PremiumVenom: The Last Dance Review - Tom Hardy’s swan song is safe, vague in parts, but oddly fitting
Last Updated: 09.02 PM, Oct 24, 2024
Venom: The Last Dance Review - Plot: Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and Venom are now fugitives, as they are accused of killing Detective Mulligan (Stephen Graham) at the end of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. So they cannot be in San Francisco, and Mexico is certainly not a comfortable space to be in because the Spider-Man: No Way Home multiverse mishap has left them both with a hangover of the ages. So now they go on a road trip to New York, but there is also Knull (Andy Serkis) and his Symbiote Hunter Aliens, Xenophages, behind them. Oh yes, also Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is after them to kill them. How do Eddie and Venom save the world, themselves, and especially Martin (Rhys Ifans) and his family? That's the film.
Venom: The Last Dance Review - Analysis
What exactly worked in favor of Venom in 2018 for it to be a hit and empower not just another sequel but an entire trilogy should be a case study. While the outline of this project was that of an alien Symbiote taking a host who turns into an anti-hero who would eventually go on to fight Spider-Man, the Sony property never saw the Symbiote drama trilogy as a villain origin story or shaped him as a villain at all. It was also the realization that hit loyal Spider-Man fans like a bus—that a movie from the Spider-Man universe can work even in the absence of the wall-crawler. Born was Venom: The Trilogy which, at its heart, was a buddy romance comedy-drama where the stakes were always the world and the separation of these unconventional foes-turned-buddies.
So now when the movie reaches the third and final film in the trilogy, titled Venom: The Last Dance, bringing back Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock (one last time, if he is not lying to save the Spider-Man 4 surprise), you’ve got to watch it no matter what. Because even with the flaws, this world has managed to impress us all. And to put it in a nutshell, even The Last Dance is that property which stands true to what the last two movies have built. It is safe, entertaining, ambitious, sometimes nonsensical, but it is never pointless, which saves the day. So now as Venom unleashes one last time (we know that's not true), let's dissect the film.
Written by Tom Hardy and Kelly Marcel, the latter also being the director of the film (debuting with this), Venom: The Last Dance is still a buddy romance thriller where two oddballs are now on a road trip to fulfill their duties and dreams. The best part about this screenplay is that it is clever enough to be crisp and compressed enough to only focus on the highlights, never deviating from what it wants to tell, even for a minute. It is such a tightly written script that it doesn't even waste the first minute on a soft start. Instead, it opens in Klyntar, where Knull is imprisoned by the Symbiotes, his own creations, and left to never come out and create havoc. But Knull also created the Xenophages (the Symbiote hunters), whom he has now set loose across the multiverse to find Codex, a key that can free him from Klyntar. And no doubt, it's with Venom.
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Venom: The Last Dance, in its execution, is very exciting because it gives you no room to really think of the flaws, and there are more than a couple of them here. But credit to Kelly for devising a screenplay and onscreen translation that keeps the audience too busy to immediately realize the shortcomings—or maybe not realize them at all. Vagueness is a superpower for this trilogy, and it continues to be for the most part, for the betterment of the film. How else do you make not just a mention but an entire plot about Area 51 believable, brushing shoulders with real-life conspiracy theories? How do you believe in a team of Venoms, like Avengers? (Please, someone develop this idea more.) It is this randomness that makes Venom: The Last Dance oddly fitting and entertaining.
The movie also takes efforts to connect itself with the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a massive way, making fun of Thanos, addressing the Blip, and more. So there is a clear connection formed for Knull to have a bridge to the MCU to maybe fight Spider-Man. But there is also enough hint that this is not where the story of this buddy romance ends, because there is much more to them and a lot left to explore.
But Venom: The Last Dance, in some parts, does go overly ambitious, and you can see that very clearly. What it also does is give Knull the bare minimum to do after all that hype. While it is a happy zone where a movie guided by the Marvel comics hasn't killed its villain in one film, that doesn't mean you will only keep hyping him up without giving him anything to do. Mrs. Chen just appears out of nowhere in Las Vegas, and there is no explanation of how she got there. But she is given the most entertaining dance piece to perform, which compensates. There is a villain in the shadows other than the ones mentioned above, but he is never disclosed. Adding to that, the film leaves a lot of pivotal recurring characters hanging in the past without addressing them here. Also, Mulligan deserved a much better redemption arc.
The visuals in Venom: The Last Dance are stunning, and so are the action sequences. The music is overwhelming at many points but bearable.
Venom: The Last Dance Review - Final Verdict
Venom: The Last Dance is not flawless, but it is a tight narrative that saves the day for the film, keeping you busy with no room to read too much between the lines. Knull deserved more, though—maybe Spider-Man 4 is our hope!
Venom: The Last Dance will be released in India on October 24, 2024, and on October 25, 2024, in the rest of the world. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more information on this and everything else from the world of streaming and films.
