Venom: The Last Dance (2024) Columbia/Sci-Fi-Action-Adventure RT: 109 minutes Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of action and violence, bloody images, strong language) Director: Kelly Marcel Screenplay: Kelly Marcel Music: Dan Deacon Cinematography: Fabian Wagner Release date: October 25, 2024 (US) Cast: Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham, Peggy Lu, Clark Backo, Alanna Ubach, Andy Serkis, Cristo Fernandez, Jared Abrahamson, Hala Finley, Dash McCloud, Brooke Carter.
Rating: ** ½
What do you want me to say about Venom: The Last Dance? It’s yet another movie based on a Marvel property. It’s part of the same universe as Morbius and Madame Web. It’s the third and supposedly final movie featuring the character of Venom, a parasitic alien who lives in the body of its host, former reporter Eddie Brock played by Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road). But I’m sure you already know all this.
Why don’t I just cut right to the chase? Venom: The Last Dance is pretty much what you’d expect with its beyond dumb plot, bad CGI and Hardy looking annoyed with the whole bloody thing. I get it. So am I. I’ve had it up to here with all the superhero silliness. I wasn’t exactly thrilled about having to endure a third Venom film. They’re okay, but hardly what I’d call noteworthy. To me, they’re all about the same. I guess what I’m trying to say is Venom: The Last Dance is as good as a Venom movie can be.
The latest chapter picks up not long after the previous installment with Eddie/Venom on the run from the cops, the government and a new nemesis, an alien baddie named Knull (Serkis, the LOTR trilogy), the creator of symbiotes. He’s after something called a “Codex”. It’s a key that can free him from the prison where he’s being held. He wants to get out and wreak havoc everywhere. The Codex is inside Eddie and can only be seen when Venom takes over his body. Knull sends an ugly creature to retrieve it.
Meanwhile, gung ho military leader Colonel Strickland (Ejiofor, Doctor Strange) is tasked with finding and destroying Venom by any means necessary. He works out of Area 51 which is currently in the process of being decommissioned. For years, it’s been used as a secret study center for symbiotic alien life forms. The head scientist is Dr. Teddy Payne (Temple, Ted Lasso). She comes to learn why the symbiotes have come to Earth. It isn’t for anything good. In any event, it all leads up to a big battle between good and bad symbiotes.
That’s the plot of Venom: The Last Dance more or less. As you can see, it’s as silly as any movie starring a comic book character. It’s the directorial debut of Kelly Marcel, the writer of the first two Venom films. To her credit, she keeps things moving along at a decent pace. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s so audiences don’t have time to realize how stupid it all is. It has a few bright spots like the family of alien seekers led by a hippie dude named Martin Moon (Ifans, Lizard from The Amazing Spider-Man). Riding along in their van, Venom joins them in a rendition of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”. Later, he dances with series regular Mrs. Chen (Lu) to “Dancing Queen” in a Las Vegas hotel room. Was he always this musical?
There are times when Venom: The Last Dance borders on being fun, but Marcel never really leans into it all the way. She keeps resorting to scenes of Eddie/Venom trying to stay one step ahead of his pursuers. She overrelies on unfunny running jokes like Eddie/Venom’s tendency to keep losing his footwear. The CGI, and there’s a lot of it, is especially bad. At times, it’s surprisingly dark and gloomy for a superhero flick. There was once a time when audiences didn’t believe a man could fly. Now they can’t believe a man can fly or do anything heroic without the aid of computer graphics. Every effect in Venom: The Last Dance is obviously the work of computers. It makes me think that somebody actors will be obsolete. Why hire people when you can invent them with AI? I really hope I don’t live to see that day.
Is it even worth it to talk about the acting? It’s really not. Hardy does just enough to make it look like he’s trying, but there’s no hiding the air of annoyance surrounding him. Ejiofor and Temple do what they can with their one-dimensional characters. Ifans adds some life as the goofy alien enthusiast. Lu is only in it briefly, but she adds a dash of life too. Honestly, acting isn’t one of this film’s strong suits. In fact, it’s completely irrelevant. The actors are basically warm bodies in the middle of a lot of computerized razzle-dazzle.
For all its faults, I can’t quite say Venom: The Last Dance is a bad movie. It’s more of a movie that verges on bad. It’s certainly not good. The one consistency is that it always feels like something generated by a computer. There are no original ideas. It’s simply product meant to provide fans with a fix until the next big Marvel movie, February’s Captain America: Brave New World. What can I say? I’m bursting with fruit flavor.
