“Venom: The Last Dance” is supposedly the last installment in the Venom franchise. While this is the third Venom movie, “Morbius,” “Madame Web” and “Kraven the Hunter” all take place in the same cinematic universe. “Kraven the Hunter” is yet to be released, but the other two films were financial flops and heavily criticized by both audience members and critics. The Venom movies are among the most successful movies out of the Spider-Man villain cinematic universe.
“I enjoyed the first one a lot, but the second one was a massive downgrade,” said senior Kishna Shah.
The film follows Venom’s past catching up to him and Eddie while they’re on the run after the events of the previous film. The main plot of the film is underwhelming and doesn’t feel like the finale to the Venom franchise. Venom in his full form is absent for a big chunk of the movie due to plot reasons and when he does show up it is for a nonsensical dance sequence in the middle of the film. As the finale of the franchise, this film should’ve had higher stakes and included Venom as a more prominent role in the plot.
The main villain in the film is Knull, the creator and god of the Symbiotes. Even though Knull is supposed to be the main villain, he has less than five minutes of screen time and doesn’t interact with Venom once in the film. Instead, Knull’s henchmen are the ones that fight Venom and are the main threat throughout the movie. Knull is built up for a future project instead of being utilized in a film that suits him perfectly. It seems that the studio behind the film wants a crossover movie between Madame Web, Morbius and Venom where they fight against Knull.
“All he did was send his minions the entire movie but never did anything himself,” said Shah.
Due to the poor reception behind all of these movies it is unlikely that we will see any of these characters again, which is another reason why they should’ve utilized Knull more in “Venom: The Last Dance.”
Despite its flaws, the film still has a few highlights. The movie has a lot of comedic moments that are well executed. The third act is action-packed and the best part of the movie. Venom and Eddie’s dynamic still works after three movies, and Knull is still menacing even with the little screen time he has.
“The third act was the best part and my favorite act,” said Shah.
Overall, “Venom: The Last Dance” shines in a few areas but ultimately misses the mark in a lot of areas that are hard to overlook, leading to the film to be a disappointing end to the Venom franchise.
