The final chapter of the cynical symbiote and his host friend's misadventures has hit the screens. What 'Venom: The Last Dance' turned out to be — read on in our review.
Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and Venom return to their home universe after the multiverse collapse caused by Peter Parker in the film. Upon arrival, they learn that things are bad: they are blamed for the murder of Detective Mulligan (Stephen Graham). Eddie comes up with a crazy plan: go to New York to blackmail a judge and clear his name.
On December 15, 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' was released, the main Marvel blockbuster this year. The most anticipated project of winter. The most large-scale Spider-Man film. The most, the most
Open materialBut the pair can't get to the Big Apple without trouble. During transport a la Tom Cruise in the fifth 'Mission: Impossible', they are attacked by a monster sent by the creator of symbiotes Knull (Andy Serkis). But the friends' problems don't end there — Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor), commander of the top-secret program 'Imperium', declares a hunt on them.
About the third 'Venom' film, you can say the same as about the previous two parts. You can again praise the on-screen chemistry between Tom Hardy and his CGI partner, once again mock the stupid script, but ultimately conclude that the movie is tolerable but mediocre.
'Venom' hardly changes from film to film. And it doesn't matter who sits in the director's chair; the result remains the same. But the context of each part's release differs quite a bit.
The hype around the first film was driven by high audience interest in the genre as a whole, thanks to 'Avengers: Infinity War'. The sequel performed weaker but came out on the eve of 'No Way Home', a fan-service crossover where many expected to see the symbiote, Spider-Man's archenemy. And — oh miracle! — it happened: Eddie Brock indeed moved to the MCU universe.
But, as they say, the song didn't last long, nor did Venom dance. The journey to Kevin Feige was limited to two post-credits scenes, then the characters safely returned under the wing of Amy Pascal in Sony's film franchise. Their neighbors there were the hopelessly awful 'Madame Web' and 'Morbius'.
Moreover, last year superhero fatigue reached its peak. A clear demonstration is the box office failures of major genre new releases. This trend only grows over the years, although there are exceptions, like .
The new 'Venom' simply had bad luck coming out in 2024. After all, it's not the worst superhero movie. At least it's far better than the aforementioned 'Madame Web': it certainly can't be called boring. But on the other hand, there's nothing to praise about 'The Last Dance' either.
The story is a set of low-grade clichés. This is best seen in the villain. Sony, apparently, will mold Knull into their own Thanos, but so far they've got a faceless thing, like Malekith from the second 'Thor'. The character played by Andy Serkis is an unremarkable 'big evil' without clear ideology or motivation. However, he's also catastrophically underused here.
The human antagonist — Rick Strickland — also cannot be called even remotely interesting: a run-of-the-mill soldier acting by the book and fearing an alien invasion. Compared to him, even Colonel Quaritch from is the height of screenwriting skill. Interestingly, he is played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Baron Mordo from the 'Doctor Strange' films. And this fact is not played upon in the film, even ironically.
In mid-December, the long-awaited (really long wait) 'Avatar: The Way of Water' was released worldwide — the sequel to the highest-grossing hit of thirteen years ago. Director James Cameron
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However, the Venom trilogy has never been known for well-written villains. But with the main characters in the third film, the situation is, alas, depressing. Here, though, it's not about clichés. In previous parts, the chemistry between them was based on, if you will, the codependent nature of their relationship. Venom and Eddie constantly argued, came together and parted. In the third film, they have already formed a well-coordinated tandem.
The question arises, what's wrong with that? It turned out that without this conflict with mandatory reconciliation at the end, the on-screen chemistry doesn't work as well. When Eddie (without the symbiote) has to kill a person due to circumstances, he, of course, starts grumbling at his partner, but this line abruptly ends at that point.
Returning to the theme of script primitivism and narrative vulgarities, the characters in 'The Last Dance' are also carriers of a 'MacGuffin' called the Codex. It appeared in Venom when he saved Brock's life in the first film. So why do we only learn about it now? Rhetorical question.
With this Codex, Knull can be freed from his imprisonment on Klyntar. Convenient, isn't it? It would be even better if he himself dumped all this expositional nonsense on the audience, — thought screenwriter Kelly Marcel and, without hesitation, added it at the very beginning, — let it be a faux pas, but at least it's pompous!
But if you turn off your brain and close your eyes to the huge plot holes, the new 'Venom' wins you over with its spectacle. The very first action scene to the song Hold the line delights with its drive and staging. And there are plenty of such moments. The dance of the symbiote and Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) to the immortal hit of ABBA is simply a masterpiece destined to go viral as memes.
The only thing that disappoints from this perspective is the traditional CGI mess at the end, but this is compensated by the scale of what's happening on screen. I don't think it's necessary to resort to spoilers; I'll just say that there are plenty of references for fans of frame-by-frame analysis.
However, no matter how good these individual fragments are, the overall picture is rather disappointing. It would be appropriate here to draw a parallel with the main comic book movie of 2024 — 'Deadpool & Wolverine'. Essentially, it's the same product from a soulless money-making conveyor belt, the same set of fan service mixed with stand-up, but at least it's skillfully put together.
But 'Venom: The Last Dance' is a corporate product without a shred of originality. It leaves no vivid emotions and risks fading from memory within an hour after viewing. Even the ending, which exploits an obvious technique to move the viewer, doesn't save the situation.
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