Reviews for Venom: The Last Dance are in, and the third installment in Tom Hardy’s anti-hero franchise seems to be impressing very few critics. Since the financial and critical failure that was Madame Web, the Sony cinematic Spider-Man universe is in desperate need of an unequivocal hit. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Venom: The Last Dance is going to do the trick, continuing the second film’s trend of worse reviews compared to its predecessor.
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The strength of the Tom Hardy Venom trilogy has always been the dynamic between Eddie Brock and his titular symbiote. While their chemistry is allegedly as good as ever in the threequel, it’s no longer enough to carry such a weighty, ambitious story. That’s not even to mention the technical filmmaking issues several reviewers have taken issue with. If Venom: The Last Dance‘s box office numbers can’t surpass its woeful reviews, sitting at 38% on Rottentomaties.com at the time of writing, Venom 4’s chances seem more dire than ever.
10 Venom: The Last Dance Has Some Pacing Issues
“A strained narrative that feels much longer than its runtime” – Julian Roman, Movieweb.com
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Compared to many other modern superhero films’ lengths, the runtime of Venom: The Last Dance is actually quite brisk, hovering around the 1 hour 50 minute mark. But somehow, many critics have expressed that the film’s glacial pace makes it feel much longer, skewing time itself with a boring narrative. The root cause behind these pacing issues stem from a variety of factors, mostly to do with the film’s ambitious plot.
Even the more positive reviews of Venom: The Last Dance seem to share this sentiment on the oddly stretched-out runtime. One of the film’s few fresh reviewers, Julian Roman of Movieweb.com, writes that “Venom: The Last Dance will have you laughing and cheering out loud while also fighting boredom in a strained narrative that feels much longer than its runtime“. It seems like the unwieldy narrative of Venom: The Last Dance just might be its critical downfall.
9 Venom: The Last Dance Gets Too Bogged Down In Lore And Worldbuilding
“The Last Dance frequently sidelines Eddie and Venom for an uninspired subplot” – Abby Olcese, The Pitch
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One thing about Venom: The Last Dance that was immediately apparent from the trailers was the sudden jump in threat levels of the villain. From the city-level dangers of fellow symbiote users like Riot and Carnage, Eddie and Venom suddenly find themselves up against the creator of the entire alien race themselves, the god-like being Knull, a powerful being from Marvel Comics canon necessitating plenty of explanation. The worldbuilding required to explain Knull’s presence and motives is nothing short of overbearing.
Many critics have lamented the loss of lower-stakes horseplay with Venom and Eddie’s relationship in favor of overly-complex worldbuilding and a galaxy-spanning villain. Brent Hankins of The Lamplight Review elaborates that the film veers into “unnecessarily serious territory, leaving the quirky charm of its predecessors struggling to shine through“. It seems as though the ambitions of the story eclipsed the street-level fun fans have come to adore from the Venom franchise.
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8 Venom: The Last Dance Feels Unenthusiastic About Itself
“One can feel the sense of grudging obligation behind every element of Venom: The Last Dance” – Mark Dujsik, Mark Reviews Movies
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An interesting recurring statement expressed by many reviewers for Venom: The Last Dance is its seeming contempt for its own existence. This might not be the most precise criticism, but it’s one that has been particularly felt by comic book movie critics in recent times. Reviews for Joker: Folie à Deux were recently flooded by similar comments, possibly describing a worrying trend of superhero movies being indifferent to their own existences.
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Venom: The Last Dance seems to be laden with a vibe suggesting that the creatives behind it weren’t particularly engaged with their work, the film being seemingly made out of begrudging obligation. Even Tom Hardy’s dual performance, typically the crux of the film’s appeal, has been described as tired or worn out by recent critics. Mark Dujsik of Mark Reviews Movies sums it up by stating “We’re left looking for signs that the people involved might have been under duress during production“.
7 Venom: The Last Dance Makes Fun Of Eddie And Venom’s “Relationship” Too Much
“The Last Dance, right down to its embarrassing lamenting Maroon 5 love song over a “couple” montage between Eddie and Venom, is a full-blown circumstance of disparity” – Peter Gray, The Au Review.com
The most compelling aspect of the Venom franchise has always been Eddie and Venom’s relationship, which led to both big laughs and genuine moments of tender drama. In the comics, it’s made quite clear that Eddie and Venom’s romantic relationship is quite more than implied, with runs like Venom: The Hunger confirming the two have very real feelings for one another as far back as 1996. However, Venom: The Last Dance is keen to keep treating this relationship as a cheap joke.
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Following up the famous club scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Venom: The Last Dance continues to wring humor out of the implication that Eddie and Venom are genuinely together without meaningfully developing their relationship. At least, that’s the feeling expressed by several reviewers, who lament the reduction of the idea to a childish punchline. It’s not dissimilar to the discourse surrounding Deadpool and Wolverine’s relationship in Deadpool & Wolverine, in the awkward spot between clever romantic allegory and fratty joke with homosexuality as a punchline.
6 The New Symbiote Battles Aren’t Anything To Write Home About
“The design of the various new aliens is generic and unexciting” – Josh Bell, Tom’s Guide
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If there’s one thing viewers could expect to get out of Venom: The Last Dance, if nothing else, it’s an exciting series of battles with another symbiote villain. Sadly, it seems as though the third installment struggles even in that regard, a particularly bad misstep considering the anticipation for the important Marvel Comics villain, Knull. Sadly, Andy Serkis’ Knull seems to barely be in the film, existing as a vague background player.
