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Update: October 22, 2024
Dragonlord’s Review of VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (Spoilers)
Bottom Line: If Sony Pictures set the Knull storyline from the very first 2018 movie, Venom: The Last Dance would have been a more satisfying viewing experience instead of feeling like a retconned, hastily put-together threequel.
[Warning: The review contains open spoilers but the movie is not that good or worth watching that you might as well read the spoilers.]
Venom: The Last Dance opens with an exposition prologue on the origin of the alien symbiotes. Apparently they were created by Knull, a powerful deity who was betrayed by his own Symbiote creations and then trapped in some desolate world. For some reason, Venom carries the Matrix of Leadership, I mean, the All Spark, I mean the Codex within him and is the key to freeing Knull from his prison. It’s not properly explained how Knull can’t escape his prison when he has an army of super powerful creatures called Xenophage at his disposal or how Knull can effortlessly create intergalactic portals with ease. Even for a popcorn comic book movie, you have to double shut down your brain for this film to overlook some questionable elements in it.
Remember when they teased a Venom crossover with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in the post-credits scenes from Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home? Well It turned to be a bunch of nothing burger as Eddie Brock/Venom is sent back to the Sony Spider-Man universe with nothing to show for it. Eddie/Venom’s multiverse trip somehow alerted Knull to their presence and teleports only one Xenophage (even though he controls so many Xenophage) to Venom’s location. While in Mexico, Eddie/Venom sees a televised news report where he’s wanted by the authorities In San Francisco in relation to what happened in Venom 2. Eddie says they need to lie low and thinks they should go to somewhere where no one would look for them. Despite being already in Mexico, they decide to go to New York City. Couldn’t the writers (Tom Hardy himself and director Kelly Marcel) at least put some modicum of effort in trying to make a cohesive movie.
The Xenophage tracked and attacked Eddie/Venom while riding on top of an airliner. Eddie/Venom barely managed to escape from the Xenophage. It’s revealed later that whenever Venom fully transforms into his full form, the Xenophage can instantly locate the Codex energy signature within Venom. So Venom tells Eddie that they should not transform into the full Venom form at all cost. But when they meet their friend Mrs. Chen in Last Vegas, Venom disregards all logic and changes into his full Venom form so that he can dance. The Xenophage naturally shows up a few seconds later. There’s so many lapses in logic just to move the plot along.
There’s also a special forces unit from Area 51 that is hunting Venom. They already have several symbiotes in their custody and being studied. They allowed a symbiote to merge with the almost dead cop from the end of Venom 2 so that they can interview the alien symbiote. The special forces managed to capture Eddie/Venom and returned back to their base. The Xenophage ends up on the base and all hell breaks loose. The other symbiotes escaped and merged with the humans to fight the Xenophage. Most of the symbiotes are killed in the battle. Knull sends more Xenophage to the fray. Venom sacrificed himself to drag all the Xenophage to the hyperacid shower to kill them. Venom apparently died also. In appreciation of his help in fighting the Xenophage, Eddie is cleared of all charges from the government and is a free man. Eddie goes to New York and reminisce about the times he spent with Venom. And the movie ends.
I am not a big fan of Sony’s Venom franchise and I don’t have any sentimental attachments to Eddie and Venom in this Sony universe. That’s one of the major reasons why I wasn’t really invested in what was going on with the characters in Venom: The Last Dance. And I have to admit that every fiber of my being just rejects this Venom franchise because I have always believed that Venom should be introduced as a villain and as a Spider-Man foe. So that might explain my bias against the film. With that said, I did somewhat enjoy Eddie and Venom’s relationship in here and their interaction with each other. Venom looked adorable when it was on high alert after finding out a Xenophage was after them. And if I was attached to the character, Venom’s sacrifice play at the end would have moved me more.
Fans of the first two Venom movies and fans of symbiotes in the comic books will probably find this film more enjoyable than me. They’ll certainly have a blast when the Klyntar (the different colored symbiotes) shows up. But since they didn’t set this up in the first movie, the notion of good and noble symbiotes felt out of the blue since it was established in the first movie that the symbiotes are alien monsters searching for planets to devour their inhabitants. In the big fight at the end, one of the symbiotes managed to chop a Xenophage's head by using a blade from a chopper. They really nerfed the symbiotes here because all they did was just stab the Xenophage multiple times instead of using their appendages to form into a big scythe and slice the Xenophage's head.
