'Venom: The Last Dance' film review: Tom Hardy's brain-eating anti-hero takes a bow
'Venom: The Last Dance' (in theaters nationwide Oct. 25) touts itself as some sort of "epic conclusion" to the trilogy - but this rushed and messy flick is simply a finale with two left feet stumbling across the finish line.
In short: Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is a fugitive on the run from law enforcement. While Brock hopes to clear his name, Venom becomes the target of military scientists - as well as a new danger that threatens life across the universe. Also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans and Stephen Graham.
As always, this review will be spoiler-free - but 'The Last Dance' barely has a threadbare plot at all. Theoretically Brock and Venom need to clear their name after they are wrongfully suspected of killing police detective Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham) in the previous movie 'Let There Be Carnage.' But this movie merely rides off the "fugitives on the run" energy -- and just ratchets up the threat of who is pursuing Brock and Venom. Weirdly, the script completely forgets the police are after Brock at all - so 'The Last Dance' just simplifies to waves of faceless military special ops soldiers with high tech guns and apparently indestructible interstellar monsters relentlessly pursuing Brock and Venom ... for the rest of the movie.
The best parts of 'Let There Be Carnage' wasn't two CGI symbiote monsters fighting to the death - it was the totally unexpected dramatic tension between Brock and Venom. It was effectively a break-up rom-com, except the protagonists were a traumatized Dr. Jekyl trying to come to terms with the brain-eating Mr. Hyde literally living inside of Brock. Sadly, 'The Last Dance' only has all-too-fleeting moments that touch upon the duality of Venom and Brock. These few quiet moments are somber and seemingly aware that the walls are closing in on Venom and Brock - and it's in these few scenes when 'The Last Dance' sort of works.
If it's almost impossible to spoil a plot that barely exists to begin with, then it's actually impossible to spill too much tea when it comes to this movie's cast of shallow "characters." Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor joins the cast as "angry military guy." Emmy award-nominee Juno Temple joins the cast as "alien scientist ... with an injured arm." She gets a whole origin story flashback to explain her tragedy and injury - but Temple's character exists just to move the plot forward. BAFTA nominated actor Stephen Graham ... has barely a few minutes of screentime ... and he's just collecting a paycheck from Sony with a note on the check the says 'exposition machine.' It's actually surprising the script didn't shoehorn Michelle Williams (who appeared in the first two 'Venom' flicks) back into this third movie. It wouldn't have made any sense to rope her character into this story obviously, but finding a legitimate reason to wedge a character into 'The Last Dance' went right out the window when the script made a massive detour that apparently serves ONLY to bring back Venom's friend and convenience store owner Mrs. Chen.
'The Last Dance' is so focused on telegraphing that this could be Brock and Venom's last adventure that it undermines the entire movie. Brock and Venom seem resigned to their fate, even as they go through the motions of "clearing their name" - a story goal that's so pointless that the script seemingly abandons it altogether. The dangers relentlessly pursuing Brock and Venom are so overpowered compared to the broke and barefoot Eddie Brock that their "clear their name" goal just seems laughable.
Perhaps the only surprising aspect of 'The Last Dance' is it's thin runtime: after just 90 minutes, the credits start to roll. But this flick feels so much longer than it's meager runtime. Any movie that "feels long" either has slow plot progression or slow character progression. Whereas Brock and Venom had all the character conflict in the previous flick, they're basically just running from guys with guns and monsters this time - so no character trajectories to speak of. And 'The Last Dance' just has stakes and almost zero plot. So the inevitable end result is a nearly plotless story anchored by two characters with almost no conflict - with the drama really only defined as "uhh ... run ... or die ... or be used to end all of life everywhere."
Oh, patient movie goers can expect two extra scenes at the end of 'The Last Dance' - a mid-credits scene and a post-credits stinger. To be honest, neither are worth the wait. The earlier scene hints at the villainous threat still plotting destruction, while the second scene is kept until after the final credits roll - and it's merely tacked on to play off a couple of weak jokes made earlier in the movie.
Final verdict: Eddie Brock and Venom form a complex, merged character trying to reconcile an insatiable alien hunger for brains with humanity, resulting in a 'Lethal Protector' anti-hero. They deserve better than this shallow and soulless "epic conclusion" packed with a cacophony of bullets, explosions and CGI monster violence.
Score: 2/5
'Venom: The Last Dance' opens in theaters nationwide Oct. 25. The comic book adventure has a runtime of 110 minutes and is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, bloody images and strong language.
