Venom: The Last Dance works best at its silliest, and as a showcase for Tom Hardy

Among the strangest superhero franchises, Venom has long been a showcase for Tom Hardy’s charisma and range as an actor. The new film, Venom: The Last Dance, takes place just a year after the events of the first film. Eddie Brock looks worse for wear after sharing his body with a sentient alien symbiote for 12 months (approximately seven years since the first film), but after a rocky start, the pair have started to work together. After the events of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, they’re also on the run, pursued not just from the government but hungry aliens looking to destroy all sentient alien symbiotes.

The lore itself remains somewhat dense. The film has a wraparound narrative about a Targaryen-looking spectre who unleashes indestructible demons on Earth. For casual film fans, the movie relies on our willingness to roll with the punches in terms of understanding, and the general wackadoodle film style to minimize overthinking the actual raison d’être for the film’s chase-based narrative. Perhaps this won’t be an issue for more attentive comic book fans or Venom-heads, but it does stretch the film past its breaking point at times. Similarly, the movie rises and dips depending on whether or not Tom Hardy or Venom are on screen. Fairly unmercifully, the film spends an unfortunate amount of time on the b-plot about scientists studying aliens below Area 51.

The movie works best at its most silly: Eddie’s Crocs, Venom’s passion for horses and a bizarre dance sequence contribute to some of the film’s pleasure. As Eddie and Venom are attempting to run away to New York City from Mexico, the movie takes on the loose structure of a road movie. Eddie Brock hitches a ride with a family searching for aliens near Area 51, where they sing songs and he gets to enjoy their crunchy Kumbaya generosity. These are among the best sequences we’ve seen in any superhero film in a long while, striking just the right note of stupid and tender.

These individual moments make the movie almost worthwhile — almost. Despite a few ostentatious sequences, it’s hard not to feel that, as with many other superhero films, studios have given up on real spectacle. Like Deadpool vs Wolverine earlier this year, the desert setting doesn’t feel merely like a plot contrivance, but an easy way to shoot special effect sequences in vast wastelands and studio backlots. Except for a handful of scenes in Mexico and a Las Vegas sequence, Venom: The Last Dance was shot in nondescript grey-beige landscapes.

As the film flies towards its “spectacular” final act, it loses most of its fun. Looking increasingly like it’s taking place in a plane hanger or parking lot, the movie abandons its playful stupidity. As our storylines intersect, the tone that comes to dominate is the self-seriousness of government military personnel. As Eddie and Venom are forced to collaborate with the American military to save the world, much of the character’s appeal as a rebel and outsider is undercut. The film feels incapable of truly grappling with the implicit violence and vengefulness of the Military Industrial Complex, even if some of the plot points hinge directly on its proliferation. It makes it difficult to divorce the experience from the fact that the vast majority of superhero films made at this scale have long served as some kind of propaganda for the United States military.

While you can certainly do worse as far as superhero films go than Venom: The Last Dance, that hardly means it’s worth rushing out to see. If watching the Tom Hardy show is enough to pull you towards the theatre, all power to you: Tom Hardy is a beautiful man with a lumbering gait and a silly voice — there are far worse reasons to watch. You’ll have to endure extended lemon-faced sequences of supporting characters and the endless desert landscapes that are rendered with little imagination or taste, as well as dense meaningless lore that drives the film’s plot. Don’t you say I didn’t warn you. ■

Venom: The Last Dance (directed by Kelly Marcel)

Venom: The Last Dance opens in Montreal theatres on Oct. 24.

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