Venom: The Last Dance is a bad movie in all the best ways

Venom: The Last Dance is the third instalment in the Venom franchise. Photo: Columbia Studios/Sony Pictures.

Bad superhero movies are a fine and delicate art.

They often fall into two categories: boring beyond belief or so bad that they’re actually awesome. It’s the latter that makes for great guilty pleasures and fun movie-going experiences, even if, by every other definition, they are crap.

This is the category that Venom: The Last Dance falls into. Anyone looking for a gritty masterpiece like The Dark Knight, be real for a second. Nothing in the previous two Venom movies suggests this was ever going to go that way, but if you were expecting a cheesy popcorn flick like Batman Forever or something ridiculous like Fast and Furious, strap in, because this is for you.

Venom: The Last Dance picks up only a week or so after the previous film. On the run from the FBI, Eddie and Venom hide out in Mexico. Meanwhile, somewhere in the universe, the mysterious Symbiote King Knull has sent out creatures to locate Venom so he can be released from his prison planet.

So, this movie’s plot is paper thin. It’s kind of a road trip movie, kind of a sci-fi alien movie and kind of a superhero movie, without really committing to any of them. Fortunately for Venom, the plot isn’t what keeps this mess of a movie from falling apart. It’s the complete goofy and bonkers set pieces that are just so much fun to watch.

Venom singing and dancing to ‘Dancing Queen’ was not on my bingo card for 2024, and neither was a symbiotic horse racing across the Grand Canyon. Without giving much more away, there is a particularly humourous moment in a casino that still has me giggling like a moron a day after seeing it.

Moving on, the performances are completely serviceable. If you liked Tom Hardy as Eddie in the first two, you’ll like him here. If you thought he was disgusting and super annoying, this won’t change your opinion.

Newcomers Chiwetel Ejiofor and Juno Temple do their jobs as a secret military research group, but Rhys Ifans as a hippy, hunting aliens was by far my favourite new addition to the franchise, just don’t expect a lizard cameo from the Amazing Spider-Man universe.

The characters’ backstories do leave a lot to desire, and the awful dialogue and exposition really hurt the character’s relatability and arcs. However, if you’re watching Venom 3, I doubt it’s for the side characters.

One big positive is that the action has seen a massive step up from the previous instalments. One of my biggest criticisms from the first two films is that the action is always impossible to follow. Two liquid monsters of similar colours make it so difficult to determine who’s who. At least in this, the set pieces are fun and the different make-up of the aliens make it easier to follow.

Venom: The Last Dance can be summarised fairly easily: it’s a fun mess. The writing, acting and dialogue aren’t great (that’s being kind), but the sheer goofiness of it all will please fans of this franchise. The previous two films have seen big differences in audience reactions compared to the critics, and this one will be no different.

If you want my definitive stance on this movie, it’s better than the first two but still nothing more than a fun movie to see with friends.

Venom: The Last Dance is showing in cinemas across the country.

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