Movie Review: 'Venom The Last Dance'

Venom The Last Dance

Directed by Kelly Marcel

Written by Kelly Marcel

Starring Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham

Release Date October 25th, 1980

Published October 25th, 1980

Venom The Last Dance stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and Venom, the symbiote alien living inside Eddie’s human form. In their third, and supposedly final adventure, Eddie and Venom are hiding out in Mexico but are eager to return to America. They make a plan to head for New York City, Venom wants to see the Statue of Liberty, but, when a monster from Venom’s home planet attacks them while riding on the outside of a plane, they find themselves dropped in the desert and on the run, not just from this new alien threat but also from the U.S government in the form of General Strickland, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor.

The plot concerns a villain named Knull (Andy Serkis) who was captured by Venom and his fellow symbiotes and trapped in a void somewhere in space. Knull has found a way to escape that involves a thing called a Codex which was created when Eddie Brock died and Venom bonded fully with Eddie’s body to save him. The Codex somehow will allow Knull to escape from the prison created by the symbiotes and since Knull has used his time in this void to create these new alien monsters, he now has the means to get his hands on the Codex.

In a secondary plot, the legendary Area 51 in the Nevada desert is being decommissioned. Meanwhile, underneath Area 51, a new secret lab studying aliens has been built and is being run by a scientist, Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple). Dr. Payne oversees captured symbiotes and studies them. She’s recently taken in Detective Mulligan, played by Stephen Graham, who had seemingly died in the second Venom movie, Let There be Carnage, but was saved by symbiote. Detective Mulligan and his unnamed symbiote provide exposition regarding Knull and the seemingly unstoppable invasion that is coming to Earth.

Venom The Last Dance struggles mightily with delivering clunky exposition. Specifically, the scenes that set up the new alien lab under Area 51 are filled with awful dialogue where people tell each other what their jobs and relationships are. If the film had stopped so each character could turn to the camera and introduce themselves directly to the audience, it would be less awkward than having people who obviously know each other and have worked together for years stumble through dialogue explaining their relationship to each other.

The best aspect of Venom The Last Dance is the childlike relationship between Eddie and Venom. Eddie’s constant headache regarding dealing with Venom and Venom’s childlike glee over every human experience, from bartending to gambling, is quite charming. There is a scene in The Last Dance where Venom dances with recurring character Mrs. Chen in a glamorous Las Vegas Hotel room while listening to Dancing Queen by Abba. This scene is is very funny and oddly sweet, even as it undermines the entire premise and supposed dramatic stakes of the plot.

In further exposition, before this dance scene occurs, we are told that the new alien monsters cannot see the Codex unless Venom reveals his true form in full. Thus, as long as we see Eddie instead of Venom, the Codex is hidden. This is established lore in the movie well before we reach Las Vegas. Eddie and Venom were attacked twice by the alien while Venom is fully revealed. So, it makes no sense for Venom to reveal himself in full just to have a dance with Mrs. Chen. It endangers her life and tells the alien exactly where Eddie and Venom are located. I will undoubtedly be accused of taking this too seriously but it is little flaws in logic like this that keep Venom The Last Dance from being anything more than a fan service sequel.

The only reason to see Venom The Last Dance is if you were a fan of the first two Venom movies. If you liked Venom before, you will like Venom again in The Last Dance. The film delivers everything you enjoyed about the first film, and gives you even more symbiotes to enjoy in the final act. It’s also supposedly the last of the Venom franchise with Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock so, if you’ve enjoyed him in this role, nostalgia, I’m sure, will be more than enough to get you past the problems with the film that I had. Not being a big fan of the previous Venom movies myself, I did kind of like Let There Be Carnage, I guess, I didn’t have my nostalgia glasses on. Thus, the many flaws of Venom The Last Dance stuck out more.

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