Venom: The Last Dance
review by Bobby Blakey
In 2018 director Ruben Fleischer and Tom Hardy teamed up to bring the famed Spider-Man villain symbiote to the big screen with Venom. The tag at the end of the film promised more to come introducing Carnage with Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Now the expected final film in the trilogy is here with Venom: The Last Dance starring Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu, Alanna Ubach and Stephen Graham with Kelly Marcel making her directorial debut and previously wrote the screenplays for the first two films as well as this one.
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Venom: The Last Dance follows Eddie and Venom who are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo is forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie's last dance.
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When the first film was announced I, like most had an issue with it not being connected directly to Spider-Man. I could not imagine how it would ever work and yet I had a great time with it. Over the years Venom has stepped out of the shadows of Spider-Man to create his own side of the Marvel Universe and has no need for the wall crawler. Of course I would still love to see it, but either way I really enjoyed that first outing.
The natural progression of bringing in Carnage for the sequel had me all kinds of giddy as I love that original Mark Bagley run of the Amazing Spider-Man. I know it didn’t work for everyone, but I had a blast with that one too so was eager to see what else they had up their sleeve for this latest outing. This time around they took an even smarter turn to dive more into that new side
of the Venom-verse to bring in more of the back story, history and one of the biggest characters of the Marvel Universe that is connected directly to him. For the sake of not spoiling, I will not mention who, but those who know already know.
This latest outing takes things on the road and an even bigger scope to really push the Venom world to the forefront. It keeps the narrative created in both the previous films as well as the fun credit sequences of the MCU that they did to remind you of the direction things are going. I will just flat out tell you that there is no Spider-Man here for fans hoping for that connection, but there is so much more than we have gotten before.
These films have hinged on the direct relationship of Eddie and Venom and slowly evolved into a true friendship. This time around it is further grounded, and their relationship is in the spotlight in such a great way. They have done a good job keeping some of the previous elements and characters here, when necessary, but not continuing to rehash the same thing over and over. Tom Hardy clearly loves this role and has done a great job not only playing Brock, but furthering the story into deeper worlds of the comic origins.
Normally I get annoyed when every superhero flick is dealing with a villain with the exact same powers, but this world of Venom is often just that, so it works. They go all in this time around with more favorites getting in on the action and even some options to do some new things should they decide to. The effects are fantastic with some great new designs and over the top fantastic action sequences. They went all in bigger and badder for the finale and knocked it out of the park.
I loved this latest entry and think it is the best of the franchise. If you hated the previous ones, I can’t say thig will suddenly win you over, but for me it delivered everything I wanted and more. There is a mid-credit scene that lets you know there are bigger things to come in some form and an after-credit scene that teases something more familiar possibilities.
I don’t know what the future of the Venom franchise is, but I hope we get to see him in some form in the future especially to finally take on Spider-Man himself. Sadly, if we don’t get that or anything else outside of the after-credit scenes it serves as a good finale to the series.
Decide for yourself and check out Venom: The Last Dance in theaters now from Sony and Marvel.