Over the past few years, we have seen an expansion from Sony’s run with profound Marvel characters. The Venom trilogy has made its own space, sweeping films like Morbius and Madam Web. Venom: The Last Dance has shown that it is capable of its dark humor and the unique dynamic between Eddie Brock and Venom. We, the fans, have eagerly anticipated whether Venom: The Last Dance will go out with a bang or fizzle like the other movies that Sony has made in recent years. That’s what we’re going to dive into, and If you have not seen the film, you will be Spoiled.
The General Direction of the Plot
We leave off with Eddie at rock bottom after the events of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The film maintains the ongoing bromance between Eddie and Venom as their journey gets dire and dysfunctional. After the duo get dragged back into their original universe, Eddie is back to being on the run from the government. Then, we see the two tackle a gang in Mexico that keeps pets for cruel animal-fighting matches at the film’s start.
We all know Venom needs his meal, and the bad guys are on the menu. After that, they stumble upon a monster connected with Knull called a Xenopage, a creature hunting down Venom because Venom has the Codex, a ticket to Knull’s freedom. This becomes very clear later on in the movie. I still find it funny how Venom doesn’t know what the Xenophage is despite being on the same planet as that beast.
The two of them ran away from the Xenophage and hitched a ride back to the States. Venom answers Eddie’s questions about why the two must escape the creature and why he has the Codex. The movie had a few subplots around Area 51, Venom’s bromance with Eddie, and a hippy family wanting to see Aliens for the first time before Area 51 gets decommissioned.
The scenes with Eddie and Venom are always fresh and joyful. In one of the scenes, Eddie wants to keep things low profile after the hippy family drops him off at Las Vegas casino to get cash.
Venom still finds his way to have fun and loses track of the primary mission. Venom develops a severe gambling addiction and ends up dancing with Mrs. Chen. The two bros have to bond together more to stay out of trouble with Knull and the military and stop a threat that will end them and the universe as they know it. We see that Area 51 has more symbiotes hidden from the general public. The symbiotes are helpful for the last showdown between Venom and the other symbiotes against Knull’s watchdogs.
Anyways, Who Are You Guys?
We have been introduced to some new characters around Area 51: Dr. Teddy Paine, Rex Strickland, and Sadie Christmas. Sadie and Teddy work at Area 51 studying the symbiote for parts of the movie; Area 51 is where most of the film occurs. Rex is the general we see constantly on the field to try and grab Venom.
We see a glimpse of Dr. Teddy Paine’s story of how a lighting strike kills her brother. The character had a lot of weak points and felt like she was forced into the movie to have some screen time.
That goes for Sadie and her Christmas in July “joke.” One of the other antagonists, Rex Strickland, a General at Area 51, tries to take himself too seriously, which turns off me and other fans who watched the film. Outside of some of these constraints that the movie had, we did have characters that we enjoyed.
We see the hippie couple after two bros land safely from an airplane. The family greeted the duo with open arms despite some of the alarms that could have been triggered. We meet Martain and Nova Moon, the family, on their trip to Area 51, hoping they can see aliens before the place is gone.
Martian, leading the trip, is strongly interested in seeing the unknown. Out of all of the new characters, I’m one of the few folks out there who enjoyed the Nova family’s appearance in the movie, especially how Venom is trying to help Eddie cope with all of the stress that he’s been going through for the past few years.
The Loose Ends
Venom did maintain an enjoyable feel to the movie, but it did have its setbacks for other potential projects. Previously in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Eddie and Venom made a cameo at the end of No Way Home in the MCU. We see them getting drunk at a Bar in Mexico, talking to the bartender, trying to cope with the events of Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
The two of them were dragged back to their main universe; we noticed that a piece of him was left in the MCU’s Sacred Timeline. Unfortunately, Sony decided to pull the plug for a potential Spider-Man and Venom crossover in the MCU.
Instead, we get a rushed storyline for Knull, a dangerous God in the Marvel Universe trying to find the key to breaking him out of prison to wreak havoc on the universe we know. Knull was only served as a plot device to keep the film going.
There’s also Patrick Mulligan; we have seen him as a cop from San in “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.” During the fight between Venom and Carnage, the former cop was caught in the crosshairs between the symbiote and got pieces of both of them. This resulted in Patrick getting a new symbiote known as Toxin.
If you were expecting Toxin to be used in the film, you can turn that thought down because he isn’t utilized as much as he should.
The People Behind The Roles
Tom Hardy has done a phenomenal job Voicing Venom and playing Eddie Brock in the last six years. This is one of the main reasons why people still want to see Venom. It was nice hearing Andy Circus voicing Knull. In any movie Andy is in, he will do a phenomenal job with the character’s voice.
We do get to see other familiar faces like Rhys Ifans, who played Martian Moon (Also The Lizard from: “The Amazing Spider-Man”), and Chiwetel Ejiofor, who played Rex ( Also Doctor Mordo from: “Doctor Strange”)
Final Thoughts:
Venom: The Last Dance struggled to maintain consistency and themes for the film, making it not that great of a movie in the Sony Marvel Universe. It did keep up with the bromance between Eddie and Venom, with a few punchlines throughout the film.
It still held up the emotional aspects and some hardships for the scenes in the movie. The CGI and character designs for each new symbiote and monster that showed up were visually pleasing. The designs were crisp and blended well with the cinematography of the film. It is still better than Morbius and Madam Web by a long shot, making it stand out between the two live-action films, but the plot was flimsy.
Runtime: 109 minutes
Release Date: 10-28-24
Director: Kelly Marcel
Story writers: Kelly Marcel, Tom Hardy
Music: Dan Deacon
Producers: Kelly Marce, Tom Hardy, Avi Arad, Matt Tomalch, Amy Pascal, Hutch Parker
Production: Columbia Pictures, Marvel Entertainment, Hardy Son & Baker, Arad Productions, Matt Tomalch Productions, Pascal Pictures, TSG Entertainment, Hutch Parker Entertainment