Venom: The Last Dance marks the last installment of the Venom movies with ratings of 41% from critics and an 81% audience score. This movie is the last sequel of the other two trilogies Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Venom. The movie had a budget of $120 million and a box office of $114 million in North America and $394.2 million globally.
The beginning starts off introducing the main villain of the story, Knull a Eldritch God of darkness, and the king of symbiotes. Knull, the creator of the symbiotes and Xenophages (alien species) was betrayed by them and trapped in a planet made of symbiotes called Kylantar. In order to be free he needs the cortex found inside Venom, which he tries to obtain using Xenophages.
In the movie there are many faults starting with the plot holes. For example, there is no explanation or context behind the character Knull and his entrapment. You would need prior knowledge or research to understand it. Knull also needs the cortex (metaphysical key) to be free but in the post credit scenes he is free without it, which is confusing.
The attempt at comedy is also subpar compared to the other two trilogies as the characters have no personality to them and the jokes land flat, which is a disappointment given Venom’s funny nature.
Another fault is that the symbiotes, aside from Venom, are unmemorable characters. They don’t play a big role in the movie and have barely any screen time, only being used for one scene.
Lastly the scripting was bad. The fight scenes are lackluster, especially when compared to the ones shown in the previous Venom movie. And there is more escaping than fighting, which makes it feel like there was no real effort put into the storyline and execution.
The fact that it’s a Sony production, a company known for making bad Marvel movies like Madame Web and Morbius, both movies that flopped in the box office may be why this movie didn’t perform, either. Even though it’s Sony’s fifth movie that is related to the Spider-Man Universe, it doesn’t seem like Sony’s experience helped to make it good.
My overall opinion and review is to advise you to not watch this film unless you are a fan of the Venom saga and want to watch the final installment. However, it did have a somewhat good ending and some good parts, but the negatives easily outweigh the positives. It’s disappointing that given this was the last movie of the trilogy the writers and directors should have taken more time to develop it and ended it better for fans. Taking all of this into consideration my overall rating for this movie is a five out of 10.
