de facto film reviews 2.5 stars

Quality is not something audiences have come to expect regarding the Marvel-adjacent Sony films. The first Venom film, a passion project for star/producer Tom Hardy, was largely a dull experience with flashes of entertainment, thanks to the depiction of its titular anti-hero. Hardy’s first outing as Eddie Brock/Venom made tons of money at the box office, but was remembered largely for the memes it inspired and its charmingly goofy Eminem end credits song. The sequel, Let There Be Carnage, unlocked much more potential for the franchise, doubling down on the silliness from its star and embracing more of its comic book origins. Franchise screenwriter Kelly Marcel (Saving Mr. Banks) is now in the director’s chair for this final installment of the Venom trilogy, which is still far from a wholly satisfying franchise entry — as much as any Spider-Man villain spinoff that doesn’t feature Spider-Man can be. The latest film is a cinematic equivalent of a late-night Taco Bell meal; at this point you know what you’re getting, and it’s not great, but comforting in its simplistic pleasures.

Courtesy Sony Pictures

Following the events of Let There Be Carnage, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is now a fugitive on the run alongside his goofy, brain-eating symbiotic compadre, Venom (also voiced by Hardy), looking to flee the country and go back to living a semi-ordinary life. Not only are they being hunted by authorities, including government agent Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor), but an alien from Venom’s home world is on earth hunting for something called the “codex” of which only exists when Venom takes his full form inside of Eddie. This “codex” is able to resurrect an alien lifeform and seeks to be used by an unknown nemesis named Knull (Andy Serkis) to unlock its full potential.

Helmed by Kelly Marcel, The Last Dance is at its best when it’s focused squarely on the odd couple dynamic of Eddie and Venom. Like an old married couple, the two partners bicker constantly and are always at each other’s throats, which helps the Venom films stand apart from the glut of the genre. Venom is compulsive and needy, but Eddie has wants and needs, too. These films have consistently toyed with queer subtext when depicting Eddie and Venom’s rapport and having this entry function as a road trip film takes that subtext even further. Hardy’s rapport with himself is a real goofy pleasure. It’s Hardy’s skills as a physical performer and his comedic timing that goes a long way in terms of masking many of this trilogy’s glaring flaws. He is this franchise’s greatest strength and selling point. Hardy’s performance in these films adheres closer to Jim Carrey’s The Mask than Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, which makes the extended segments of Hardy playing opposite solely himself that much more enjoyable than the rest of the film. What The Last Dance and its predecessor, Let There Be Carnage, have in common is their ridiculous sense of humor and level of commitment to camp.

Courtesy Sony Pictures

While the first film contains spurts of witty energy and a handful of memorable moments — who can forget Hardy flopping around in a lobster tank? — the sequel is truly where the franchise came close to its potential. This third installment zeroes in on Hardy’s slapstick which often lands with laugh-out-loud hilarity due to the Oscar-nominees gifts as a performer. The more gonzo ideas brought to the table continue to land the more outlandish they are — a dance number in Vegas is infectiously goofy, if ridiculous. An opening scene features Venom inadvertently winding up in a dog-fighting ring only to eat the heads of all the goons that attack him. The film around them is nonsense, but the dynamic between Eddie and Venom anchors the whole thing.

Written and Directed by series writer Kelly Marcel, alongside Hardy who shares a story credit,  The Last Dance still feels largely slapped together in the editing bay with major characters getting sidelined for extended periods of time and side characters whose names we can’t even remember suddenly have major arcs. It’s a continuously nagging question as to why all these Sony Marvel films have such choppy narrative structures and disjointed editing. Apart from Hardy, there isn’t much here for the overqualified supporting cast. Juno Temple is a meek scientist dedicated to studying aliens. She’s given a flimsy backstory involving a dead brother from her youth which largely exists to make her somewhat relatable. Chiwetel Ejiofor is the war-mongering military man hunting Eddie/Venom who says spews out lines like “my men are dead” and “I’m taking over this operation now”.

Courtesy Sony Pictures

Venom: The Last Dance is not a good film, but it is a fun one. It does (mostly) follow through on its sights on being a finale to a trilogy and attempts to deliver an emotional finale. However, wirier/director Kelly Marcel commits a cardinal sin of concluding with a montage set to Maroon 5 and therefore kills any semblance of emotional catharsis. The best thing these films do is keep the runtime well under two hours and the pace fast enough to where the plot doesn’t get bogged down in exposition-y mumbo jumbo. By the time you feel ready to tap out, the credits are all but about to roll.

Venom: The Last Dance is now playing in theaters.