VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (2024)

Studio:   Columbia Pictures/Marvel
Director: Kelly Marcel
Writer:   Kelly Marcel, Tom Hardy
Producer: Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal, Kelly Marcel, Tom Hardy, Hutch Parker
Stars:    Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham, Peggy Lu, Clark Backo, Alanna Ubach, Cristo Fernandez, Jared Abrahamson, Andy Serkis

Review Score:

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Summary:

Eddie Brock and his alien symbiote go on the run from the police, Special Forces soldiers, and creatures sent from another world to destroy them.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Imprisoned on the planet Klyntar by the symbiotes he created, Knull, a powerful being also known as The King in Black, dispatches a symbiote-hunting creature called a xenophage to Earth to track down Eddie Brock and his Venom symbiote. Knull tasks the xenophage with recovering a codex from inside Eddie and Venom that will free Knull to exact vengeance against his traitorous symbiotes by exterminating their race before moving on to obliterate every living planet.

Returned to his own reality and still bonded with Venom, Eddie/Venom wreaks havoc while drunk in a bar in Mexico. Upon learning from a news broadcast that he is wanted for the apparent murder of SFPD detective Patrick Mulligan, Eddie and Venom decide to make their way to New York to blackmail a corrupt judge into clearing Eddie’s name.

Outside the bar, Eddie encounters a group of street criminals trafficking in caged dogs. Venom convinces Eddie to let him loose, allowing Venom to bite off all of their heads.

General Rex Strickland, who oversees the Area 55 Imperium Program for Symbiote Containment and Analysis, collects a stray symbiote sample left behind at the Mexican bar. Strickland’s men also capture the barman to question him about Eddie.

Symbiote researcher Dr. Teddy Paine, who carries out her work in honor of her conspiracy theorist twin brother Thaddeus who died, arrives at Nevada’s Area 51 military base three days before its scheduled decommissioning. Teddy then goes underground to the secret Area 55 lab where she, Strickland, and fellow researcher Sadie question Detective Mulligan, whose life was saved in San Francisco when he bonded with a symbiote. Through Mulligan, the symbiote warns that his creator, Knull, wants to kill all of his kind and also destroy Earth.

Eddie and Venom hitch a ride on the outside of an airplane. The xenophage suddenly attacks. Venom morphs into a parachute so he and Eddie can escape to the desert below them.

Venom tells Eddie how Knull created the symbiotes and xenophages, but the symbiotes revolted and imprisoned Knull. Venom explains that when a symbiote resurrects its host, which he previously did for Eddie, their separate lifeforces become one force called a codex, which is a key capable of unlocking Knull. The only way to stop the xenophage from tracking them, and to prevent Knull from escaping imprisonment, would be for one of them to die in order to destroy their codex.

Venom bonds with a horse so he and Eddie can travel faster. Strickland’s soldiers track Eddie to a river for a confrontation that ends with the deaths of three soldiers, causing Eddie to feel guilty. Eddie and Venom escape, but they realize they are now being hunted by secretive Special Forces as well as the police and the xenophage.

Teddy and Sadie speak to Mulligan again. Mulligan’s symbiote tells the two women how Knull specifically wants Venom for the codex that will free him. The symbiote warns that Knull must never obtain the codex or else his race and then the universe will be exterminated. The symbiote also explains how Venom or Eddie Brock must die to destroy the codex. Wanting retribution for the deaths of his soldiers at the river, Strickland vows to kill Eddie even though Teddy contends Venom must be contained for scientific study.

Eddie meets hippie Martin Moon, who is camping with his bohemian wife Nova and their children Echo and Leaf. Since they are on their way to see Area 51 before it is decommissioned, the family offers to give Eddie a ride as far as Las Vegas. After an awkward drive where Eddie discusses various topics with Martin and his son, the family drops off Eddie on the Las Vegas Strip.

Eddie steals a tuxedo from a drunk man outside Paris in order to satisfy the casino’s dress code. Inside the casino, Eddie unexpectedly runs into his friend Mrs. Chen, who invites Eddie up to her suite where she gleefully dances with Venom.

