Venom: The Last Dance (2024) Review

“I won’t forget you buddy”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

You gotta enjoy the little things while you can, because you’ll never know when they’re gone.

PLOT


Venom: The Last Dance follows Eddie Brock and the titular symbiote return to their universe Earth-688, but are still on the run for escaping from a police station and are falsely accused of the apparent death of Patrick Mulligan. Little do they know that not only is the detective still alive, held in Area 51 with other symbiotes like the hybrid he’s a host to, but extraterrestrial Xenophages are after them on behalf of their master Knull. At Area 51, scientist Theodora Paine & her assistant Sadie aka Christmas have been studying Mulligan and other symbiotes in order to learn their purpose. Knull is the creator of symbiotes in Planet Klyntar, but is trapped in a prison made by other rebelling symbiotes and needs a Codex to be free and resume his reign of terror. Venom has one because they activate when a host is resurrected and he already done so when facing Riot in the first film. Xenophages can track symbiotes only in full form and Venom explains this to Brock after they attack him on a plane they try to stow away on. The action between both aliens alerts the attention of Imperium General Rex Strickland, who is in charge of Area 51 and is tasked to execute Venom. Eddie/Venom are able to evade both threats and hitchhike to Las Vegas with the assist of a hipster family, the Moons. The family includes: Martin who is an alien enthusiast, his wife Nova (Alanna Ubach), their eldest daughter Echo (Hala Finley), young son Leaf (Dash McCloud) and their pet dog Blue. In the meanwhile, Mulligan’s symbiote explains to Strickland & Teddy of Knull’s intentions of the Codex, which can be destroyed if either the host or symbiote dies. Eddie/Venom lay low at a casino, until they run into their friend from San Francisco, Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu), who’s having a personal vacation. Venom ends up sharing a dance with her in full form until the Xenophage tracks them down. The second batch of conflict alerts Strickland, who catches up and successfully separates both halves as he takes him to Area 51. There, Sadie would end up reuniting them when Strickland shoots him, intending to keep Knull from coming. This attracts multiple Xenophages this time that attack the base. Overwhelmed, Paine & Sadie free the other symbiotes to better their odds, but all including Milligan die trying. The Moons witness the conflict, which results in Eddie/Venom protecting them from harm in the midst of it all. In order to protect the world, Venom separates himself from Eddie and merges with the Xenophages, dragging them to acid tanks while Strickland finishes them off with grenades, sacrificing himself as well. Eddie barely avoids the explosion and the Moons drive away, whereas Teddy bonds with the last remaining symbiote to use super speed, which helps her escape with Sadie. Eddie then wakes up in a hospital, being informed by a higher ranked military official that Venom’s sacrifice has earned him expungement under the condition he doesn’t go public with what had transpired. As Eddie visits New York to remember the friend he lost, a mid credit scene reveals Knull still intends to destroy the universe without the Codex and the film ends with a post credit where another sample of Venom is shown to have survived Area 51’s destruction.


THOUGHTS


The best way to discuss this film is through Pros and Cons.

