Originally published to 8 News Now on October 25, 2024.

It’s incredible that Venom, a character primarily known as a Spider-Man villain, albeit a beloved one, has earned a trilogy of films with no webhead in sight. Once again, Tom Hardy plays the symbiotic alien that bonds with human Eddie Brock as the two set off on another odd-couple road trip mixed with superhero action in Venom: The Last Dance.

As fun as that might sound, the third Venom film would undoubtedly be the best comic book movie of 2004. Unfortunately, a check of the calendar confirms that the year is 2024, and the original film’s throwback charm has mostly lost its luster.

Tom Hardy seemed to be having a great time in the original Venom and its sequel. This remains true in The Last Dance, and while everything around him is a calamity, it is nice to see our lead actor and his CG-created counterpart enjoying themselves onscreen. However, when Hardy isn’t onscreen, the whole product nosedives into infuriating mediocrity.

Another positive is that the Venom CG effects look cooler than ever. Credit must be given to the army of visual artists who developed the look of this Venom. As a bonus, the credits feature some of the coolest visuals of the entire movie as various animals are depicted as having bonded with the symbiote. Those Venom-ized characters are worth sticking around for.

That’s where the praise ends, however, as Venom: The Last Dance itself just isn’t worth sticking around for. Inexplicably, high-profile actors Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor signed on for The Last Dance. They come out embarrassingly underutilized and unnecessary through no fault of their own. They’re simply not given anything to chew on in their paper-thin roles.

Venom: The Last Dance will go down as a forgettable third act in a forgettable trilogy that provided an initial retro appeal but ultimately proved that Venom shouldn’t exist onscreen without Spider-Man. Hopefully everyone had fun, but it’s time to bring Venom back to the role he belongs, a darkened mirror image of our otherwise friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.