While MCU fans can still expect tons of adventures in myriad upcoming Marvel movies hitting the 2025 movie schedule and beyond, it doesn't sound like Tom Hardy's Venom will be around to cause chaos for it, at least if one believes Hardy's claims that he's finished with the role. But Eddie Brock still has to save the universe, or at least parts of Nevada, from utter destruction in Sony's superhero sequel Venom: The Last Dance.
The third film centers on Eddie and Venom trying to thwart an incoming alien threat spearheaded by comic book baddie Knull (portrayed by Let There Be Carnage helmer Andy Serkis), which brings a handful of other body-usurping symbiotes into the picture. Co-starring such talents as Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor, Venom: The Last Dance is hitting theaters on Friday, October 25, but not before the first wave of reviews from critics and early screenings could go public. And let's just say I hope nobody had high hopes for Knull as a crowd-pleaser.
I think anyone would agree that Sony's Venom movies are widely viewed as money-making fan-pleasers, as opposed to critical darlings in any way shape are form. They're more like critical gargoyles where the bird poop just doesn't wash off, and many of the same complaints are being made about this film as well. CinemaBlend's Venom review and Venom: Let There Be Carnage review fell on the low side. And in his Venom: the Last Dance review, our own Eric Eisenberg was not in the slightest bit impressed with any of the film's Dance moves either, slamming the film as being the embodiment of "shit happens," as opposed to a legitimate story.
Venom: The Last Dance is at least a unique cinematic experience, in that it’s hard to think of another movie that bends so far backwards to explain everything to the audience, yet delivers nothing substantive. There are multiple scenes featuring characters blatantly laying out who they are and what they are doing to other characters who they know intimately (we’re talking pinch the bridge of your nose-level bad here), and yet there is nothing that actually propels the story. Eddie and Venom travel, they meet people and there are fight/chase scenes, but there is a complete lack of twists, dramatic shifts or revelations. Things just happen.
ComicBook.com's Kofi Outlaw put the film on major blast by calling it "Sony's next Madame Web" while offering some praise for screenwriter and first-time director Kelly Marcel, saying her love for the franchise and character is obvious. But the critic then questions why that innate fandom would lead her to craft a finished product that puts more emphasis on new characters and non-Venom elements, and goes on to say:
In the few moments where Hardy does once again muster the chaotic rom-com energy of Eddie and Venom, we get reminded of what (if nothing else) this series achieved. You almost wish Hardy and Co. had leaned into all the online jokes about how Venom 3 didn’t need to do anything more than provide a final showcase of Hardy’s one-man show. Instead, we get an overstuffed, overly serious comic book movie that could tarnish some of its top-talent supporting cast.
Alison Willmore of Vulture is one of many critics who take direct aim at the multiversal nature of Knull as a villain — in a movie where Hardy's character says he's "done with that multiverse shit," no less — and how much his muddled exposition and one-note storyline rules detract from the mindless enjoyment that feels more like its true element.
The lack of coherent stakes matters less than the general feeling that the movie is bad on purpose, in addition to being bad accidentally, which is the only way to explain why there’s a shadowy character in a control booth whose identity is never revealed and whose presence is never explained. It makes weak gestures toward wanting to be about regret and mortality, then includes a montage cut to Maroon 5 as a fuck you for thinking there was ever any intention of getting sincere. Venom: The Last Dance isn’t a lark, but a smirk to let you know that while everyone may be aware of what it’s up to, you’re the sucker who bought the ticket.
Kristy Puchko of Mashable is all for scenes that showcase Tom Hardy's back-and-forth shenanigans in full, but like seemingly everyone else, has little to zero patience for any moments that pull focus away to track the gloom-mongering villain.
The screenplay by writer/director Kelly Marcel, who wrote Venom: Let There Be Carnage, has enthrallingly funny moments. But it ties itself into knots setting up Knull and Payne, who will clearly have bigger roles to play as the franchise barrels on. (Last dance, my foot!) Marcel sacrifices the zany exuberance and propulsive spontaneity of Hardy's performance by frequently abandoning him for gratuitous exposition dumps. All of Knull's scenes look the same, playing like a dimly lit teaser for a video game. The gray-haired villain is bound to a throne, grumbling threats with his head hung, over and over with no build in tension or information.
CBR's Howard Waldstein calls outVenom: The Last Dance as being on par with Joker: Folie à Deux as bottom-of-the-barrel superhero fare, saying Tom Hardy is at his all-time laziest in this sequel, extending from the narrative notion that Eddie Brock himself is suffering from an extended hangover and lack of sleep. This critic also wasn't impressed by the film's more absurd sequences, nor the side story involving The Amazing Spider-Man vet Rhys Ifans as a UFO-seeker and his van family.
On the run from the law, Eddie/Venom's adventure takes on the tone of a road trip without much road and a whole lot of barren wasteland. With backgrounds flimsier than the spaghettiest of Westerns, it's up to the actors and their characters to ground us in The Last Dance's litany of absurd situations. It's already an uphill battle to make the fake seem real, but it's even harder without a coherent script. When Eddie/Venom comes across a family of retro-modern hippies who burst into a rendition of David Bowie's 'Space Oddity,' we can't help but wonder what the original idea was.
David Erlich of IndieWire is responsible for one of the few reviews that came from a somewhat positive outlook, though one that's entirely self-aware of how flagrantly ridiculous Tom Hardy's dedication to this two-headed role can be, and how the three films' other creative elements never come close to being as enjoyable as Eddie and Venom's "Greatest Love Story in Superhero Movie History." As he put it:
We just about reached the limits of their union in the last film, and all that’s really left for Marcel to do here is let the 'Lethal Protector' go out in a ridiculous blaze of glory. But The Last Dance is still a fun time when it focuses on its core friendship (or uncivil union, or whatever you want to call it), its comic sensibilities are still much sharper and stranger than anything Deadpool could ever come up with, and it’s still less of a letdown than the other recent threequel that shares its subtitle. Magic Mike wins out when it comes to the actual dancing, but there’s no question that Venom has the edge when it comes to watching a perma-hungover Tom Hardy wear his own shoulders like an inflatable neck pillow.
I don't think anyone will be surprised to learn that the critics who didn't like the first two Venom films didn't about-face so hard for The Last Dance that whiplash kept them from turning their reviews in on time. But anyone who already adores this wonky superhero buddy comedy may just find themselves having a great time at the theater, assuming Venom doesn't slap the popcorn out of everyone's hands while seeking out chocolate.
Venom: The Last Dance hits theaters on Friday, October 25, and is looking at box office projects hitting somewhere around $65 million in the U.S. for its first weekend, and around $85 million from overseas tallies.
