Venom The Last Dance

How good is the close of this trilogy?

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The Good: First and foremost, Tom Hardy is so good as Eddie Brock and Venom, and you can tell his love and passion for these characters. Despite not being able to act against Venom, Hardy flawlessly and effortlessly plays both parts, allowing Eddie to be extremely relatable and the relationship of Eddie and Venom to feel alive. Due to this being the end of a trilogy, Hardy is also able to bring the emotion when needed, especially when there are intimate moments between the characters. Hardy is also able to show up for the physical side of the role too. The action scenes in this movie are better than the other 2 venom movies. The first main scene that really blew me away was the action sequence in the river. The characters were going in and out of the water, and the camera was used in a way to show the action taking place above and below the water in long shots. I hadn’t seen anything like it, especially in a superhero movie before. They were also able to make the 3rd act of this movie top the other two movies. The 3rd acts in these movies have gotten better over time, and this one definitely doesn’t disappoint. You can tell there was a direct vision for how they wanted the whole sequence to go down, and everything came together so well, and the Venom/symbiote action throughout is just awesome, and I just wanted there to be more. Another part of the movie I loved was the expansion of the Marvel lore. I love how they were able to bring in Knull, the creator of the symbiotes (voiced by the legend Andy Serkis) into the story and make him feel important. Knull has never been done before in a movie, and it just makes me excited to see where Sony can take the story with him in the future.

The Meh: One part of the Venom movies that I always loved in the past is that there were recurring characters like Anne (the ex-fiance) and Mrs. Chen (the store owner). These characters always seemed to ground the over-the-top stories being told. In this movie, only Mrs. Chen shows up, but it felt like she was only in the movie because everyone just loves Mrs. Chen. To me, the scene(s) with Mrs. Chen didn’t add anything to the story, unlike the previous movies, and it was disappointing to not have her make more of an impact to the story. It also felt that her scenes (and others) just made the underlying plot of the movie get forgotten about. The story also introduces several new characters. The first character is a scientist, and for some reason the editors decided to give her an entire backstory just to end up having no real meaning to the movie. Her story was just in there to add to the overall story (i.e., add a subplot). There was also a family in the movie that decides to drive Eddie and Venom around. While they didn’t get much of a back story, they also just felt added to the story just to add additional characters to the story and to help Eddie get from point A to point B during the movie. (Spoiler warning) The movie also introduces new symbiotes in the movie! While I really enjoyed them in the movie (especially since the story of the film revolves around Knull trying to find his symbiotes), they really only made an appearance/impact in the 3rd act of the film. Their introduction should have been much earlier in the film and should have been a much more integral part to the story. Despite this, they are used in the 3rd act in an amazing way.

The Bad: During the course of the movie there is the concept of “the Codex” that is brought up. The whole idea of the codex is very weird and unique (I’m not going to describe what it is since it may spoil some of the film), and what makes it worse is that it was just accepted and understood by the characters instantly. There should have been a lot more questions and confusion about it, but everyone fully understood and knew what to do after being told about it. Everything about this didn’t sit right with me, and I wish more time was spent on characters having realistic questions and misunderstandings.

Overall: For a movie set on establishing the creator of the symbiotes (Knull) as a threat and a potential high-tier villain, a lot of the movie almost avoids him as the main threat. While the action is genuinely awesome, the acting is incredible, and the shots are amazing, the plot loses steam at times and wants to just spend time with the characters rather than developing and continuing the story. I had high hopes for the movie and they were so close to being met, but I was always wanting more and wanting a product that was just ever-so-slightly better.

Rating: 4/5 (almost a 3.5/5)