is a cop wondering how Eddie Brock gets his information, and both Harris and Michelle Williams (returning) get to do enough to feel like more than just token females dragged into the plot. Okay, Williams is put in peril at least once, but she is also responsible for forcing her ex, Eddie, to acknowledge his flaws and acknowledge the feelings of others.

The CGI is less murky than it was in the first film, although the finale is still essentially one computerised blob fighting another, the fun factor is ramped up further, and there are some very enjoyable cameos scattered here and there (the most notable being a stinger at the very end). It may retread familiar territory, and some may still bemoan the fact that Venom has had his sharp corners smoothed down, as it were, but this is a film that I can easily recommend to fans of the first. In fact, watch one immediately after the other and you have one near-perfect Venom epic. Without the need to actually go . . . EPIC!

8/10

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