Venom: The Last Dance was released on October 25, 2024, as the long-awaited finale of the Venom trilogy. The movie starred Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and the voice of Venom, Juno Temple as Dr. Teddy Payne, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Rex Strickland. At the time of writing, it earned $114 million domestically and $394.2 million globally and made a profit of $274.2 million after its $120 million budget. On its opening weekend, it only made $51 million, causing some to believe it to be a flop before its steady profit growth.
Venom: The Last Dance was a pretty good movie, but that’s all it was. As a big fan of the previous Venom movies, I was very excited about this movie’s release. But it seemed to have less of everything that made the other movies great. There were still the funny quips from Eddie and Venom, but fewer of them. The plot was still compelling, but without any development of Eddie and Venom’s relationship as a symbiote and host that the previous movies worked on and overall the movie felt like it was missing something.
However, there were still many things that made the movie worth watching. The visual effects for Venom and the monsters from his home world were great and, save for the odd scene or two, the quality was consistent. The fight scenes the trilogy is known for were still sensational and really brought the movie together. The acting was also good, especially Hardy, who is clearly dedicated to the role of Eddie. The movie was still funny, but the gloomy plot seemed to drag down the humor and make the usually funny duo grim. The trope of a character being “doomed by the narrative” was evident in the trailers and equally strong in the movie, contrasting with complaints about previous movies in the series having dark and scary trailers rather than relatively lighthearted and full of jokes and funny quips like the movie actually had.
As is typical with the doomed-by-the-narrative trope, the ending was very predictable about 30 minutes into the movie, which made the ending feel less impactful. Unfortunately, the movie also seemed to have less of the duo than I would have liked to see, given the trope. In fact, a large part of the screen time seemed to be dedicated to a new character, Dr. Teddy Payne, instead. Although Venom also focused on another female doctor, Dr. Dora Skirth, she was not the main focus of the movie. Dr. Payne got her own backstory and took screen time away from the main duo, possibly hinting at a future for her character without Eddie and Venom. Regardless of her potential future, it would’ve been nice to have more screen time for Eddie and Venom for the finale of their trilogy.
Another drawback is the apparent plot shift from Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The post-credits scene from Venom: Let There Be Carnage depicts Eddie and Venom being transported to another universe where they see Tom Holland’s Spider-man on the TV, implying a future crossover. However, the beginning of Venom: The Last Dance just throws the duo back into their universe and continues with a new storyline. This takes screen time away from the actual storyline and is unnecessary, although this may be a product of a storyline being scrapped.
Many of the things missing from the movie were there, there just wasn’t enough of them to make it great. However, many things such as the visual effects and the fight scenes were still great and improved the film as a whole. As a fan of Marvel and the previous Venom movies, I would highly recommend the movie to anyone who has also seen the previous Venom movies as it provides a very satisfying conclusion to Eddie and Venom’s story arc.
