On October 23, the alien symbiote Venom returns to cinema screens for the third time in the «Sony Spider-Man Universe» movie franchise in a threequel with the subtitle «Last Dance». The toothy toadstool will once again be paired with the long-suffering journalist Eddie Brock, played by the ever-present Tom Hardy. What adventures await this quirky couple this time, and most importantly — whether we, the audience, need it — read the review below.
Pluses:
a few funny episodes; again, good interaction between Eddie Brock and Venom; lively narrative pace; hints of something touching in the ending;
Minuses:
nightmarish cinema from the point of view of the script; sheer stupidity is not always appropriate and contrasts sharply with the «dramatic» ending; secondary and clichéd characters are already an unchanging attribute of this universe;
«Venom: The Last Dance»
Genre superhero action
Director Kelly Marcel
Starring Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Reece Ivans, Stephen Graham, Peggy Lu, Alanna Yubak
Premiere movie theaters
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb, official website
After the showdown with Carnage and a brief stay in In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Eddie Brock and an alien puddle of resin in his body named Venom find themselves in a very unpleasant situation. In addition to being wanted for the murder of Detective Patrick Mulligan, the former journalist is being hunted by tough guy Rex Strickland, who works for a secret government organization called «Imperium», which captures and studies symbiotes.
But that’s not all. Since Brock and Venom have something that can free the evil symbiote creator Knull from his imprisonment, the latter sends a blind but invulnerable chupacabra to Earth, which makes Venom seem like a cute little animal that can be hand-fed. While everyone in the world is chasing the protagonist, or rather, the pair of heroes, they find time for jokes, for fun, and even for the very last dance. Like the of the final part of the stripper trilogy «Super Mike», was reverently put in the subtitle.
The authors of the third «Venom» are making a move with a horse because any reviews here will be practically useless. That’s because those familiar with Sony’s dubious universe and the previous two installments already have a clear idea of what to expect. So if you are sure that «The Last Dance» will not deviate from the planned course and will be performed in the same vein as its predecessors, you will be absolutely right. The screenwriter and debutante director Kelly Marcel is, let’s just say, true to the spirit of the first two films.
But even given their unpretentiousness and low expectations, people will still watch «Venom 3» (and this is another sign of the futility of its criticism), if only to find out how this whole mess will end. Yes, «The Last Dance» — is mostly a bad movie, but it stubbornly claims the audience’s attention, not only from fans of this universe (are there any?), but at least from those who are familiar with it. After all, it is to some extent a finale. And yet it’s a little bit better than «Carnage», which only the lazy didn’t call a cringe.
Sadly, the script was again written on a napkin, and the emotional load implies a sharp change from laughter to sadness. However, such a glaring intonation imbalance negates all efforts to end the story on a touching note. Simply put, it’s impossible to deliver a «Terminator 2» ending when you’ve been flashing clowns almost the entire time before.
However, we have yet to see the finale because before that, the viewer is offered a very strange story, all the elements of which do not fit together well. It’s as if the creators filmed thematically related but content-wise separate videos for TikTok, and then in the editing room they combined all this good and bad into the required time frame.
Venom and Eddie rescue unfortunate dogs. Then the story focuses on Dr. Teddy Payne and her tragic past. Later, we return to the adventures of the sweet couple, who are comfortably seated on a passenger plane (a joke about Tom Cruise credited). Suddenly, a hipster family appears in the frame, heading to Area 51. After a few moments, the focus switches back to the main characters: they are riding a horse, running away from their pursuers in the river, playing in a Vegas casino, performing an absolutely horrible dance from the point of view of logic, and so on and so forth. To say that the plot is a complete mess is an understatement.
As before, «Venom» is still in perfect order with clichés. At some point, it may seem as if we are not talking about symbiotes, but about Transformers, who had their own showdowns on their home planet, and now on Earth, evil aliens are fighting the good and chasing the conventional Leadership Matrix.
A set of loosely connected and randomly mixed scenes is seasoned with the trademark humor, which is based mainly on the interaction between a journalist with a perpetual hangover and an alien joker. Objectively speaking, it’s a nice vibe, but it’s not enough to get away with it. Besides, to make a really good comedy out of a movie comic, you have to be Taika Waititi at his best.
From the other features — we get Venom-fish, Venom-dandelion, Venom-Flash, (or was it Barbie?) and God knows who else. You can also venomize your pet by performing a few simple manipulations on a special website. In addition to dancing, there will be singing, though it can be called good if you consider Venom’s growl appropriate for ABBA’s hits.
By and large, you can safely skip the first hour, because the most interesting things happen during the final act. There are no surprises or revelations, but it is cheerful, moderately exciting, and spectacular.
In general, from a scripted point of view, this is still a ridiculous, unbearably nightmarish movie. But at the same time, it’s lively and fun enough to still be the sanest entertainment in the cohort of silly Morbius and Madame Web. Something tells me that the Kraven the Hunter at the same time.
Spelling error report
The following text will be sent to our editors: