Yahoo Movies Venom 3 is the most entertaining movie of the trilogy
It's almost irrelevant to review a Venom movie, which is probably not what we should be saying at the start of a review of Venom: The Last Dance.
After a patchy start to the series with Venom, it felt like Tom Hardy and Kelly Marcel realised that fans just wanted more offbeat Eddie-and-Venom banter. Venom: Let There Be Carnage was a step in the right direction, and Venom 3 continues this upward trend.
It's a movie that doubles down on Eddie-and-Venom larks as they head on their own Thelma & Louise fugitive adventure, leaving the story secondary. Familiar problems remain, so it won't change anybody's mind if you really didn't like the previous two movies.
But if you're fully aboard the Venom train, then Venom: The Last Dance will prove to be the most entertaining of the trilogy – and it might even make you emotional.
Venom: The Last Dance kicks off immediately after Eddie and Venom's brief trip to the MCU in Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home's credit scenes. Eddie (Tom Hardy) is wanted for the murder of Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham), so he has no choice but to go on the run.
What's worse, Venom's creator Knull is on the hunt for Eddie and Venom too, which could have major implications, not just for symbiotes but all of humanity. Throw in some super-secret government experiments on symbiotes in a lab under Area 51, and you have the recipe for an epic finale.
But that's not quite what Venom 3 ends up being. Unlike the previous movies, Eddie and Venom are largely left to their own devices for the most part, kept separate from a story that's weighed down by exposition and ominous warnings.
Every now and then Eddie and Venom have to escape from either military goons led by General Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) or the Xenophage – a vicious alien that spurts blood from its neck when it eats people – sent after them by Knull. But mostly, Eddie and Venom are free to just go on a road trip.
It's a decision that absolutely works in the movie's favour. On their journey they find time to have some car karaoke with alien-obsessed Martin (Rhys Ifans) and his family, a delightful reunion with Mrs Chen (Peggy Lu) and rescue some dogs from Mexican gangsters.
Writer/director Kelly Marcel – who worked on the story with Hardy, as they did on Venom 2 – leans into the offbeat nature of Eddie and Venom's relationship in enjoyable fashion. Does it make much sense? Not really. You won't find yourself worrying about that though as it's just fun to watch.
Venom 3 does have its own Jekyll-and-Hyde nature as a result. For story reasons, it has to keep cutting back to Strickland and Dr Teddy Paine (Juno Temple), who is studying symbiotes. Ejiofor and Temple are lumbered with the weakest aspects of the movie, which feature old classics like a traumatic backstory to overcome.
You often feel like the movie knows this is the dull bit too. During one section, a lengthy lab-based scene appears to have just been chopped in half in order to catch up on Eddie and Venom's antics before returning to the lab to continue the same scene.
Eddie and Venom are eventually corralled into the story in the final act, which suffers from the VFX-heavy splurge that burdens many comic-book movies. There are crowdpleasing beats, especially for Venom fans, but it's so frantic that it's not always clear what's happening and why.
What elevates Venom 3 over the previous two movies is that the finale does manage to hit an emotional note. It's rare that a 'final' movie ever really feels that way and, yes, there are teasers for potential futures in this universe, but it does manage to be a satisfying ending to this particular arc for Eddie and Venom.
It's why the decision to give us more time on the road with Eddie and Venom works as well as it does. We're shown softer sides of both of them, with Tom Hardy excellent with the smaller moments as well as the weirder comedic beats. You might be surprised how much you've come to care about the duo.
Venom: The Last Dance is a fittingly mixed ending to this messy trilogy, but when it comes to our chaotic leading duo, the movie delivers where it counts.
Venom: The Last Dance is released in cinemas on October 25.
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