The Xenophage as a Terminator-type symbiote hunter worked for me a bit. I especially liked the way they dispose of their prey when they eat them and blood and body parts rapidly fly out of the back of the creature’s head like a lawnmower or woodchipper. But seriously, if Venom just didn't change into his full form, he would have been practically invisible and would have been able to avoid detection for decades. Venom transferring to different animals was cute. The horse Venom sequence was fun. Venom dancing with Mrs. Chen was charming. The hippie family that Eddie meets midway and how they come into play at the end felt unnatural and forced. Venom standing straight doesn’t work. For me, he looks better hunched. Knull’s appearance at the beginning felt like the beginning of The Rise of Skywalker where they just shoehorned the Palpatine storyline. Knull was treated like Thanos before Infinity War where we just watch him sitting down.
There are two post-credits scenes. The mid-credits scene show Knull back in his homeworld vowing to destroy Earth. I don’t know what Sony is planning to do with this but it’s a safe bet that they don’t really have concrete plans for Knull and just like their approach in making these Spider-Man spinoff movies, they’re just throwing anything at the wall and hoping one of them will stick. Too bad because Knull looked good, like a white-out vampire version of Iggy Pop and it would have been interesting if they did an MCU version of The King in Black event. The other post-credits scene shows the bartender (Dani Rojas from Ted Lasso) that was detained at the base, alive and escaping the base.
I hope this is one of the final steps in Sony abandoning their stupid Spider-Man spinoff movies where they give Spider-Man villains their own movies and make them the good guys. It’s like Sony got hold of the Masters of the Universe rights and decide to give Skeletor, Beast Man and Evil-Lyn their own solo movies and making them anti-heroes. So fingers crossed that this indeed the last dance (yeah right).
RATING: 5/10
(Please leave a Like if you appreciate my reviews. Thanks.
)
Dragonlord’s Review of VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (Spoilers)
Bottom Line: If Sony Pictures set the Knull storyline from the very first 2018 movie, Venom: The Last Dance would have been a more satisfying viewing experience instead of feeling like a retconned, hastily put-together threequel.
[Warning: The review contains open spoilers but the movie is not that good or worth watching that you might as well read the spoilers.]
Venom: The Last Dance opens with an exposition prologue on the origin of the alien symbiotes. Apparently they were created by Knull, a powerful deity who was betrayed by his own Symbiote creations and then trapped in some desolate world. For some reason, Venom carries the Matrix of Leadership, I mean, the All Spark, I mean the Codex within him and is the key to freeing Knull from his prison. It’s not properly explained how Knull can’t escape his prison when he has an army of super powerful creatures called Xenophage at his disposal or how Knull can effortlessly create intergalactic portals with ease. Even for a popcorn comic book movie, you have to double shut down your brain for this film to overlook some questionable elements in it.
Remember when they teased a Venom crossover with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in the post-credits scenes from Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home? Well It turned to be a bunch of nothing burger as Eddie Brock/Venom is sent back to the Sony Spider-Man universe with nothing to show for it. Eddie/Venom’s multiverse trip somehow alerted Knull to their presence and teleports only one Xenophage (even though he controls so many Xenophage) to Venom’s location. While in Mexico, Eddie/Venom sees a televised news report where he’s wanted by the authorities In San Francisco in relation to what happened in Venom 2. Eddie says they need to lie low and thinks they should go to somewhere where no one would look for them. Despite being already in Mexico, they decide to go to New York City. Couldn’t the writers (Tom Hardy himself and director Kelly Marcel) at least put some modicum of effort in trying to make a cohesive movie.
The Xenophage tracked and attacked Eddie/Venom while riding on top of an airliner. Eddie/Venom barely managed to escape from the Xenophage. It’s revealed later that whenever Venom fully transforms into his full form, the Xenophage can instantly locate the Codex energy signature within Venom. So Venom tells Eddie that they should not transform into the full Venom form at all cost. But when they meet their friend Mrs. Chen in Last Vegas, Venom disregards all logic and changes into his full Venom form so that he can dance. The Xenophage naturally shows up a few seconds later. There’s so many lapses in logic just to move the plot along.
