Eddie and Venom are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo are forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie's las...
Around the time the second Venom movie came out, I completely gave up on trying to imagine the films for what they could have been instead of what they are. So I had a new mission heading into “Venom: The Last Dance”: could I accept the film for its whacky self as it dips into for its grand finale?
Once again, the answer remains ‘No’. And unfortunately, it’s not for a lack of trying.
Three movies later and these films still can’t follow through a collective narrative vision; Kelly Marcel probably suffers the most from that blowback as whatever remains of her creative vision here feels shuffling and aimless. As her first directorial outing, her off-kilter mashing of surrealism and chaos has a dampening ring to it that doesn’t feel natural here.
Even given the brief respite of having finally gotten away from the city, I’m still not a fan of how this presentation presents itself. While I wouldn’t call this production design entirely manufactured and artificial, it damn sure feels like it; ditching the 2000’s, early 2010’s retrograde approach for something all too standard and further breaking down and splintering its world-building instead of expanding on it. It feels every bit at war with itself as the screenplay and while functional, is somehow lenient with how overly restrictive and imbalanced it actually is.
Cinematography gets a tiny reprieve on account of being visually competent but it moves at a clipped speed that betrays the stop-start choppiness of what resembles a rough cut instead of a finished one. And if that wasn’t evidence enough, it’s blessed by a mercifully brief runtime sewn in so the infantile structure to grate or exhaust itself (despite its concerted efforts to try). But between the tonal inconsistencies between the middle school improv humor and darker moments of violence that don’t land, the clunky dialogue overstuffed with filler and exposition that drone on with no objection, and an all-flash no rhythm pacing that just limps on from scene to scene, not much needed to be done to exhaust itself in the end anyway.
Soundtrack is more memorable than the score (even if the song choices were questionable), costumes mean diddly dick in the grand scheme of things, its action sequences are mostly fine and the special effects shine the brightest during the final fight scene but are otherwise pretty patchy. Also, they didn’t even try working around the PG-13 rating this time, which….ok?
Upon comparing the quality of this cast to the ensemble’s of the previous two Venom films, I was dumbstruck by what the hell happened. Tom Hardy’s Bowery Boy’s act of playing the aghast, awkward loner still works showcasing his intense commitment but the talent pool of his supporting cast here are so dry, everybody looks like a saucer full of rotten milk. Juno Temple makes the most out of her milquetoast character but the rest aren’t so lucky; how you acquire the likes of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Rhys Ifans and give them barely anything to do is baffling.
Ok, how does Sony keep outdoing themselves with stories THIS HEATLESS? These Venom movie’s lack of portentousness have proven to be massive selling points for the series for how deliberately messy they are but even that unorthodox has an expiration date….and this film’s story, or the lack thereof, is the equivalent of throwing a corpse down a well to freshen up the towns drinking water.
The narrative is completely impersonal, retreading familiar ground and making utter mincemeat of what should’ve been authentic tension and identifiable stakes. Ambition comes a distant second in terms of priorities, barely tying together its myriad of loose strings into a tedious whole while the legitimately entertaining bits like the Venom horse or the Rhys Ifans family are swatted away so quickly or causally, they barely even register or I forget it even happened and I got a pretty sharp memory. The damn film makes no room and refuses to make time to flesh out anything it sets up in exchange for its trademarketed B-movie silliness and I’ve said it once with Madame Web so you bet I’ll say it again: being so-bad-it’s-good on purpose leads to absolute jackrabbit nonsense, which would be alright….if the patchwork story illustrated some sort of purpose to justify its title and premise.
But instead, all we get are weak gestures and finger pointing towards trying to understand morality and stages of regret without earning the credence of an emotional farewell and because so little is accomplished in this cheap arcade experience, you actually feel robbed when they actively deny you the catharsis of a proper emotional send-off between Eddie and Venom. The final act had enough pieces in place to where I actually wanted to entertain the movie and give in to what it wanted me to feel but the phoned-in journey to get there nullified all that “progress”, especially considering it doesn’t really build up to its climax that well. At least the first two Venom films were semi-coherent enough to combine its plot-threads together and build to a climax.
Guys, I’ve tried to take these films for what they are at face value; believe me when I tell you that. Vibes are just as important to the art of filmmaking as the craftsmanship and the story that help build that monument together and I’m wholly guilty of succumbing to those factors countless of times. But there are much better movies worthy of the guilty pleasure title than this one. I get the central idea here of dancing in the face of death when you know the end is nigh but even with an occasional chuckle here and there, that no-fucks-given energy runs dry faster than your Oxygen levels in the Water Temple of Ocarina of Time.
In a day and age where superhero films like Deadpool and Wolverine succeeding are starting to become the exception and not the rule, “Venom: The Last Dance” is another sobering reminder why no matter how much it puffs out its chest and chows down on sloppy seconds, what works for one won’t always work for the other.
