Venom: The Last Dance is hitting theaters soon and it’s still kind of boggling to me that this franchise made it to three movies. Venom as a character is intrinsically linked to Spider-Man, but the two characters aren’t connected at all in the films. Plus, Sony’s other spinoff movies include the critically reviled Madame Web and Morbius, the latter of which might be the only film in box office history to bomb twice.
Yet the Venom movies have slowly managed to become fan-favorites; with the third entry building up plenty of buzz as the grand finale of the trilogy. So how did we get here from a premise so seemingly destined to not work? Well, let’s look back at those first two movies and see if we can figure it out.
Venom (2018)
Our story centers on Eddie Brock, played by Tom Hardy, an investigative journalist who loses it all after asking too many questions about an Elon Musk pastiche named Carlton Drake, played by Riz Ahmed. However, Eddie is soon vindicated as he discovers that Drake is conducting dangerous experiments to force humans to bond with alien symbiotes, one of which then latches onto Eddie.
Unlike most of Drake’s experiments, Eddie ends up being a perfect match with the symbiote, named Venom, and the two of them are able to perform incredible feats of speed, agility, and strength when bonded. The two have a brief falling out before reuniting to stop Drake, now also bonded with a symbiote to become Riot, from launching himself into space to recruit more soldiers from the symbiote home world. The two barely escape with their lives and start anew as anti-hero crime-fighting partners.
Admittedly, there is a lot about Venom that doesn’t work. It is clearly and sloppily edited down from an R to a PG-13, the villain is extremely generic, and most of the supporting cast are kind of just there. But outside of some fun action and brisk pacing, there is one other element of this movie that does work and that’s Tom Hardy himself.
Hardy’s manic energy, genuine emotion, and compelling back-and-forth with the symbiote (which he also voices), make his performance wildly entertaining. You can never tell quite what he’s going to do next but you know it’s going to be an absolute joy to watch. And I don’t think this is an unintended “so bad it’s good” situation either. You don’t climb into a live lobster tank by accident.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
While the first Venom didn’t particularly impress critics, its fan-favorite status and $856 million box office return meant a sequel was inevitable. And the first film already laid the ground for the sequel in its mid-credits scene, wherein Eddie Brock visits an imprisoned Cletus Kasady, played by Woody Harrelson wearing the worst wig ever committed to film, who promises that “there’s gonna be carnage” upon his escape.
As Venom: Let There Be Carnage opens, Eddie Brock is hoping to get back on his feet as a journalist through a once-in-a-lifetime interview with serial killer Cletus Kasady, played again by Woody Harrelson in a slightly less bad but nonetheless terrible wig. Right before Cletus is scheduled to be executed, Venom has an outburst that causes the serial killer to swallow some symbiote goo, transforming him into Carnage.
As Eddie and Venom struggle to work and live together, with Venom even going off on his own at one point; Cletus and Carnage rescue Cletus’s old girlfriend Francis, played by Naomie Harris, and the trio embark on a Bonnie and Clyde-style rampage across the state of California. The whole thing culminates in Cletus and Francis’ wedding; wherein Eddie and Venom reunite and use their stronger symbiotic bond to turn Francis’ sound powers against Carnage and stop him before he kills anyone else, even if that turns the two of them into fugitives in the process.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage is, like the first movie, a bit messy. Once again, the editing done to make it a PG-13 is distractingly obvious, character arcs feel rushed, and even the movie itself eventually admits that Dan, Eddie’s ex-girlfriend’s new fiance, is almost entirely useless. Yet there are several areas in which the film genuinely improves upon its predecessor.
For one, Woody Harrelson as Carnage is a much better villain. He’s funny, he’s got menace, the red color scheme makes him much easier to distinguish from Venom compared to the silver color scheme of the first film’s Riot, and Harrelson’s energy and delivery help him stand toe-to-toe with Hardy. And Tom Hardy, the major element that elevated the first film, is even better here.
Let There Be Carnage‘s true secret weapon is realizing how many people adored Eddie and Venom’s dynamic and simply leaning into that to turn the film into an Odd Couple romantic comedy. While the two aren’t an explicitly canon couple, the coding is clearly there (For example, there’s a scene where Venom goes to a queer rave after “breaking up” with Eddie and says “I’m out of the Eddie closet.”) and that element allows for the film to have a more compelling and fresh central relationship at its core compared to most other superhero movies.
What does this mean for Venom: The Last Dance?
Venom: Let There Be Carnage ended on a mid-credits tease of Venom joining the MCU and facing off against Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. A tease that was quickly undone by Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s post-credits revealing that Eddie had spent the entirety of that film’s multiverse-shaking events in a bar before being unceremoniously plopped back into his home universe.
So, where does that leave Venom: The Last Dance then? Well, it looks like Eddie and Venom are still on the run after the events of the last movie and they’ll be facing off in an epic battle against the symbiote creator Knull that may or may not result in their burgeoning queer romance ending in tragedy. But will it be any good? Well, did you think the last two were any good?
Both of these films are deeply imperfect. They are hastily edited from R to PG-13, the storytelling tends to be rather sloppy and rushed, and the supporting cast is so superfluous that it didn’t even occur to me until double-checking the cast list that they didn’t bother to bring back Michelle Williams for The Last Dance.
Yet there’s something in these two movies that feels sorely missing from Sony’s other Spider-Man spinoffs: charm. Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage are, for all their faults, charming. Tom Hardy is excellent, neither film overstays its welcome, and the goofy and chaotic nature of the proceedings can’t help but be entertaining. So if Venom: The Last Dance can maintain that charm, I’d say we’re in for a good time.
Venom: The Last Dance arrives in theaters on October 25.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