Strickland calls for “The Six” to bring in Eddie. Strickland also contacts an unidentified superior, who grants Strickland permission to assume total control of the Imperium program.

The xenophage attacks Eddie and Venom in Mrs. Chen’s hotel room. The creature retreats when Strickland’s soldiers arrive, use a sonic gun to separate the symbiote from Eddie, and capture both Eddie and Venom for transport to the Area 55 underground lab.

Eddie is imprisoned in a containment unit opposite Mulligan. Mulligan’s symbiote advises Eddie to protect the symbiote army being studied in the lab so Knull will remain locked away.

Still anxious for revenge, Strickland strips Teddy of her authority and shoots Eddie in his chest during a confrontation involving Strickland’s soldiers. Sadie, who secretly freed Venom, briefly hosts the symbiote before Venom re-bonds with Eddie and forces the bullet out of his body to save his life.

The xenophage interrupts the faceoff between Venom and Strickland’s soldiers. Mulligan’s symbiote fights the creature so Venom can escape in the ensuing commotion. The xenophage swallows Mulligan and his symbiote.

At Venom’s urging, Sadie and Teddy release the lab’s other symbiotes from containment. The symbiotes bond with various people in the lab, including Sadie, to combat the creature.

Eddie and Venom escape outside with other symbiotes and encounter Martin’s family, who had sneaked inside the Area 51 base. The xenophage continues its rampage above ground while Strickland’s soldiers continue trying to fight it.

Venom protects Martin’s children before Teddy arrives in a Jeep to take Martin’s family to safety. Meanwhile, Sadie implores Strickland to see how Venom was trying to protect all of them.

A portal opens that sends in a second xenophage. With Strickland now on his side, Eddie leads the two creatures into a killbox for Strickland’s soldiers to attack.

One of the xenophages impales Strickland on its tail. The other xenophage nearly kills Eddie, but Martin unexpectedly rescues him by firing a rocket launcher at the creature.

More xenophages emerge from portals. Seeing no other way to stop them, Venom sacrifices himself by bonding with the creatures and leading them into a trap. Summoning the last of his dying strength, Strickland releases an acid shower that melts Venom and the xenophages.

Strickland detonates a grenade whose resulting explosion devastates Area 51. Eddie is shielded from the blast by a metal covering Venom placed over him. Teddy bonds with a symbiote to save her and Sadie from the explosion.

Eddie recovers in a hospital room where a mysterious general informs him his record has been expunged, provided he never reveals any details about what happened at Area 51. In honor of Venom’s wish to see the Statue of Liberty, Eddie continues alone to New York City.

From his Klyntar prison, Knull vows to destroy the universe now that Venom is no longer alive to protect it. Back at Area 51, the barman captured in Mexico emerges to find the base in ruins. A broken vial formerly containing a Venom symbiote sample is seen in the rubble.

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Review:

Since their massive rise in mainstream popularity, comic book movies have become so divisive, I’m not sure we can crown any one franchise as the undisputed king of splitting audience opinions down the middle. Still, I might put my money on the Venom trilogy, especially considering how “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” (review here) fulfilled its subtitle by angering quite a few fans. Some people didn’t appreciate how hard that film went on humor. Others were upset Carnage’s potential was “wasted” on an underwhelming characterization. Whatever the reason, and this certainly isn’t exclusive to Venom films, folks will always find one or invent one to justify why something supposedly sucked.

Similar criticisms carry over to “Venom: The Last Dance.” Unflattering comments from a smattering of various critics include words like “chaotic,” “brash,” “goofy,” and “loud.”

Counterpoint: “Chaotic,” “brash,” “goofy,” and “loud” don’t have to be negatives. They can be goals a comic book movie aspires to achieve. In fact, and I say this as a voracious comic reader since the 1980s, I’ll go so far as to argue “Venom: The Last Dance” is one of the most accurate representations of comic book concepts and qualities in film format I’ve ever seen.

