"With the 2018 film Venom, Tom Hardy locked himself into a three-picture deal, giving his time, talents and torso to this saga about a man named Eddie Brock possessed by a fanged, body-snatching alien parasite", which jumps in and out of his body at will, said Amy Nicholson in The New York Times. Venom: The Last Dance brings the trilogy to a close, and it is, "in glimpses", quite interesting: a drama about a drunk who is "unbearably lonely despite being conjoined with a garrulous monster".
In the first film Eddie was an investigative journalist with a fiancé; "here, he's a filthy drifter" who has lost "his career, his woman and his reputation", and been forced to go on the run. There are "mild pleasures" to be had – such as the moment when Eddie/Venom is "suctioned to the fuselage of an airplane" and sighs: "It is so unpleasantly cold." But these are "overwhelmed by a barrage of underdeveloped supporting characters", played by the likes of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Rhys Ifans, and by a "banal" plot about saving the world.
This film "will have most accompanying adults shaking their head in despair within five minutes", said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. But the army of young Venom fans will enjoy a movie "that remains faithful to its comic-book roots" and is funny enough.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"One of life's great mysteries" is that this "unspeakably stupid" series "has grossed more than $1bn worldwide", said Johnny Oleksinski in the New York Post. This instalment seems likely only to induce a "migraine" in those masochistic enough to buy a ticket. "So long, Venom. Don't let the door hit you on the way out."
-
The week's best photosIn Pictures A silver-painted boy, a raging flood, and more
-
Roblox, one of the world's most popular video games, has become a bastion of hate speechThe Explainer The platform has over 111 million daily users
-
Russian strike on Kyiv kills 23, hits EU officesSpeed Read The strike was the second-largest since Russia invaded in 2022
-
Millet: Life on the Land – an 'absorbing' exhibitionThe Week Recommends Free exhibition at the National Gallery showcases the French artist's moving paintings of rural life
-
Thomasina Miers picks her favourite booksThe Week Recommends The food writer shares works by Arundhati Roy, Claire Keegan and Charles Dickens
-
6 laid-back homes for surfersFeature Featuring a home near a world-renowned surf spot in Hawaii and a house built to withstand the elements in South Carolina
-
Twelfth Night or What You Will: a 'riotous' late-summer jamboreeThe Week Recommends Robin Belfield's 'carnivalesque' new staging at Shakespeare's Globe is 'joyfully tongue-in-cheek'
-
Hostage: Netflix's 'fun, fast and brash potboiler'The Week Recommends Suranne Jones is 'relentlessly defiant' as prime minister Abigail Dalton
-
Music reviews: Chance the Rapper, Cass McCombs, and Molly TuttleFeature "Star Line," "Interior Live Oak," and "So Long Little Miss Sunshine"
-
Film reviews: Eden and Honey Don't!Feature Seekers of a new utopia spiral into savagery and a queer private eye prowls a high-desert town
-
Critics' choice: Three chefs fulfilling their ambitionsFeature Kwame Onwuachi's grand second act, Travis Lett makes a comeback, and Jeff Watson's new Korean restaurant
