Venom: The Last Dance (Christian Movie Review)
Venom: The Last Dance goes through all the familiar motions, but it fails to find the proper rhythm.
About the Film
The Sony Studios branch of the Marvel multiverse is back with another entry in its Spider-Man universe (that still lacks Spider-Man). Unfortunately, this film demonstrates that Disney is not the only company struggling to revive the once-dominant superhero genre. The nagging question lingering in my mind as I watched Venom: The Last Dance was, “Why was this movie made?” I still don’t have a satisfying answer, other than perhaps Hollywood’s need to meet their yearly comic-book movie quota. The film goes through all the familiar motions but can’t find the right rhythm. With empty spectacle and an incoherent plot, Venom: The Last Dance has little of substance to offer viewers.
Venom (2018) was a major box-office hit. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) was a moderate success as well. If there has been one major element that has resonated with audiences, it’s the compelling dynamic between Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and Venom. Their symbiotic relationship is rich with narrative possibilities, and the interplay between the two characters is the most enjoyable aspect of The Last Dance. Venom is an almost irresistibly fun character, with his murky morals and unfettered enthusiasm. He is responsible for most of the film’s levity (even if many attempts at humor uncreatively fall back on using his gruff voice to spout profanity).
The character of Venom obviously must work in a Venom movie, and he mostly does. The problem is everyone else. It’s hard to judge Tom Hardy, since his character doesn’t really do anything. He’s a mostly passive participant in the story unfolding around him. What audiences get are extended scenes featuring the antagonists, who are painfully dull and cartoonish caricatures. There’s the cliched mad scientist with a vague backstory and the typical no-nonsense military man. Even less riveting are the extraterrestrial villains. The “big baddie” spends the entire film with his face downcast in a cosmic prison, seemingly reserved for some future story. His alien minions are mindless CGI creatures that show up only when the next action sequence is needed.
Screenwriter Kelly Marcel, whose major work prior to the Venom series was writing Fifty Shades of Grey, makes her directorial debut with Last Dance, and her inexperience is evident. It’s a story in which stuff happens and then different stuff happens, but none of those events are ever woven into a unified or cohesive narrative. It’s a collection of scenes rather than a story. For example, the movie begins with Eddie and Venom traveling from Mexico to New York. Before they leave, they make a quick detour to shut down a dog fighting operation. The side quest in no way furthers the story or establishes any internal character tension. It was presumably included simply so the film could begin with an action scene. Later, the symbiotic duo inexplicably run into Mrs. Chen (a character from previous films) in a Las Vegas hotel, leading to a bizarre dance scene in her penthouse. Why? Seemingly just to include a forced cameo from an established character, even though the scene itself abandons important plot details that had been established only a few scenes earlier.
There is a similar dissonance thematically. During an escape from special government forces, Eddie is forced to kill a soldier, an act for which he experiences deep remorse. It’s an odd attempt to add some emotional conflict into a story that begins with the same character taunting villains as their heads are bitten off by Venom. Yes, those men were clearly “bad guys,” and it was technically Venom who committed the murders. But The Last Dance fails to establish any central theme or conflict for Eddie. Batman seeks the narrow line between justice and vengeance, Spider-Man searches for a heroic identity outside of his suit and powers, and Iron Man struggles to prioritize selflessness over selfishness, but The Last Dance is too narratively inconsistent to commit to any clear character arc for Eddie, other than a motif about controlling “the darkness inside” each of us (see themes section below).
An unfortunate trend in recent years (mostly due to the advent of streaming) is that art and entertainment have been reduced to mere “content,” a manufactured good to be consumed in mass quantities. In many ways, Venom: The Last Dance is the posterchild for “entertainment as content.” Viewers likely aren’t watching this film for artistic excellence, a fresh storytelling vision, or inventive cinematic execution. They’re watching it because they’re bored and it’s there. For some, particularly diehard Marvel fans, that may be enough. But for those of us who have begun to develop a stomachache from consuming too many uninspired, mass-produced comic book movies through the years, this may be a dance worth skipping.
For Consideration
Language: There is one articulated F-bomb and one that is interrupted before completion (“motherfu…….”). There are frequent other profanities (“s—”, “b—h”, “d—”). “God” and “Jesus” are also used multiple times, and there are several crude words (“d—k”, “sl-t).
Violence: Several men have their heads bitten off by Venom (The bite is shown, but not the bloody aftermath). An alien creature consumes several people, which results in blood spraying out the back of its head like woodchips. A man’s legs are bitten off, and several humans and symbiotes are killed in the final battle against the alien.
Sexuality: None.
Other: A hippy character talks about a mystical doorway within the mind.
Engage The Film
The Monster Inside
At one point, a character tells Eddie Brock, “Everyone has monsters inside of them.” Eddie responds, “Not like I do.” In a sense, neither character is wrong. The head-chomping alien entity living inside Eddie may be a more extreme and personified darkness, but it is an interesting metaphorical representation of the darkness and sinful nature within all people (even if Venom: The Last Dance doesn’t get around to exploring that idea with any depth, and certainly not from a spiritual perspective).
Eddie is an ordinary guy who is doing his best to contain Venom. At this point in the series, he’s probably closer to being a traditional hero than an anti-hero. He’s a decent guy, just one with a man-eating alien living inside him. Throughout the film, he wrestles with his culpability regarding some of the actions he has committed. Is it all Venom’s doing or is he partially to blame? The characters discuss whether they are “bad guys,” and they seem to accept that they are, even if Eddie continues to resist. His journey culminates in a third act during which he seems to fully embrace his responsibility as a hero and protector.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Venom: The Last Dance is by no means a perfect allegory for that spiritual reality, but it does provide some intriguing visuals and frameworks through which audiences can contemplate it.
