Big Picture Big Sound

Trip the Light Gymnastic

With live-action Spiderman snared firmly in a web with Marvel and the Disney Mothership, Sony has been testing the waters with a variety of adjacent characters and Ips. The Animated Spider-verse films ("Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," "Across the Spider-Verse," and "Beyond the Spider-Verse") have been triumphant creative, critical, and box office successes. "Morbius "and Madam Web...MUCH less so. "Venom: The Last Dance," like the rest of the Venom franchise before it, lands somewhere in between. It continues to struggle with the recipe for success but never forgets to add the secret ingredient: the best and oddest Odd Couple of Eddie Brock and the symbiote sharing his mind and body, Venom - both played by Tom Hardy ("Mad Max: Fury Road"). While Venom has never swung to the heights of the Spider-verse, the Eddie/Venom relationship continues to be as strong as spider silk and keeps these films from the dustbin of history. Director Kelly Marcel, who moves from the writer's room of the first two "Venom" films to her first stint in the director's chair here, has done a reasonable job of keeping the film together despite some rough edges.

After some cold-open exposition - a frustrating hallmark of the series - establishes the new big bad villain (not Thanos!) and the codex (not infinity stones!) he seeks, "Venom: The Last Dance" picks up right where 2021's "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" left off. Eddie and Venom are hiding out in a bar somewhere in Mexico on the MCU's "Earth 616," at a time when the multiverse was still a thing. Dispatching with the multiverse angle post-haste (and with an amusing fourth wall wink, if not a break) they return to their home universe and discover lingering consequences from the big final fight at the end of "Carnage." Naturally, this means that they must set out to find a way to clear Eddie's name.

"The Last Dance" wastes no time in putting its antagonists in play: the unstoppable Xenophage (alien/dog/woodchipper creatures, for the uninitiated) are shown in the aforementioned big bad villain exposition, and they quickly hunt down Eddie and Venom due to the incredibly convenient homing beacon on the codex that turns on whenever Eddie fully transforms into Venom. There is also a shadowy government operation that can, also conveniently, tap into literally any CCTV feed to positively ID Eddie/Venom and send a team of faceless spec ops led by Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor, "12 Years a Slave") to "take him down." The ensuing fight scenes are interesting, but it's really good fun to watch the spec ops guys try to take down the Xenophage, as it quickly demonstrates the aforementioned woodchipper functionality. Strickland is joined by Dr. Payne (Juno Temple, Ted Lasso), a scientist with a tortured backstory and leader of the secret project Imperium, which is gathering and studying other examples of Venom's symbiote species.

Because Eddie/Venom are on something of a road trip - when they're not fighting spec ops and unstoppable aliens, that is - film law requires that they meet quirky people along their journey. Enter hippie and alien enthusiast Martin Moon (Rhys Ifans, House of the Dragon) and his family, who are journeying to the soon-to-be-decommissioned Area 51 in the hope that they can see some aliens. It just so happens that Imperium is hidden under the Area 51 site - again, it's all very convenient. After a stopover in Las Vegas that feels like it was made solely for giggles and clips on YouTube, everyone ends up back at the Imperium site for the big alien vs. alien fight at the finish line.

Ultimately, "Venom: The Last Dance" struggles to feel cohesive. It's mostly a series of action set pieces with a basic "we're going to New York to clear my name" plot contrivance tying them together. I will concede that several of those action set pieces are interesting and well-structured. However, the bad guys can track Eddie/Venom with magically perfect speed and accuracy, so any distance covered and story progress made is rendered moot. Plus, the Xenophages are so blunt that they're not really scary - yes, they are unstoppable, but all they really do is try to woodchip everything and stab everyone blindly with pointy tentacles. They're a bit boring after the second time you see them; never mind that the trick to fool them is so easy yet fully effective that they quickly devolve into alien Keystone Cops. The B-story with Martin and his family is at times amusing, but if it were cut entirely from the movie nothing would truly be lost other than a David Bowie singalong which may or may not be cringey. The other main characters are not given much to do, which is a shame as Ejiofor and Temple have both proven themselves capable in other roles, but here they just watch things happen for the most part.

It's fair to say that, unlike its titular hero, this film is not more than the sum of its parts. But, if you are here for that titular hero, then you will probably come out after 90 minutes feeling satisfied - just as you did with the first two films. Hardy has said that he's only on a three-picture deal, but he's also said he's open to coming back to the character in the future. If he does, I'm hoping we can see more of his take on the Lethal Protector.