Rounding off the Venom trilogy is Venom The Last Dance or Venom 3 as it will inevitably be called and marks the final time that Tom Hardy will play journalist Eddie Brock. With the symbiote now more his best friend than an invasive parasitic alien the pair have far more of a buddy movie feel than anything else now. Who they will battle this time is Krull (Andy Serkis talents wasted), a head bowed lank haired throne squatting layabout about on another planet sending his symbiote minions through time portals to Earth in order to recover the mystical Codex , a device that’s never really satisfactorily explained but is inside Venom’s body where it will remain until Venom or Eddie dies or the symbiotes plunder deep inside them making this a mission more suited for PDiddy than outer space aliens.
With the second film having set up a Spiderman link any hopes of his appearance are quickly dismissed ater a fleeting scene where Venom dismisses it with a, ‘ I’m so done with this multiverse shit!’ quip and becoming the standout line in the whole film. But with this dispensed with the pair make their way across the US with the symbiotes in pursuit and the pairs journey crossing the paths of the military led by Chiwetel Ejiofor , scientists led by Juno Temple), an alien hunting family led by Rhys Ifans and the returning villain of the piece from the last film Stephen Graham. Basically a whole an invasion by BAFTA actors affecting American accents.
The film does get quickly episodic by the second act with vignettes that serve only to pad it out rather than propel any narrative, most obviously a Vegas set song and dance scene to an Abba track that sees Mrs Chen (Peggy Lu) return momentarily to little effect.
The Venom films have always been second level Marvel superhero and there’s been little substance or subtext to them as the better Marvel films have had but this gallops along in a jocular (and often choppily edited) manner. Venom has the best lines to counteract Hardy’s twitchy character which drives them to a climactic scene that hopes to be far more emotional than it actually manages to achieve.
The unexpected success of the first film surprised many but the trilogy fits the unfortunate business model of ever diminishing returns and this is the right point for Hardy, who has co-written the scripts, to bow out.
End scenes? – mid-credit & end credit ( and its a long list credit wait that final final lame end credit scene)
related feature : Director Andy Serkis introduces ‘Venom : Let there be Carnage’ at the London premiere…….
related feature : Why was Carnage not the main villain in Venom?
Here’s the Venom The Last Dance trailer……
