Over drinks with a friend last weekend, talk turned to movies.* We discussed what we liked, what we didn’t, what would be forgotten, and what would become future classics. As so often happens, the conversation drifted into genres. He asked me what I’d thought the most wide-ranging and versatile genre of movie was.**

My answer will probably change later, but right this minute, I’d say Westerns and superhero movies are the most versatile of all genres. With Westerns, you can go full action with The Wild Bunch, do a meditative drama with Unforgiven, have an envelope-pushing comedy with Blazing Saddles. Hell, you can even do a musical with Paint Your Wagon, though you probably shouldn’t. With John Wayne alone, you can have a darker and meditative entry with The Searchers or a goofy-ass romp with McLintock!

Superhero movies haven’t come anywhere close to hitting their potential. Yet. Rightly or wrongly, that’s largely due to the MCU. Initially, Marvel Studios made smart moves as they placed different genres such as political thrillers, sci-fi, and fantasy within the framework of the world of Marvel. But soon, they largely became just Marvel movies, and that’s a shame. The good news is that not all superhero movies are like that. The proof I have for you is Venom: The Last Dance, which features Evil Dead-style lunacy, a bickering rom-com, and a little bit of genuine heart all pureed together.

Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) has had a very confusing time of things. He was accidentally bonded to an alien symbiote named Venom (Voiced by Tom Hardy), which gave him enhanced speed, strength, and the power to control the symbiote’s gloopy exterior. He’s encountered a number of other symbiotes, a serial killer with what looks like a Ronald McDonald wig, and the killer’s severely mentally ill girlfriend. Over time, Eddie has lost his job as a journalist, lost his beloved fiancee, and gotten drunk at a bar in another dimension.

But Eddie has Venom, so that’s something. After having defeated the aforementioned serial killer with Ronald McDonald hair, Eddie and Venom become fugitives. In their own not-at-all-low-key way, the two of them go on the run. They have a vague plan (with symbiotes, I expect making specific plans is tricky) to travel to New York, partially so that Venom can see the Statue of Liberty and receive Lady Liberty’s traditional welcome.

Unfortunately, since Eddie and Venom are on the run, sightseeing will have to wait. They’re partially being pursued by a shadowy (is there any other kind?) group of government operatives. Their leader is Strickland (Chiwitel Ejiofor), a tough military officer who believes the only good symbiote is a dead symbiote. He’s uncomfortably partnered with the scientist Dr. Payne (Juno Temple), who wants to understand the nature of the symbiotes.

Their other pursuer is…um…not from around here. He is Knull (Andy Serkis), the God of Symbiotes, the King in Black, a being trapped in an extradimensional prison (and a being that doesn’t show up in the movie very much). Luckily for him, he has an army of Xenophages, which are essentially fiendish beasties specializing in demolishing symbiotes. One of them is on Earth, and it would like very much to eat Venom. Eddie and Venom must travel through the American Southwest, face their tormentors, and maybe learn a little about each other along the way.

Ordinarily with trilogies, they start off solid and get worse as they progress. This trilogy works in exactly the opposite way. I largely didn’t like Venom, with the exception of Tom Hardy’s enjoyably batty performance. The sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, was a little better, but mostly when it leaned into Eddie and Venom’s unorthodox relationship. While Venom: The Last Dance isn’t exactly an Oscar caliber film, I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t have fun with it.

Kelly Marcel takes the directing reins this time out. She also co-wrote the previous films in the franchise, and I wonder if she’s not responsible for the uptick in charming insanity here. She’s made a film that, on the one hand, features some spectacular nonsense. If you’re looking for a Venom-ized horse, a river chase sequence with a number of animals being briefly possessed by Venom, a ludicrous Las Vegas dance number featuring franchise all-star Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu), or a climax involving a bunch of symbiotes involved in clever action, then you’ll have a good time with this one. That is, presuming your definition of a good time involves the Weird-Shit-O-Meter getting jacked up. The film hums along nicely when either symbiote stuff is happening, or when the odd couple of Eddie/Venom crash into “normal” situations.

On the other hand, the pacing drags when Eddie/Venom aren’t the subjects of scenes. That’s mostly a problem with the screenplay by Marcel, with a story assist by Hardy. I was never interested in the subplots involving the military, scientists, or the brief appearances of Knull. Part of my issue is that Eddie/Venom don’t have a compelling antagonist to struggle against. Instead, they have Knull’s Xenophage, which is a personality-free destructive monster, and Strickland’s soldiers, who only show up to die. The other problematic aspect is that, yet again, we’re seeing the military trying to hunt down a monster. We’re also, yet again, seeing a hard-edged officer in conflict with scientists who “just want to understand” the monster. Those dynamics have been done roughly a gajillion times already. A fresh approach to that concept would have made things much more interesting. 

But that’s only part of the screenplay, and when it cooks, it cooks. In my review of the first installment in theVenom franchise, I wrote, “The two…er…one of them bickering creates a strange romantic tension. If I thought the script was smart enough, I’d swear they were adding in clever queer subtext. But it isn’t, so they aren’t.” Looking back, I think that sentiment was overly snide. It’s different here, and I mean that in the best way. Eddie and Venom, in their highly specific way, are in love. They care deeply for each other, plan a future together, can’t really imagine life without each other. Rather than queer subtext, it’s queer text, and it works incredibly well here.*** Along with that are entertaining character moments, such as Eddie/Venom befriending a nomadic hippie family. Most superhero movies fixate on either fight scenes, lore, or character information that directly has to do with the protagonist’s past or love life. They generally don’t show the hero just…hanging out for a while. This script makes that choice, and it’s a smart one.

The cast is solid, though they orbit around Tom Hardy’s enthusiastically bonkers performance. I was a little disappointed that the mighty Chiwitel Ejiofor wasn’t given more to do as Strickland. He’s playing the role of a tough soldier, and only has that concept to fall back on as a character. The same goes for Juno Temple’s Dr. Payne, and I think had she been allowed a more specific take on the scientist, she would have shone. Having said that, Rhys Ifans, Alanna Ubach, Hala Finley, and Dash McCloud as the free-spirited Moon family are fun. They’re playing characters from an indie comedy that crashed into a big-budget superhero movie, and that feels like the right choice. Speaking of right choices, Tom Hardy seems to be having an absolute blast as Eddie and the voice of Venom. As in the prior two films, Hardy portrays Eddie as a good-hearted dude trapped in the body of a twitchy weirdo.**** He’s understandably always on the verge of panic, and the one thing he’s accepted about his deeply strange life is that he’s come to love the cheerfully murderous cosmic horror that’s bonded with him.

Most superhero movies aren’t willing to entertain strangeness as much as they should. Pity, since we’re talking about a genre that features a heroic arms dealer, a man who thinks dressing as a bat and assaulting the mentally ill will improve a city, and a patriot who gets superpowers from super-steroids. When Venom: The Last Dance leans into the weirdness and steps away from standard plot points, it pushes the envelope of the genre in an unexpected direction. More of that, please.

*Yes, I’m apparently a limited conversationalist.

**His response was crime movies, and the more I think about it, the more I think he might be on to something.

***I genuinely want a movie where Eddie and Venom win a trip to Hawaii, accidentally crash a wedding luau, and generally bicker lovingly all throughout.

****For a rock-solid Hardy performance where he’s playing a regular guy, check out the underloved crime film The Drop.

Tim Brennan Movie Critic

Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.