20 hours ago2 min read

FILM REVIEW: VENOM – THE LAST DANCE (15) ESP RATING: 2/5

What has happened to superhero film ingenuity?

It seems that Endgame was literally the beginning of the end when it came to the genre – as since then it has mostly been very predictable cinematic fodder.

This is no different. In fact it’s pretty boring stuff.

And if you’re not a fan of the comedic banter between Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his Venom symbiote – which is wearing a bit thin – then this gets stale pretty quickly.

The first two efforts – which weren’t anything special – were both actually marginally better than this. Which ends this trilogy on a bit of a whimper.

After the murder of Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham) makes international headlines, Eddie is named as the prime suspect, leaving him and Venom – who imbues him with super-human abilities – on the run (from Mexico to California), with government operative Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) hot on his trail.

Strickland works for a secret project called Imperium – headed by Juno Temple’s Dr Teddy Payne – which is about to decommission the iconic Area 51 site, to enable the capture and study of other symbiotes (other forms like Venom have been picked up along the way) that have ended up on Earth.

But to throw a spanner in the works, Knull (Andy Serkis), the creator of the symbiotes, is pulling Thanos-esque strings from afar. He sends ugly Rancor-looking creatures, called Xenophages, to track Venom, who carries an important codex, that once captured, will free him from his otherworldly prison.

A token family – led by Rhys Ifans’s Martin – are also thrown in. But that proves to be a bizarre ‘red herring’ as Ifans played The Lizard in the first Andrew Garfield film, which briefly indicates a potentially exciting Spider-Man link. But it sadly doesn’t come to fruition as he’s a completely different character here. And Venom has a weirdly awkward dance scene with convenience store owner Mrs Chen (Peggy Lu) – who starred in the previous two films – in Las Vegas. Which is as uncomfortable as it is wildly unnecessary. In fact, a lot of the film feels ‘padded’ like the script was hurriedly pieced together with very little thought.

It all leads to a multiple symbiote battle climax – after a generally sometimes slow and monotonous build – that is passably entertaining. But still rather messy.

Sadly, the film pretty much has to coast on the aforementioned Eddie/Venom dynamic to pull it through its predictable ‘seen it all before across multiple superhero films’ storyline.

Which means the only thing that could really save this character now is a Spider-Man Universe teaming with his namesake Tom Holland and his alter-ego.

Because as it stands, this is a very underwhelming last dance for Hardy and Venom.

Rating: 2/5

Gavin Miller