With the exception of James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy, few Marvel-based superhero films of recent memory have cultivated the wicked charm, gallows humor, and delirious fun as the three "Venom" films, and the final triumphant entry, "Venom: The Last Dance," does not disappoint by any means.
Much of the credit for the success of this third and last entry of the "Venom" trilogy goes to first-time director Kelly Marcel, who handles this $120 million production like a seasoned professional.
Marcel, who co-wrote the first "Venom" film from 2018 as well as penning its 2021 sequel, "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," shared the screenwriting credits this time on "The Last Dance" with its charismatic star Tom Hardy. Together they’ve sent the ravenous symbiote out in high style here, with a brisk and boisterous entertainment that clocks in at just 109 minutes.
Released this past weekend by Sony Pictures and already raking in $175 million worldwide, "Venom: The Last Dance" does exactly what it intended to do, and accomplishes it with the confidence of knowing what its strengths are and delivering them to "Venom" fans who might just be a little choked up at the movie's conclusion.
Co-starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, and Rhys Ifans, "The Last Dance" picks up directly after the events of "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," as Eddie Brock and his black shape-shifting parasite locate their correct reality in the multiverse yet now discover themselves tracked and hunted as fugitives by multiple hostile parties.
As Commander Rex Strickland, Ejiofor is solid as the gruff and tough military leader of the Imperium, a clandestine government operation whose task is to capture and study any invading symbiotes.
Juno Temple, a remarkable actor in other projects, seems vaguely out of place in this film and grossly miscast. Her grating presence is often somewhat jarring as scientist Dr. Teddy Payne who's engaged in symbiote experiments in that subterranean lab facility below the former Area 51 base.
Aside from that minor distraction, Hardy is a magnetic force as the British performer reprises his complex role playing Eddie Brock, a reluctant host to the wise-cracking, chocolate-munching alien organism. Over the course of the trio of "Venom" movies, he’s fine-tuned his slapstick antics and conflicted emotions to near perfection.
The storyline stays tight and focused, revolving around an old-fashioned road trip with Eddie and Venom on the run encountering all sorts of colorful characters along the way. Also pursuing them is an extraterrestrial creature known as a xenophage, a hideous reptilian monster dispatched by an imprisoned evil overlord called Knull, creator of the symbiotes. Venom is the custodian of something called the codex, which is the key to setting Knull free and as long as Eddie and Venom live, the Earth and the universe remain in grave peril of annihilation.
Other than soggy singalong mid-section while driving in a hippie family's van en route to Area 51, there are numerous electrifying highlights to be mentioned in "The Last Dance," namely the Venom horse, a dynamic underwater sequence battling special forces, a funky dance number in a Las Vegas penthouse suite, and a grand finale set piece on Area 51's decommissioned tarmac.
"The Last Dance" does suffer from the same nagging malady as many Marvel blockbusters in that their villains lack substance. Here, Knull, the God of the Symbiotes, remains mostly in the shadows, incarcerated on the planet Klyntar surrounded by a faithful nest of xenophage beasts ready for their turn to strike.
Any nemesis relegated to a position of passive involvement is doomed for failure, though a post-credits scene does at least give us a glimpse of his malevolent face.
As a "Spider-Man" spinoff, this "Venom" Trilogy was a brilliant experiment, collecting a $1.5 billion to date, and this thrilling threequel should hit the sweet spot for fans. When will more symbiotes pop up in the MCU? Who can say, but they will reform!
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