PROS: It’s always best to keep expectations low when Sony is producing a Marvel film because the quality post-Infinity War is unpredictable; it can be awesome like the animated Spider Verse movies, or straight up disastrous like the live action Madame Web. In some way, I think you can call this guilty pleasure like Morbius because Kelly Marcel, who cowrote the previous films in the trilogy, steps up to the director’s chair and makes an ideal blast of a comic book film. At this point, Sony stopped aiming for being amazing if the web slinger ain’t severely involved in these anti hero spinoffs, so you accept again that the quality ain’t gonna match with classics like the Sam Raimi trilogy, but Venom has proven it don’t need to be to pull off being entertaining. My case is proven here because I still had a good time when seeing this in theaters. The visual effects definitely had a big improvement compared to what we’ve seen before and the editing still sells me that every symbiote is a threat. So of course the anti hero looks just fine, but the others that join him in the climax had interesting color schemes. Mulligan’s symbiote Toxin going teal instead of a red/black mix like in the comics was a cool design, but the biggest surprise were the Xenophages who were so frightening due to their height & speed alone. Then it gets topped with Venom briefly hosting a horse and a frog. I always wanted to know how a symbiote would look on an animal, and I’m pleased with a result. I’ll just stick with my imagination on how it would look for a cockroach that the post credit scene implies. As long as these aliens looked believable to me, the action scenes pay off one by one. Having said that, I still enjoy this movie on its own because I’m still able to be reminded the importance of how vulnerability can be more of a strength than a weakness. This is the case when following dual lead for the last time that we didn’t expect to connect with as much as we have.  Tom Hardy succeeds once again in the balance of Eddie being the grounded one, whereas Venom was the open minded one due to impulsive with every opportunity that’s given. Since they don’t know this is the end of their journey, their dynamic is at their best here due to how they’re on the same page far more than before. The only legit mistake Venom makes is literally having a last dance with Chen because that lures the enemy to them. Even though their friend could’ve been in danger, you can’t blame Venom for wanting to bond with his other friend again because neither were sure when they’d see each other again. Apart from that, Venom was still on top of himself in having each other’s back and taking care everything else serious since he knew Knull was worse than Riot and Carnage combined. Because he remembered that, he does the ultimate sacrifice that I would’ve not expected. Believe it or not, it was sad for him to die because of how there was no other way to stop the Xenophages without backup like The Avengers existing in what became his new home. Eddie will miss him so much because he saved his life in more ways anyone could’ve imagined. Their time together made him want to be a better person and without him, he’s got to build new steps on his own. Since we know this is the last time we’ll see this variant of Brock, I like to believe he’ll get back on his feet again and pick up where he left off, it wouldn’t be possible without the friend he made. So if he were to get Annie back or resume being a journalist, we’ll all know who to thank. Having said that, it’s obvious this won’t be the end of Venom because not only did a sample of him survive the destruction of Area 51, but there was still another left behind in E-616/199999 as shown in No Way Home. Although the dynamic duo carries this movie, there were still other characters that shook up the plot due to their own opinions on aliens. It was neat for Rhys Ifans to make Martin the open minded kind of guy since his traveling ways have made him such, but the pair of Strickland & Teddy are the most conflicted in comparison. Chiwetel Ejiofor shows the former to be rightfully paranoid due to the symbiotes to comprehend and he is able to accept different doesn’t immediately mean dangerous before his sacrifice. As for the latter, Juno Temple shows the latter to be so versatile in her line of work to find answers before taking action. That mindset comes from how she survived a lightning strike that killed her brother when they were kids. The fact she bonded with her own symbiote, that fans would recognize to be named Agony, and uses it to save Sadie answers her own question that she was meant to save others too. Lastly, I think it goes without saying Mulligan is the biggest victim this whole movie as Stephen Graham shows the guy to be suffering so much he doesn’t have as much control the way Brock does. However, he puts whatever control to good use in protecting him the way he did first. The fact Brock survives only proves it wasn’t in vain and I’m sure the protagonist will also take that into account as he moves on with his life.

CONS: While I respect everything that was brought to the table, there were many things where I understand the disappointment other fans have felt. The biggest problem has to be the set up of Knull. Now I can say Andy Serkis nails it in making him creepy, but setting him up to be depicted a recurring threat like Thanos is pointless because it doesn’t seem like Feige is going to immediate plans after the Multiverse Saga. So this is what you call false advertising because I think his appearance would’ve been more appreciated if the marketing didn’t spoil him. Going into the main story, why would a bar in Mexico play San Francisco news? I know we need a reminder where Eddie comes from, but this exposition was so rushed in you sense it and that’s not a good thing. And Eddie knowing a judge in New York is a pointless way to get the journey started because NY judges hardly got jurisdiction in California and he should know that since he used to date an attorney. It’s even a bit hypocritical for Venom to say he draws the line with harming dogs, but doesn’t mind having other animals as his host just for travel purposes. I know he did that to help Eddie, but it’s crazy he doesn’t think of jumping onto someone else like Strickland’s goons. That even leads to me wondering if it’s supposed to count for the host to be spotted in full form if it was on the horse. Eddie was even way too lucky to defend himself underwater without Venom because he was breathing down there a long time. Moving on, it was kind of pointless for Teddy & Strickland to go through a contamination room just to go outside Mulligan’s room. If you weren’t gonna go into something possibly contagious, you don’t need to shower. We can point out all day how Strickland is a cold guy, but so was Teddy for still expecting samples to collect after Strickland pointed out he lost men to Brock. Hell, no one even sees Venom steal a suit from a drunk patron outside the casino which is ridiculous since there had to some cameras if not bystanders. I know Area 51 is depicted to be shut down before the place conveniently gets destroyed to defeat the Xenophage, but it’s so lazy for the fences to be not guarded, since they’re supposed to prevent trespassers like the Moons from finding it. It’s like they were focused on cutting them down, but stopped midway to focus on something else which is stupid in all honesty. The Moons are even lucky Blue didn’t run away during all that. If you can still ignore these issues, then you should still have a good time.
In conclusion, Venom: The Last Dance is a messy finale to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, but still a moderate conclusion to its personal trilogy due to remaining to be general entertainment. If you’ve enjoyed previous two, I hope you enjoy this as well.