Venom: The Last Dance Review

Comic book movies have come a long way in the past 50 years, all the way from “you’ll believe a man can fly” to “you’ll believe a horse can Venom.” And if you saw that four-legged monstrosity in the trailer for Venom: The Last Dance and started hooting and hollering, you can rest easy knowing Tom Hardy’s third tango with a symbiote will likely deliver just what you’re hoping for. The Last Dance tests Hardy’s chemistry with himself in a road trip movie that wholly embraces the deeply weird tone established by this Spider-Man-without-Spider-Man spinoff franchise. Where The Last Dance really trips up is how it supports that tone, with a terribly formulaic plot that makes this superhero hangout movie a tougher hang than it could’ve been.

The major draw remains Tom Hardy’s dual, dueling performances as Eddie Brock and Venom, and the bickering chemistry the actor has built up with himself through the first two films... which is ironic, given the themes of symbiosis in play. With forces both terrestrial and extraterrestrial out to separate Eddie and his symbiote buddy, Hardy plays up the former’s addled, paranoid tics and tense physicality harder than ever, and you get the sense that he’s constantly on the brink of a breakdown. Eddie’s not completely willing to let himself become one with Venom, and his struggle with the uglier side of being a “lethal protector” represents The Last Dance’s only reliable source of drama.