Title: Venom: The Last Dance
Director: Kelly Marcel
Rating: PG-13
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Duration: 1h 50min
Stars: Tom Hardy, Chitiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple
Tom Hardy once again returns as Eddie Brock in the latest installment of the Venom franchise – Venom: The Last Dance.
Investigative journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) along with his symbiote companion, Venom are on the run after authorities find detective Patrick Mulligan’s dead body in a cathedral at San Francisco. This is the least of Brock’s worries however, as one of the most powerful villains in venom-verse has sent his Xenophage army to retrieve a key that can grant the imprisoned villain his freedom.
In this third installment, the friendship between Eddie and his symbiote has grown deeper after surviving one too many life-threatening experiences together which is shown through their conversations of casual banter, cursing and occasional deep reflection, although their levels of mutual respect towards each other could be argued.
Despite it being a superhero movie, Director Kelly Marcel did not properly execute its climax, that is, when Venom fights against the xenophage army, which is most likely due to the plot focusing heavily on escaping rather than fighting. Consequentially, Venom’s final fight felt predictable and lacked the adrenaline rush that comes with seeing a hero go up against bad guys.
Venom: The Last Dance also introduces audiences to the concept of a Codex – a piece of symbiotic material created when a symbiote saves the life of its host. Although this knowledge is not new to avid comic book readers, it may be new information to movie watchers. Such introduction to new material if not executed well can confuse those unfamiliar with the Marvel Universe. This also applies to the introduction of new characters on screen.
Venom, similar to Deadpool, destroys the cliche do-gooder trope and is instead an anti-hero with a sort-of moral-compass.
Tom Hardy’s chemistry with himself playing the character Eddie Brock and voicing Venom simultaneously, is impeccable and hilarious.
Rating-wise, I believe the film’s current stance being PG-13 is not proper because of mild inappropriate language used as well as blood and gore. Perhaps audiences 17 and above would be more suitable for a movie such as Venom: The Last Dance.
All in all, if you wish to watch Venom: The Last Dance and not be disappointed, I highly recommend you watch purely for entertainment instead of critiquing for maximum enjoyment.