In three consecutive films, Tom Hardy has skillfully amalgamated the dual personas of Jekyll and Hyde into a singular, bizarre, and slimy entity. Within the expansive Marvel universe, brimming with alter egos cloaked in stealthy superpowers, his investigative reporter, Eddie Brock, defies convention by refusing to undergo a traditional transformation. Instead, he shares his corporeal form with an ink-black alien symbiote, whose voice—a baritone growl delivered masterfully by Hardy—occasionally engulfs Eddie entirely, intermittently shoots out tendrils, and perpetually punctuates Eddie's inner dialogue with a cheerful demeanor.
Despite their consistently chaotic and almost deliberately flawed nature, these films have featured a strangely compelling buddy comedy within a singular body, thanks to Hardy's stellar performance. Throwing a cape on and leaping through the skies may be one thing, but running maniacally across the desert with an alien voice barking commands from within, as evidenced by Eddie's inner-alien in the latest "Venom: The Last Dance" ("Engage your core," "Nice horsey," and "Tequila!"), is quite another.
However, the most striking dichotomy within these films isn't the schism between Eddie and the symbiote. Rather, it lies in the stark contrast between Hardy's humorous and occasionally poignant performance and the surrounding CGI chaos. While the first two films offered fleeting moments of amusement, if "The Last Dance," premiering in theaters on Thursday, serves as the swan song for this spin-off franchise that has yet to fully take shape, it confirms that the "Venom" films have never quite come into their own.
In "The Last Dance," Kelly Marcel, co-writer of the first two "Venom" films, steps into the director's chair, following in the footsteps of Andy Serkis (2021's "Venom: Let There Be Carnage") and Ruben Fleischer (2018's "Venom"). We reunite with Venom—the amalgamation of Eddie and his alien soulmate—in Mexico, where they are fugitives from the law. But a new peril is rising on the horizon.
The film kicks off with Knull (portrayed by Serkis), the creator of the symbiotes, dispatching aliens from a dark and distant corner of space to retrieve a "codex" embedded within Venom's spine. If obtained, this codex will spell doom for both humans and symbiotes.
To me, the inclusion of a cliché comic book-inspired doomsday scenario in a "Venom" film ranks among the least desirable elements. The highlights of the first two installments shone brightest when their narratives were as straightforward as Venom's cravings for lobster or his pizza orders. These simpler, less grand stakes aligned perfectly with the franchise's quirky humor. Rather than adhering to the Marvel playbook, these movies would have been more fittingly anchored by the laid-back charm of classic episodes of "The Odd Couple."
Instead, we find ourselves plunged into a monotonous Area 51 setting, where an intricate laboratory headed by Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple) meticulously examines captured symbiotes, assisted by a military division led by the威严十足的 Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor, whose presence lends the film more gravitas than it warrants). When alien insect creatures descend in search of the codex, a sequence of relentless pursuits and battles unfolds, with a UFO-enthusiast family in a VW bus (Rhys Ifans portrays the father) thrown into the fray. Ultimately, as the title hints, the impending conflict poses a threat that could rip Venom apart forever.
However, the allure of the "Venom" series truly lies in its detachment from the mainstream Marvel narrative. It's a B-movie realm within the multiverse, devoid of any appetite for solemnity, nobility, or epic runtimes stretching beyond two and a half hours. These films may strike some as hastily assembled knockoffs, but this double-edged sword is both their charm and their disappointment.
I found myself continually hoping that "The Last Dance" would abandon its lackluster save-the-world plot (and its overused CGI) and lean more heavily into its most dynamic aspect: Tom Hardy's dual-personality performance. If this is indeed a final hurrah – a dubious prospect for anything remotely associated with "Spider-Man" – it's a pity that we didn't witness more of Venom's daily life interactions. Eddie, a journalist by profession, must have had countless conversations with the symbiote about far more pressing matters than the fate of the universe, such as the Oxford comma, for instance.
"Venom: The Last Dance," a release from Columbia Pictures, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association due to intense sequences of violence and action, bloody images, and strong language. Runtime: 110 minutes. Two stars out of four.
