British screenwriter Kelly Marcel makes her directorial debut with “Venom: The Last Dance”, the third film in the “Venom” series in six years. Marcel has been co-writer on both previous versions of the series and returns for sole screenwriter credit with this entry, as well as directorial duties. You might imagine that someone who has been with the series since its box-office, record-breaking premiere in October 2018 would be a good choice to close the adventures of journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his alien symbiote friend, using Eddie’s body as a host. But more than anything, it is strange how this third “Venom” entry feels so turgid and clumsy. It feels very far removed from the specific and zany thrills that have been central to the series thus far.
When the first “Venom” film premiered in 2018, it was a different time for the superhero film and the decision to turn the character of Venom into a self-contained film that had little to do with the world-building of other franchises that differentiated “Venom” from several of its contemporaries. Hardy’s affable commitment to the increasingly zany antics was central to carving out a delicious niche for the series that developed a buddy-comedy approach to the escapades of Eddie and his symbiote.
One detail of that first film that I have always thought of is the plot-point that Eddie becomes host to the symbiote only after he tries to save a homeless woman. Amidst the overt silliness of this universe, the story has always been committed to its notion of Eddie Brock as a man with depth, despite everything. These were the kinds of central character-bits amidst the chaos that established this story as one with an earnest view of the world even amidst the madness. It was the kind of film that would find Eddie’s ex-girlfriend (Michelle Williams as Anne Weying) enlisting her current boyfriend to help Venom just for the reminder that there was goodness amidst the unpredictability of its world.
Those kinds of character attributes, and that kind of real-world clarity feel lost for much of “The Last Dance” which feels only loosely connected to the world of the previous two films. Instead, from its opening teaser, “The Last Dance” is committed to tying Eddie and Venom to larger world-changing stakes that rob this final entry of the kind of peculiar and person-specific antics we have come to know and appreciate. Instead, we spend way too much time introducing new characters with competing – and sometimes unclear – character motivations.
Three of these, Commander Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor), scientist Teddy Payne (Juno Temple) and researcher Sadie Christmas (Clark Backo) are human figures stationed at Imperium, a government operation site at the soon-to-be-decommissioned Area 51. The commander is trying to track Venom for study by the scientific field. Further afield, Knull (Andy Serkis), a supervillain from another universe, is seeking a codex created by Venom and Eddie to free himself and wreak havoc on the earth. Unbeknownst to everyone, Knull has sent a Xenophage (a terrifying and powerful creature) to track Venom and Eddie waiting to pounce and when all parties find themselves near the Imperium lots of flashy CGI sequences unfold as Eddie and Venom struggle to survive.
If this all sounds convoluted, that is because it is. The film does not know how to establish the existential threat that Knull poses without steeping the film in the kind of generic dialogue that points to a fearsome villain that we have no connection to. Too much of the film becomes bogged down in dialogue over-explaining things or simplifying others that feels wrong for the third film in a series. Too much of this feels shoddily put together than meaningfully tied to the previous versions of Eddie and Venom.
That “The Last Dance” picks up with Venom and Eddie on the run after the reported death of detective Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham) from the second film, “Let There Be Carnage” is one of two bits of explicit continuity in this new film. The other is a late-film appearance of Peggy Lu as Mrs Chen (shown multiple times in the trailers), the convenience-store owner who befriended Eddie and Venom in the previous films. Her appearance in Las Vegas offers a warm dance scene that gives the film its titular moment as the three friends bond after time apart. It’s the rare moment in the film that is not bogged down with generic sequences that seem foreign to the easy charm that has kept the Eddie and Venom dynamic compelling over the years.
It does not help that Tom Hardy, whose enthusiasm has been a boon for the series, seems much more emotionally checked-out this time around. He is doing his best to inject some fulsome energy into the banter between Eddie and Venom but too much of “The Last Dance” is a dishevelled assortment of moments in search of an actual arc for the characters in it. So, the film is left trying to create action thrills amidst a tender buddy-comedy and a scientific investigation featuring characters it is hard to feel committed to. Temple and Ejiofor have too little to do to register themselves as characters worth investing in. When Rhys Ifans turns up as Martin Moon, a hippie alien enthusiast with his wife and family in tow, it all begins to feel too much especially when the film seems set on pulling an emotional dynamic from the family that is meant to be key to the film’s climax.
For a series that started off so sure of itself and its peculiarities in 2018, “Venom: The Last Dance” feels too lacking in energy and wonder to be more than a shrugging final-entry in the trilogy. Even its mid-credits and post-credits sequences seem less committed to any notion of imbuing the tale of Eddie and Venom with any emotional materiality. Instead, this feels like the worst thing for the series. “The Last Dance” feels like it is merely marking time waiting to see what the future of the superhero world brings rather than offering a deft or thoughtful closure to what should have been a more engaging story.
Venom: The Last Dance is playing in cinemas