Instead, Venom does battle with some generic alien hunters sent by Knull to Earth to apprehend the inky-black symbiote for the data apparently housed in his body. Few reviewers have been impressed by the designs of these extraterrestrial beasts, whose fight scenes are put to shame by the symbiote on symbiote action of the previous two films. It’s a shame that Knull wasn’t better used in Venom: The Last Dance, according to reviewers.
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5 The Editing Of Venom: The Last Dance Leaves Something To Be Desired
“The frenetic action scenes feature an edit about once every second (sometimes less)” – Jim Schembri, Jim Schembri
Good editing is often an aspect of filmmaking that goes tragically underdeveloped by comic book movies. The action scene editing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for instance, often leaves much to be desired, over-indulgent in its sheer number of cuts or lack of cohesion with the cinematography. Sadly, it seems as though Venom: The Last Dance has also fallen into this pitfall, with multiple reviewers lamenting the final cuts of both its action sequences and long-form narrative.
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The frantic alien battles of Venom: The Last Dance have been described as irritating by multiple critics, who take issue with the sheer number of cuts-per-second that artificially increase a given battle’s visual excitement while making it difficult to tell what’s actually going on. The overall state of the film’s final edit in general hasn’t been reacted to much kinder, either, with plenty of fat somehow still left on to trim despite the lean 1 hour 50 minute runtime. According to many critics, Venom: The Last Dance needed more time to gestate in post-production.
4 Venom: The Last Dance Isn’t As Gory As Its Predecessors
“The film holds back on the gore which means that it plays it safe without even trying to push the envelope or take any risks” – Avi Offer, The NYC Movie Guru
One strength Venom has historically had compared to most of his contemporary Marvel heroes is his penchant for blood and gore. As an anti-hero who has to eat human flesh to survive and regularly uses the idea of feasting on his enemies’ brains as a threat, it’s no surprise that the previous two Venom films have been quite visceral compared to the MCU. Though all three Venom films are rated PG-13, they’ve tended to push the limits of the rating to far greater extremes than most superhero film without an R rating are willing to go.
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That is, until the release of Venom: The Last Dance. Some critics have expressed disappointment over the level of brutality inflicted by Venom in the third film, which allegedly feels like a step back compared to the previous entry. Considering this aspect is one of the series’ more unique draws, it’s a crying shame to see so much blood go unspilled in Venom: The Last Dance.
3 Venom’s Multiversal Teases Don’t Go Anywhere
“If you’re wondering about the “Spider-Man: No Way Home” post-credit and how they connect, you needn’t worry—it goes nowhere” – Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
Ever since the beginning of the series, fans have been eager to see Tom Hardy’s Venom intersect with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The series went on to have several teased presences throughout the multiverse, from Eddie’s cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home to Mrs. Chen’s appearance in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Hopes were high that Venom: The Last Dance would finally give Eddie a meaningful shot at sharing the screen with Spider-Man once and for all in some form or another.
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Frustratingly, according to the reviews of critics, Venom’s presence in the multiverse is quickly ironed out early on into the film, with no greater plans for connective tissue between franchises seemingly at play. Venom’s cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home is only acknowledged just long enough to get the anti-hero back into his home dimension, not lingering on the topic. It seems as though there aren’t any plans for Venom to enter the MCU in a more permanent capacity, something of a letdown for the third Venom film.
2 Venom: The Last Dance Wastes Some Talented Actors
“Will one actor’s perplexingly wholehearted turn be enough to get this one over the line to Enjoyment City? Hard to say” – Anthony O’Connor, FilmInk
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Another one of the Venom series’ unique strengths across each of its films is the power of Tom Hardy’s dual performance as both Eddie Brock and Venom himself. It’s endlessly entertaining to watch Hardy literally argue with himself, something that Venom: The Last Dance luckily seems to provide in spades. However, the supporting cast isn’t able to shine nearly as well, with multiple talented actors reported as having sub-par performances within the framework of the film.
In addition to Andy Serkis’ Knull, the film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as an antagonistic soldier patriot, Rhys Ifans as an alien-loving hippie, and Juno Temple as a scientist interested in the potential of symbiotes. Sadly, according to critics, none of these new characters are able to make a meaningful impact, with few of the film’s performances able to stand up to Tom Hardy’s. That’s not to say the actors portraying them aren’t talented, but it seems that Venom: The Last Dance weren’t able to utilize them to their full potential.
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1 The World-Ending Threat Of Venom: The Last Dance Doesn’t Work With The Character
“To me, bringing a typical comic book-style doomsday plot is about the last thing a “Venom” movie needs” – Jake Coyle, AP News
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As previously stated, the strength of the Venom series has always been the dynamic between Tom Hardy’s dual leads. Their petty arguments and conflicts suit themselves to more grounded, street-level stories, with psychopaths, government agents, and fellow symbiote-wielders being their best opponents. This is totally incongruous with the universe-ending threat of Knull in Venom: The Last Dance, which runs totally counter to the series’ strengths.
As Jake Coyle of AP News states, “The touchstone for these movies shouldn’t be the Marvel playbook but old episodes of ‘The Odd Couple’“. Yet the third film couldn’t resist indulging itself with a climactic final battle for the fate of the universe, blowing up the scale of the Venom series unnecessarily. In truth, Knull would work better in the MCU than in the Sony universe, as proven by Venom: The Last Dance according to critics.
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Sony’s Upcoming Marvel Movie Release Dates
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Venom: The Last Dance
Release Date October 25, 2024
- Kraven the Hunter
Release Date December 13, 2024
Venom: The Last Dance
Kraven the Hunter