‘Venom: The Last Dance’ movie review: Tom Hardy packs double the charm in action-packed conclusion to jolly bromance

This lean third installment is mean and merry by turns, with a bunch of things in the mix, including a horrid new villain, Area 51, the goofiest alien fans and an eye-popping jig to ‘Dancing Queen’  

Fears of a never-ending concluding chapter, with umpteen bows and tears, are laid to rest in this short and snappy final installment of the Venom trilogy. There is a bit of a scattershot approach to the script in Venom: The Last Dance with all sorts of things happening including Area 51 being decommissioned, but Eddie’s (Tom Hardy) relationship with his in-(body)house guest, Venom, carries it through. 

Waking up drunk with a hangover in a bar in Mexico, Eddie finds out the police are after him following the events of Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021). After an entertaining fracas with fighting dogs and horrid thugs, who are not so deadly minus their heads, Eddie and Venom hitch a lift on an airbus. “How does Tom Cruise do this?”, Eddie moans as he clings to the side of the airplane.  

Venom: The Last Dance 

Director: Kelly Marcel 
Starring: Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham
Runtime: 109 minutes 
Storyline: On the run to clear his name, Eddie and Venom encounter bigger problems when a creature comes hunting for them from Venom’s home planet 

While on the plane (literally), Venom spots a xenophage: a scary looking alien creature. As they crash into a desert, Venom explains the xenophage was sent from his home planet by Knull (Andy Serkis), the father of all symbiotes. The symbiotes imprisoned Knull (not a very nice way to treat your dad, however dreadful he is) who then sends the xenophage to find the Codex, which Eddie/Venom have, to set himself free and destroy all the worlds. It is always nice to have villains with a clear plan of action. 

In the meantime, Area 51 is being shut down with Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) in charge of dismantling it and rehousing all the weird things there. When he learns of the xenophage as well as Knull’s escape and world-decimation plans, he decides to get in on the hunt for Venom and Eddie. Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple), the mandatory white-coat-sporting scientist, is not very happy with Strickland’s authoritarian approach. 

Eddie goes on the sweetest road trip with a hippie family comprising Martin (Rhys Ifans), who was in software before he saw the light (probably while stuck in Silk Board Junction), his wife, Nova, (Alanna Ubach) children, Leaf and Echo and the shaggy, cuddly dog, Blue. Though Eddie refuses to sing along with the family to David Bowie’s ‘Ground Control to Major Tom’, you can see it is a bit of a struggle, while Venom burns up the floor shimmying with Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) to ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’.

The action sequences are fun and bombastic — especially when Venom takes over a horse and careens wildly around. Even his fast-track evolution lesson from fish to frog (sadly not beyond the amphibian stage) are fun. There is even a touching moment between Eddie and his other. 

The fifth film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, has fast and furious action, tempered with good natured goofiness and even if some actors have been under-utilised, and the plot goes haywire in places, Venom: The Last Dance is a slim, sleek entertaining package.

Venom: The Last Dance is currently running in theatres 

Published - October 25, 2024 04:50 pm IST