By Kimberly Grant

Say it ain’t so!  It’s the last hurrah for one of my favorite heroes and I can’t help but feel like this can’t be the end.  I refuse to accept it. 

This dramatic review is about Venom: The Last Dance, out in theaters on October 25.

One Last Time

There are times when good things come to an end.  We don’t like it!  But it happens.  For instance, Sony Pictures has decided that The Last Dance should be the last time we get to see Eddie Brock (played by the always talented and engaging Tom Hardy) and Venom (voiced by Hardy) together on screen.  It’s in the title.  Or is it the last time?

In this last hurrah, we find Eddie in Mexico during the post credits scene for Spider-Man: No Way Home.  His objective is to go to New York to clear his name for a murder he didn’t commit.  Along the way he runs into a different kind of symbiote whose looking for Venom.  Venom and Eddie have a special purpose to this new symbiote and they must stick together to stop this dangerous alien.

Something Feels Familiar

Kelly Marcel wrote and directed Venom: The Last Dance, after writing Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Cruella, Fifty Shades of Grey, and Saving Mr. Banks.  That’s an impressive roster of writing credits.  With The Last Dance being her directorial debut, Marcel injects the usual humor we’ve come to love from Eddie and Venom.  Along with that humor is the heart of two beings who want to do the right thing and have a genuine love for each other.  They are true BFFs.

Marcel also injects some female empowerment into the film.  The main villain is a female and the women help save the day.  The only question I have is: why is Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays Mordo in Doctor Strange, also playing General Rex Strickland.  Are both characters not in the same universe?  I was confused by this for most of the film, waiting for General Strickland to turn into an undead Mordo.  I was also thrown off by his American accent.

The rest of the cast includes more British people using their American accents.  Juno Temple and her not great American accent play Dr. Payne, a scientist whose life’s work is to study symbiotes.  Rhys Ifans plays a father and husband who has uprooted his family to travel to Area 51 to see aliens.  (Child Protective Services was mentioned for that.)  Temple’s Ted Lasso co-star, Cristo Fernandez plays a bartender, who tries to make sense of Eddie and Venom’s relationship.  Lastly, fan favorite, Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) makes an appearance.  We like Mrs. Chen.

It Doesn’t Feel Like An Ending

I can’t stand “goodbyes”!  I don’t like the finality of them.  What I do like are two unlikely heroes.  My favorite Marvel heroes (including Iron Man) are Black Panther, Deadpool, and Venom.  These characters have supposedly reached the end of their franchises.  Iron Man, because Thanos.  Black Panther, because cancer.  Deadpool… probably not over.  And, now Venom. 

I was excited going into the Summer of 2024 knowing that I would get to see two of my favorite heroes in new movies.  Deadpool & Wolverine is crazy fun and probably going to have at least one more movie in the franchise; since Hugh Jackman will be Wolverine until he’s 90 years old.  Then there’s Venom: The Last Dance.  Without spoiling the movie, the audience is to believe that this is it for him and Eddie.  The ending of the film doesn’t feel final.  So, I’m going to hold on to a delusional hope that we’ll get to see Venom again; one day, making his sassy comments in his deep, cartoonish voice.

I would dare to say that this doesn’t feel like the end of Venom.  He’s literally larger than life and jumps off of the screen.  Too big to be gone forever.  My hope is that this is probably more of an ending to a contract than the end of a beloved character.  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, breakups are hard and I just can’t quit Venom. 

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You can read more arts reviews by K. A. Grant on her Entertainment Blog.