Venom: The Last Dance

Turns out "Venom" saved the best for "Last."

Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

---

Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) has been a mixed bag to say the least. I’m hotter on it than a lot of folks – after all, I am the guy who gave “Madame Web” a positive write-up earlier this year (my review here). “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” didn’t do a ton for me and “Morbius” did even less – way less. I’m happy and surprised to report “Venom: The Last Dance” (now in theaters) is not only the best entry in its trilogy, but also easily the best offering from the SSU.

Tom Hardy winningly reprises his role as beleaguered journalist Eddie Brock and his alien symbiote passenger Venom. We pick up where “Let There Be Carnage” left off with our anti-heroes dimension hopping and hanging in a Mexican beach community.

Intergalactic warlord and God of the Symbiotes Knull (an uncredited Andy Serkis, director of the last installment) either wants his creatures back or killed after they betrayed him and the key to doing so is retrieving the Codex (every time this was said I laughed to myself and thought of Kotex feminine hygiene products … yes, I’m a man-child), a physical bond built between Eddie and Venom when the latter saved the former’s life in the first flick.

Team Venom are on the run from Knull’s Xenophage monsters as well as Earth-bound forces such as the United States military in the form of Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Area 51-based scientists Dr. Teddy Paine (Juno Temple) and Sadie Christmas (Clark Backo). Strickland wants to kill The Lethal Protector to ensure Earth’s safety. Paine and Christmas want to study them. Eddie and Venom want none of the above.

Eddie hitches a ride with a hippie family comprised of Martin (Rhys Ifans) and Nova (Alanna Ubach) and their children Echo (Hala Finley) and Leaf (Dash McCloud) and later links up with his bodega-owning buddy Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) in Las Vegas.

“The Last Dance” is written, produced and directed by Kelly Marcel from a story by Marcel and Hardy. Marcel had a hand in writing and producing each of the previous “Venom” pictures and she makes one helluva directorial debut here. The film is by no means great, but it’s a blast from start to finish. It’s less a superhero flick and more a buddy road comedy melded to a monster movie. There’s more symbiote action here than in the previous two pictures combined culminating in an awesome chase sequence set in raging rapids wherein Venom amusingly bonds with a fish and a frog.

“The Last Dance” is chock full of humor and heart and features a very game dual performance from Hardy. I laughed a lot. I cried a little. I had a surprisingly good time at the movies.