VENOM : THE LAST DANCE - Tuesday 5th November 2024

I saw the M Rated 'VENOM : THE LAST DANCE' at my local multiplex earlier this week, and this American Superhero film features the Marvel Comics character Venom, is the sequel to 2018's 'Venom' and 2022's 'Venom : Let There Be Carnage' and is the fifth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe. Those first two instalments grossed a combined US$1.36B off the back of a total production budget of US$220M, with the first film in the franchise being Directed by Ruben Fleischer and the second by Andy Serkis. This third and seemingly final offering is Written and Directed by Kelly Marcel in her feature film making debut. The film was released in the US and here in Australia a couple of weeks now now, cost US$120M to produce, has so far grossed US$326M and has generated mixed critical reviews.

Here then, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy once again reprising his role and also taking a Writer and a Co-Producer credit) and his symbiote Venom are on the run down Mexico way getting drunk in some street bar, following their recent battle with Carnage. The murder of Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham) one of New York City's finest cops, makes international headlines with Eddie being named the prime suspect on national television which he sees just as he is exiting the bar, forcing him to set out to New York City in an attempt to clear his name. 

Unknown at this stage to both of them, a creature known as a Xenophage has begun tracking Eddie and Venom. The recent events draw the attention of Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a soldier who oversees Imperium, a secret government operation at the site of the very soon-to-be-decommissioned Area 51 in Nevada some 130kms north of Las Vegas, for the capture and study of other symbiotes that have come to Earth. 

Mulligan, it is revealed survived his encounter with Carnage, is captured after being left for dead by another symbiote, who eluded Strickland's soldiers. He is bonded with one of many other contained symbiotes and questioned by Imperium researchers Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple) and Sadie Christmas (Clark Backo), to learn about the symbiotes' purpose on Earth before Strickland is ordered to take Eddie and Venom down. 

Eddie and Venom cling onto the side of an aeroplane bound for New York City when they are attacked by a Xenophage who has been tracking them. A fight breaks out with many of the passengers inside the aircraft watching on in horror at the scene unfolding on the outside at 40,000 feet. Eddie and Venom lurch themselves off the plane, with Venom forming a parachute so that they can glide back down to the ground with a soft landing, which they do in the middle of desert terrain. 

Venom explains to Eddie that Xenophages were unleashed into the universe by Knull (an unrecognisable Andy Serkis), the creator of the symbiotes, to retrieve a Codex, which is forged only when a symbiote resurrects its host. This can free Knull from the prison the symbiotes trapped him in a very long time ago. Because Venom revived Eddie once before, he now carries a Codex that the Xenophage has now tracked to Earth. 

After being ambushed by Strickland and his team while barely escaping from them and the Xenophage, Eddie meets Martin Moon (Rhys Ifans), his wife Nova (Alanna Ubach) and his young son and teenage daughter of traveling hippies and alien enthusiasts who offer him a free ride to Las Vegas on their way to Area 51 for a last ditch attempt to find signs of alien life there. Meanwhile, Mulligan's new symbiote informs Strickland of Knull's intentions with the Codex, which can only be destroyed if either Eddie or Venom dies.

Arriving in Las Vegas, Eddie and Venom run into Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) at a casino on vacation and Venom shares a dance with her before being abruptly ambushed by the Xenophage again in her penthouse suite. Strickland's team of crack soldiers arrives, separates Venom from Eddie and flies them to Area 51 where Eddie is reunited with Mulligan. Sadie frees Venom, who re-bonds with Eddie after Strickland shoots him. This attracts the Xenophage to the base, killing Mulligan. Venom has the other confined symbiotes released, which bond with Sadie and other hosts to fight off the Xenophage, who has signalled to Knull that the Codex has been located. Knull sends more Xenophages through portals to Earth, overwhelming the symbiotes. 

Realising he must sacrifice himself to destroy the Codex and save the universe, Venom merges with the Xenophages, leads them into a nearby acid shower, and bids Eddie farewell before ejecting him. Strickland, mortally wounded from a Xenophage attack and being in too close a proximity to the acid shower raining down, pulls the pin on his grenades to destroy them and destroy Area 51 in a giant ball of flame. Payne bonds with a symbiote to save Sadie from the explosion while Eddie falls unconscious as the base burns to the ground.

Sometime later, Eddie comes round in a hospital bed, where a military officer informs Eddie that his actions with Venom at Area 51 have earned him an expungement, under the condition of keeping the events that unfolded there a secret until the day he dies, or risk being imprisoned in the coldest darkest place on Earth. Arriving in New York City, Eddie gazes at the Statue of Liberty, which he said he would take Venom to see, while remembering his former 'buddy'. 

'Venom : The Last Dance' is entertaining enough if your fan of the first two instalments in this franchise, or a fan of Tom Hardy or both, and is an enjoyable popcorn film that delivers on the thrills, spills and kills, has a few moments of emotion, a couple of laugh out loud moments and never takes itself too seriously. This movie is exactly what you would expect it to be - rather disposable and nothing that is really fresh out of the box that we haven't already seen, but for first time feature filmmaking Director Kelly Marcel she has turned in a serviceable conclusion to this franchise that overall in terms of global Box Office take has to date amassed US$1.69B off the back of budgets totalling US$340M, so I guess is a worthwhile exercise for Sony and Marvel. 

'Venom : The Last Dance' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

    

-Steve, at Odeon Online-