Venom is an infamous villain whose story has been told in many different ways since the creation of the character. Venom, the black alien goo known as a symbiote, generally attaches himself to the character of Eddie Brock, allowing him to turn into his full alien form, and make himself a known threat to Spider-Man. Some portrayals take the classic route in making Venom a foe of Spider-Man like in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 3.” Others have Venom attached to a friend of Spider-Man, Harry Osborn, like in video game studio Insomniac’s “Spider-Man 2.” 

Following up on 2018’s “Venom” movie and 2021’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” Tom Hardy’s portrayal of the character ends with “Venom: The Last Dance” released on Oct. 25, 2024. Directed by Kelly Marcel, the film follows Brock and Venom, now fugitives after the events of the previous film. As they run from the government, Venom and Brock also run into some trouble with Venom’s past, leaving the duo in a crisis.

“Venom: The Last Dance” stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom, Juno Temple as Dr. Payne, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Rex Strickland.

The negatives

Acting

None of the acting in this movie stood out. Hardy did not portray both Brock and Venom as well as in the previous two installments, and neither Temple nor Ejiofor gave performances that will be remembered after seeing the film. Hardy, who plays the main character and his alter ego, genuinely plays the only two important characters in this movie. This is why none of the other acting performances are memorable, because they did not have enough time to make the characters important. None of the other characters besides Brock felt like they were worthwhile to keep in the story. 

Tone

This film also struggled to find a stable tone. “Venom” had a dark and serious tone with limited jokes. Then, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” was released and was much more lighthearted and had a lot more comedy in it than the first movie. “Venom: The Last Dance” tried its best to be a balance between the two of those genres, which caused it to lose footing in both of the categories.

In some scenes, Venom and Brock talk about the end of the world, and one tries to crack a joke to ease the tension, making the monologues of scenes like that feel like they had lesser value because of the failed comedy. Certain scenes of this film only contained serious moments between the duo, and other scenes were just the two joking around with each other, which made the film as a whole feel like it never decided whether it wanted to be a comedy or a more serious movie.

Plot

The side plot of this film was uninteresting. It follows a group of hippies who live in their van and want to visit Area 51, simply to find out if aliens are real or not. Eventually, this family finds Brock, and they give him a ride to Las Vegas. The problem with this plotline is that it felt very unnecessary and every scene with the hippy family was just a filler scene so that there was something to try and keep viewers engaged before the final showdown with Venom. This family contributed nothing to the overall plot, and this film would not have anything taken away if the family plotline was not a part of the movie.

Characters

The other symbiotes in this film were handled in the wrong way. Venom is not the only symbiote in this movie, just like how he was never the only one in the previous two movies as well. But instead of using big names like Scream, Hybrid, and Phage, this film decided to not even give names to the symbiotes, which easily could have been done. This made the movie feel like it was not trying to be accurate to the comics or any other Venom or symbiote story.

The ending

The ending of this film was unsatisfying. The film tries to lay out an emotional ending, but the lack of any stake ends up making the final few scenes frustrating instead. With this being the final movie of the trilogy, the viewer can assume that the movie will end the story of Venom and Brock. This ending felt very rushed and it was only chosen for the shock value that is supposed to be invoked in the viewer. Shock value over a thought-out and genuine ending is not a good way to end a trilogy, especially if there will never be a follow up to this film. 

The positives

Action

Now that all of the negatives have been shared, the positives also need to be addressed because they are just as important, if not more. The action, while limited, was good in this film. There were not many times when Venom would be fighting. Much of this has to do with one of the plot elements where Venom could not take over Brock’s body nearly as often in this film as in previous movies. But, when Venom did come out to fight, he knew how to make it look entertaining. With Venom being an alien, he has many abilities that are un-humanlike and are unique to his symbiote race. For example, Venom can morph his body almost like clay and this was a cool way to visually engage the audience because using that ability while fighting is a refreshing way of seeing a superhero fight.

Special effects

The CGI and other visual effects of this film were great. There were not many times in this film where Venom or any of the other CGI characters looked fake or had any visual problems. In fact, Venom looks just as good if not better than the previous installments of the franchise. The film had good CGI, but some of the color grading and cinematography was not on par with other recent superhero films such as “Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.”

Villains

The villain of “Venom: The Last Dance” was an alien symbiote killer called a xenophage. This is the first Venom film where the villain is not another symbiote. Because of that, this film felt original compared to the previous two. Riot, the villain of “Venom,” looked almost identical to Venom in that film except he was grey. For it being the first film, Riot can get a pass because he sets up what is to come in the next two movies.

Then Carnage, the villain of “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” comes in and is Venom’s creation. That gave him a cool twist because the villain is created by the hero. Carnage was a cool villain because he is another infamous name in the comics, and he was more creepy and eerie than Riot, but Carnage started to show why the third Venom should not have another villain that was just a symbiote because while they all have little differences, most symbiote villains have the exact same superpowers and feel like repeats of each other. This is where the xenophage comes in. It was a terrifying creature, with razor-sharp teeth and the ability to regenerate its body when it is killed. This makes for such an interesting villain because it seems as though it cannot die, it has no morals or motives, and is just thirsty to kill Venom. The xenophage was a good villain for “Venom: The Last Dance.”

The God

In “Venom: The Last Dance,” Knull, the symbiote God was introduced. He is similar to Thanos from the Marvel Universe, as he was not the main villain of this movie but he was the guy pulling the strings behind the curtain, and the reason that the xenophage came to hunt Venom. The very first scene of this film had Knull introducing himself and his backstory. It perfectly captured the essence of the character and sent a spine-chilling message to the viewers that if this guy gets his way, it is over for everyone in the way of him.

However, the way that Marcel and Columbia Pictures decided to introduce Knull in the final installment of this trilogy was confusing. Knull did not have time to flesh out as a character and felt like he was being teased for another upcoming movie. But this does not make sense, as this was the final installment of the “Venom” movies. If Knull is used in other upcoming movies, this would be awesome as he is definitely a scary threat to anyone who faces him, which immediately makes that story very high stakes when Knull is the villain.

Despite some good standouts, “Venom: The Last Dance” has too many smaller issues to let the bigger picture take its time to shine scoring 2.5/5 stars from me.