Movie Review: ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ Is a Fitting Farewell

You’re either on Venom’s wavelength or you’re not. If you are, you’re not alone, because it turns out a lot of people are. Sony’s blockbuster Marvel series comprises a triptych of strangely compelling comic book films, featuring Tom Hardy’s take on journalist Eddie Brock and his sassy symbiote sidekick, Venom (whom Hardy also voices). The third installment, “Venom: The Last Dance,” completes the trio of films, which are both serious and irreverent, creating an exaggerated tone of their own, distinct from the more serious or sarcastically self-sufficient superheroes. references.

Much of this unique humor has to do with star Hardy’s performance as Venom and Eddie, and through his contributions as a writer (he has story credits on “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” and “Venom: The Last Dance”), and close collaboration with longtime friend Kelly Marcel, who wrote the three films and makes her directorial debut with “The Last Dance”, which is announced with that title as Venom’s potential last turn on the track.

The main appeal of these films has always been the relationship between Eddie and Venom, his alien friend who frequently shows up to say hello and play, and who can take control of Eddie’s body with his tar-like mass and giant teeth for various feats of strength. and courage. The irascible Venom loves animals, eats brains and lets music move him (in the second episode, they have a rave; in this one, it’s a choreographed disco dance on a Las Vegas rooftop).

This continues to be the focus in “The Last Dance”, in which Eddie and Venom try to get from Mexico to New York City and end up trapped in Area 51, as aliens tend to do. Through a great deal of exposition, we learn that the pair have become a codex, or key, to unlock some sort of galactic prison where some kind of stringy-haired dark lord has been locked away by his symbiote children. He has now dispatched an army of crab-like aliens through portals to retrieve the Eddie-Venom codex and free himself.

The pair turn into a tracking device when Venom fully manifests, and the codex can only be destroyed if one of them dies, and so the story is essentially a chase movie through the American Southwest. With General Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his special forces also in pursuit, and an alien-sympathetic scientist, Dr. Payne (Juno Temple), trying to save his specimens, chaos ensues in and around Area 51, which is about to be deactivated. in three days.

The desert setting and chomping alien monsters give “The Last Dance” a whiff of “Starship Troopers,” a soup of “Tremors,” nodding to those self-consciously exaggerated features of B-movie creatures of yore. This “Last Dance” can be shaggy, silly and even a little stupid, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, especially when it’s winking so much at its own genre.

There’s a sense of randomness to this journey, but Hardy’s eccentric charm and a great soundtrack go a long way toward smoothing out the cracks and bumps in the road, which is also an ensemble comedy as Eddie encounters different people, including an alien-obsessed father. . (Rhys Ifans) taking his family on a pilgrimage to Area 51 in his hippie Volkswagen bus, and his old friend Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) running the slot machines in Las Vegas. These supporting actors have the important task of playing the straight man to Venom’s clown. From Michelle Williams in the first film, it’s imperative that those around Venom understand the task but allow him to shine, and this cast never falls apart.

Because it’s not the supporting characters, the stories, the settings or the special effects that make “Venom” what it is, but rather the chemistry that Hardy has – with himself – as a dueling double character(s). Maybe it’s his friendship with Marcel that makes these films work, because you really believe in the connection between Eddie and Venom; that they care about each other as much as they fight, and this is fully evident in “The Last Dance,” which is, unfortunately, perhaps the last time these two will tango. While the concept itself is running out of gas and it would be nice to free Hardy up to do other things, it’s a fitting send-off for the cheeky alien with the thousand-watt smile.