Kelly Marcel's Venom: The Last Dance says fuck you to the multiverse almost immediately, but this doesn't stop it from being as unremarkable as many recent multiverse movies. The concept of multiple universes makes goodbyes temporary. A superhero (or even the actor himself) is always ready to be deployed in either the same or a different role to fill the void. Chris Evans returned as Johnny Storm in Deadpool & Wolverine, albeit briefly. Robert Downey Jr is set to appear as Doctor Doom in upcoming Marvel films. The Last Dance attempts to give a final farewell to its leading characters, Venom and Eddie, without any hopes of reviving them in a future movie. Only time will tell whether this goodbye is permanent or temporary. However, what's funny is that The Last Dance believes that by bidding farewell to the main characters, it is offering a distinct experience from other superhero stories. Marcel still lays the ground for the future through two post-credit scenes and crowds the screen with characters that are utterly disposable, and utterly generic.
The Venom movies derive most of their strength from the relationship between Venom and Eddie. Tom Hardy once again effortlessly slips into this bromance, and the bickering - the amusing conflict between the human character he portrays and the symbiote inside him - remains one of the few highlights of this film. Hardy comes close to being a wonderful physical comedian in the scene where his hands enthusiastically hit a casino machine while his face seems to be saying, "Don't look at me. I don't know what's happening." If you don't exactly chuckle or respond to him with a smile, that's because Marcel doesn't inject comic vigor into the scene. She doesn't have a good or unique visual style. The director falls back on clichés to tell her story, which is why her images are sorely conventional, and all she is able to do is provide a thrilling charge to the action scenes, which renders them superficially attractive. Nonetheless, there is more fun in watching Eddie riding a Venom horse than listening to the solemn expositions of Area 51 employees.
In The Last Dance, Area 51 is also having its...last dance (it's being decommissioned). The site is packed with thin, unmemorable characters like Dr Teddy Payne (Juno Temple), Sadie Christmas (Clark Backo), a researcher, and a commander named Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Sadie and Rex exist, while Teddy is given some sad backstory to make her seem important. Still, she feels as disposable as Sadie and Rex. The actors, though, have some presence. They have forgettable roles, but you don't forget their faces. The same applies to Rhys Ifans, Alanna Ubach, Hala Finley, and Dash McCloud, who all appear as the hippie Moon family looking for aliens. When Ifans' Martin sings a song or when Venom dances with Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) in her hotel room, Marcel tries to give her film a smooth, casual rhythm. She might as well be saying, "Forget the usual world-ending threats. Let's dance." Unfortunately, she is working with a material that cannot move forward without the usual superhero routines and fight sequences. And so, all symbiotes break loose during the film's climax. The good guys fight against an evil CGI creature called Xenophage, an army of them to be exact, who all have this cool design where blood is sprayed from their back when they devour their victims. Despite having an urgent role in the film, they look pretty expendable. They are not very menacing, and the human characters aren't very appealing or interesting either. Hence, you don't care which side loses or wins this war.
The emotional moments can be unbearably sentimental. One of the reasons The Last Dance tries too hard to extract your tears is that it suspects the audience won't clearly remember the events of the 2018 Venom and its sequel. I am one of those people. I found those two movies to be okayish and forgettable. The Venom movies are as bland as most mainstream blockbusters. You don't mind watching them; many scenes get out of your head within a few days or even hours. This might actually be good news for Andy Serkis, as people will likely remember him for voicing Gollum and Caesar rather than as a lifeless, indistinguishable supervillain from The Last Dance.
Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times