Take it from the top. “Venom: The Last Dance” opens on a pre-title teaser where Knull, an all-powerful being imprisoned on a distant planet, plots to exterminate the entire symbiote species before moving on to obliterate the entire universe. That’s classic comic book villainy right there. Out of the gate, “Venom: The Last Dance” establishes an otherworldly threat who desires the same scope of domination as Darkseid or Thanos, yet this film has a self-contained, focused feel that doesn’t bear the heavy weight of dire intergalactic stakes like an Avengers epic does.

Returned to his own reality in Mexico, Eddie Brock learns he’s wanted for the apparent murder of SFPD detective Patrick Mulligan at the end of “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.” Like doctors David Banner and Richard Kimble before him, Eddie is forced to go on the run to clear his name. Except it isn’t just cops who are after him. He’s got Knull’s symbiote-hunting xenophages hot on Venom’s heels as well as soldiers from a mysterious military unit, who want to bring in both Eddie and Venom to be studied in a secret research lab hidden beneath Area 51. If subterranean bunkers, shadowy cabals led by gruff Army generals, creatures from outer space, and the infamous Area 51 itself don’t solidly set up a fitting four-color fantasy, I don’t know what does.

Each encounter Eddie has on his subsequent journey plays out like a monthly comic book adventure envisioned in live-action splash pages and free-flowing panel breakdowns. Issue #1 finds Eddie and Venom having their first fight with the xenophage on the exterior of an airplane in flight. The story continues on the ground after Venom morphs a horse for fast transport to a river scenario where he and Eddie battle Special Forces gunmen.

Needing time to collect their collective breath, Eddie and Venom slow down to pass the comic relief torch to a bohemian family camping in the desert. Rhys Ifans, a shoo-in to play Alan Moore if there’s ever a biopic about the legendary writer, plays against type as hippie Martin Moon. Not cast as an imposing authority figure, nor a serious Shakespearian antagonist, Ifans also doesn’t treat his humor-fueled role like a Looney Tunes caricature, a delicate trait shared by the overall film as it rides a responsible line between flippant fun and enjoyable escapism.

Following an appropriately flashy outing in Las Vegas where Eddie’s possessed arm furiously slaps a slot machine and Venom dances with a woman wearing a glitzy gown, everything leads to a fiery finish featuring rocket launchers, grenade explosions, interdimensional portals, and an army of rainbow-colored symbiotes slashing it up with massive monsters. With “are you not entertained?” written all over it, “Venom: The Last Dance” is simply chock full of frenzied action and spectacular setpieces, exactly like any comic book movie should be.

Points are deducted for side story seeds planted, yet never fully fertilized. I’m unclear why it’s necessary to know Juno Temple’s character, symbiote researcher Dr. Teddy Paine, perpetually mourns her dead twin brother. Nor do I understand the narrative value of inessential moments with Martin Moon’s family prior to their encounter with Eddie. Maybe broader plans for B arcs were cut down, although the upside ends up being a breezy runtime that blows by at 95 minutes not counting credits.

Co-writer/director Kelly Marcel just “gets it,” with “it” being how a comic book-based movie should ideally operate. “Venom: The Last Dance” doesn’t go over the top on colorful kitsch like a Joel Schumacher Batman sequel. It’s not bleakly serious like a dour DCU film. It also doesn’t require familiarity with dozens of previous productions to follow its streamlined plot. As a closing montage of clips from all three movies reminds us, “Venom: The Last Dance” is part of a unique trilogy that dares to try its own thing with an electric vibe of cool characters and wild sights leaping off a printed page.

Some of the comedy, and some of the beats that heavily rely on undercooked MacGuffins to function, may be considered dumb, but nothing in the movie is dumbed down to pander to child-minded attention spans. Someone can certainly dislike the style for not suiting personal tastes. It’s harder to suggest “Venom: The Last Dance” doesn’t have the slick sense and imaginative sensibility of a maverick 1990s comic book come to life.

NOTE: There is a mid-credits scene and a post-credits scene.

Review Score: 75

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