There’s also a special forces unit from Area 51 that is hunting Venom. They already have several symbiotes in their custody and being studied. They allowed a symbiote to merge with the almost dead cop from the end of Venom 2 so that they can interview the alien symbiote. The special forces managed to capture Eddie/Venom and returned back to their base. The Xenophage ends up on the base and all hell breaks loose. The other symbiotes escaped and merged with the humans to fight the Xenophage. Most of the symbiotes are killed in the battle. Knull sends more Xenophage to the fray. Venom sacrificed himself to drag all the Xenophage to the hyperacid shower to kill them. Venom apparently died also. In appreciation of his help in fighting the Xenophage, Eddie is cleared of all charges from the government and is a free man. Eddie goes to New York and reminisce about the times he spent with Venom. And the movie ends.
I am not a big fan of Sony’s Venom franchise and I don’t have any sentimental attachments to Eddie and Venom in this Sony universe. That’s one of the major reasons why I wasn’t really invested in what was going on with the characters in Venom: The Last Dance. And I have to admit that every fiber of my being just rejects this Venom franchise because I have always believed that Venom should be introduced as a villain and as a Spider-Man foe. So that might explain my bias against the film. With that said, I did somewhat enjoy Eddie and Venom’s relationship in here and their interaction with each other. Venom looked adorable when it was on high alert after finding out a Xenophage was after them. And if I was attached to the character, Venom’s sacrifice play at the end would have moved me more.
Fans of the first two Venom movies and fans of symbiotes in the comic books will probably find this film more enjoyable than me. They’ll certainly have a blast when the Klyntar (the different colored symbiotes) shows up. But since they didn’t set this up in the first movie, the notion of good and noble symbiotes felt out of the blue since it was established in the first movie that the symbiotes are alien monsters searching for planets to devour their inhabitants. In the big fight at the end, one of the symbiotes managed to chop a Xenophage's head by using a blade from a chopper. They really nerfed the symbiotes here because all they did was just stab the Xenophage multiple times instead of using their appendages to form into a big scythe and slice the Xenophage's head.
The Xenophage as a Terminator-type symbiote hunter worked for me a bit. I especially liked the way they dispose of their prey when they eat them and blood and body parts rapidly fly out of the back of the creature’s head like a lawnmower or woodchipper. But seriously, if Venom just didn't change into his full form, he would have been practically invisible and would have been able to avoid detection for decades. Venom transferring to different animals was cute. The horse Venom sequence was fun. Venom dancing with Mrs. Chen was charming. The hippie family that Eddie meets midway and how they come into play at the end felt unnatural and forced. Venom standing straight doesn’t work. For me, he looks better hunched. Knull’s appearance at the beginning felt like the beginning of The Rise of Skywalker where they just shoehorned the Palpatine storyline. Knull was treated like Thanos before Infinity War where we just watch him sitting down.
There are two post-credits scenes. The mid-credits scene show Knull back in his homeworld vowing to destroy Earth. I don’t know what Sony is planning to do with this but it’s a safe bet that they don’t really have concrete plans for Knull and just like their approach in making these Spider-Man spinoff movies, they’re just throwing anything at the wall and hoping one of them will stick. Too bad because Knull looked good, like a white-out vampire version of Iggy Pop and it would have been interesting if they did an MCU version of The King in Black event. The other post-credits scene shows the bartender (Dani Rojas from Ted Lasso) that was detained at the base, alive and escaping the base.
I hope this is one of the final steps in Sony abandoning their stupid Spider-Man spinoff movies where they give Spider-Man villains their own movies and make them the good guys. It’s like Sony got hold of the Masters of the Universe rights and decide to give Skeletor, Beast Man and Evil-Lyn their own solo movies and making them anti-heroes. So fingers crossed that this indeed the last dance (yeah right).
RATING: 5/10
(Please leave a Like if you appreciate my reviews. Thanks.
)
