In the end, Venom: The Last Dance has some high points and familiar laughs but falls short in delivering a cohesive and satisfying story. Overall, it’s a 5/10 for me. While I appreciated the shift in visuals, it wasn’t enough to make up for a film that left more questions than it answered.
In Venom: The Last Dance, Tom Hardy returns as the conflicted anti-hero Eddie Brock, still learning to live with his symbiotic alter ego, Venom. This time, their journey delves into a tangled plot involving shady organizations, new allies, and a looming threat that never fully materializes on screen. As Venom faces increasing external and internal challenges, the stakes rise, but the promise of an exhilarating storyline falls short of expectation.
This latest chapter promised to raise the bar with a mysterious villain, though the antagonist remains strangely absent, hinting at another storyline potentially left hanging in the Marvel universe. With recurring talent like Hardy, there were solid one-liners, but some jokes missed their mark, leaving the humor, which usually bolsters the Venom series, feeling flat.
What may be the film’s boldest choice, however, is its cast expansion. With Ted Lasso alumni Cristo Fernández and Juno Temple making appearances, there was potential for memorable performances. However, Temple’s character seemed forced and slightly out of place, which could be chalked up to misaligned writing. It was as if the story was packed with new players and plot threads that were never truly fleshed out—such as the American military’s strange flip-flop from antagonist to ally without much explanation.
Visually, though, The Last Dance offered some unique shifts. The film grading leaned into lighter, daytime sequences that gave the movie a fresher aesthetic, stepping away from the dark, nocturnal tones that often obscure Venom’s character on screen. This brightened style provided some memorable visual moments, even if they couldn’t compensate for the plot holes.
In the end, Venom: The Last Dance has some high points and familiar laughs but falls short in delivering a cohesive and satisfying story. Overall, it’s a 5/10 for me. While I appreciated the shift in visuals, it wasn’t enough to make up for a film that left more questions than it answered.
If you’re planning to watch Venom: The Last Dance, I’d recommend seeing the first two films in the series first, of course, for continuity. However, this one can easily wait for streaming, where it’s better suited for a casual movie night on the couch. There’s truly nothing here that demands a theater experience.
