Venom: The Last Dance an 'inoffensively silly' if 'moronic' goodbye say critics

Tom Hardy's Venom trilogy is at its end with The Last Dance, and critics are both celebrating and deriding the final outing of the Sonyverse Spider-Man film.

The film sees Hardy's Eddie Brock and his symbiote companion Venom on the run after the events of Let There Be Carnage, enjoying a road trip while the world is at risk of extinction. On the more serious and apparently dull half of the story, if critics are to be believed, Venom's creator Knull (Andy Serkis) wants revenge against the symbiotes that turned against him as Army Special Forces soldier Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and scientist Dr. Payne (Juno Temple) investigate.

The Last Dance is designed to be an emotional farewell to Hardy's characters, and for some critics it worked in that respect and was "inoffensively silly" and moving at times, while others remarked that it is a "moronic" movie.

The Independent's Clarisse Loughrey was taken with the movie, writing that while it does "relapse somewhat into the Morbius and Madame Web brand of dense, dull exposition" it is helped by the enduring pairing at its centre.

Loughrey wrote: "It’s hard to say how these films will be remembered in the grand scheme of comic book history, but, with The Last Dance, we can at least be reminded that sometimes they actually managed to have fun with these things."

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The critic remarked that the film is smart to ensure that "any non-Venom scene flies by like it’s being watched from a passing rollercoaster" so that viewers can enjoy Hardy's "blissfully untethered performance" for one last time.

A brief runtime was something that The Guardian's Benjamin Lee appreciated, who wrote that "it’s a mercy to watch a superhero film of such brevity at a time when even evil clown horrors are running over two hours" even if its "stop-and-start choppiness" doesn't hinders it somewhat.

Even so, Lee wrote: "It’s at least a smartly planned conclusion to an inoffensively silly and low-stakes series, Tom Hardy and his quippy alien symbiote leaping off a sinking ship with a spring in their step. It’s not as catastrophic as Madame Web or as redundant as The Marvels or as annoying as Deadpool & Wolverine, it’s just about passable in a throwaway kinda way."

The Telegraph's Robbie Collin was less impressed with the movie, saying that it "feels like the worst to have been released in 1998" that is "the Macarena in film form".

He described it as "a yammeringly moronic, teenage-boy-pandering eyesore of the old school, with little to offer any viewer whose age or counting ability exceeds the low 20s."

Watch the trailer for Venom: The Last Dance

For Variety's Owen Gleiberman the film's emotional hook didn't work, as he wrote: "Some will even say that the movie is touching — though given how much time we’ve spent with Eddie and the alien and all those oily thrashing tentacles, I didn’t necessarily feel this marked the ending of a beautiful friendship."

He went on: "The Venom movies have been a success, and sometimes fun, but I can’t say that they’ve really been good. More like comic-book place-holders that deliver."

Digital Spy's Ian Sandwell argued that The Last Dance was the best of the trilogy precisely because of the emotional weight of the story, writing: "What elevates Venom 3 over the previous two movies is that the finale does manage to hit an emotional note. It's rare that a 'final' movie ever really feels that way."

Sandwell also praised writer and director Kelly Marcel for leaning "into the offbeat nature of Eddie and Venom's relationship in enjoyable fashion", adding: "Does it make much sense? Not really. You won't find yourself worrying about that though as it's just fun to watch."

The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney mirrored this sentiment, though in a slightly different way, by writing: "The fact that the trilogy has avoided taking itself too seriously has been both its saving grace and its limitation."

The critic added: "Hardy brings sufficient charm (and witty voice work) to his symbiote-inhabited character’s internal battle between id and superego to make each entry diverting enough, even if they leave little aftertaste. And so it goes with Venom: The Last Dance, which caps the trilogy by going gleefully out on its own."

Venom: The Last Dance premieres in cinemas on Friday, 25 October.