REVIEW: Venom: The Last Dance – This Final Farewell Is A Disjointed And Ugly Affair

When Borderlands came out earlier this year, alarm bells started going off in my head when the film began with some of the laziest plot exposition I could remember seeing. The unfortunate few who saw the film (I say this because of how catastrophically the film performed at the box-office) will know what a disaster that turned out to be. It seems that I would relive that same nightmare when I sat down for Venom: The Last Dance, the final installment in what will be one of many of Spider-Man villain spin-off films from Sony. The film starts off with baggy context rammed straight down your throat and before you’ve even begun only spirals down further into a disjointed and ugly mess.

 Sony Pictures 

My very first thought as soon as I came out was one of the worst things you can say about any film: ”I wouldn’t say I hated it, I just didn’t like it at all”. As harsh as it may sound – and since the film does the same thing anyway- I won’t do a plot summary of the previous two films as you are expected to remember the events that previously took place, which I barely did, if I’m honest. We are reunited once more with ‘Eddie Brock’ (Tom Hardy), as he and ‘Venom’ are forced to go on the run, being pursued by forces on Earth as well as alien, for an item in their possession. With time gradually running out, the two are forced to make a choice that may mean the end of their relationship.

My relationship with the Venom franchise is, to say the least, a bit fractious. While I’ve found the films watchable, they gradually fizzled out without leaving much of an impression; my interest slowly waned. Venom: The Last Dance serves as an unremarkable and frankly underwhelming farewell to the series. With the exception of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (notably excluding the disappointing third installment), Sony’s superhero attempts often fall flat. While this isn’t as disastrous as Morbius or Madame Web, I can’t say I’m entirely on board with it.

Despite dedicated enough performances and emotional elements that are quite well-done, that was not enough to save this from being lazily and distractingly constructed with the added and unwanted baggage of poor CGI. However, for all the flaws this has, I think my biggest gripe with these films is that I have never been able to tell who they are supposed to be aimed at. They are all slightly too violent for a young audience, but nowhere near dark or violent enough for an older audience. Despite all three films having a 15 certificate, it still feels like an unsure bag of both 12 and 15 when I watch them.

They should have stuck with an R-rating from the beginning. That being said, all Venom films have made more than enough money anyway so it is clearly just me who thinks this. For some odd and peculiar reason, part of me is surprisingly excited about the forthcoming Kraven: The Hunter (another Spider-Man spinoff), mainly due to the fact that it looks quite entertaining and is set to be far more straightforward than Venom with the film going for a no nonsense, flesh-ripping R rating. At least it looks like it knows what it should be, so fingers crossed. It must be said, I can’t say that I will miss these films all that much.

In cinemas now.

5/10