Eddie Brock and his slimy symbiote only briefly slipped through a glowing portal to find themselves in the… World of the Avengers to look around. While fans are hoping for a Spider-Man crossover, Tom Hardy’s anti-hero is fed up after just a few minutes. Enough with the multiverse stuff, he trumpets at the beginning of Venom: The Last Dance and retreats to his own universe.
This universe is officially named Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) and, in addition to Venom, houses the Marvel characters Madame Web, Morbius and soon Kraven the Hunter. However, it quickly becomes clear that the third Venom film would ideally be at home in a completely different universe, namely the one in which Steven Spielberg’s early science fiction films are based.
That alone turns Venom: The Last Dance into an interesting finale.
In Venom 3, no one can call home anymore: because home is a monstrous world-eater
However, the prologue of Venom: The Last Dance couldn’t be further from the emotions that Spielberg captures on screen. What happens here in the first few minutes is more like one ice cold heavy metal nightmare: Top villain Knull (Andy Serkis in his most hateful voice) sends his henchmen to find the key to his freedom. And he’s hiding in Venom.
You can watch the trailer for Venom: The Last Dance here:
Venom: The Last Dance – Trailer (German) HD
A nasty environment full of shadows, spikes and slime, with a mighty throne in between: Knull looks as if Death himself wants to conjure up hell on earth from the afterlife, and, well, that’s more or less his plan. Venom and Eddie Brock are now on the Escape from the symbiote godwho sees himself more as a vengeful world eater than a father figure.
No wonder the US government is skeptical about aliens escaping to Earth. Because of immigration: In contrast to Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple) sees soldier Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) showing signs of one Invasion from space and opens the hunt for everything that is foreign to him. Meanwhile, Eddie and his more brutal half dream of New York – and the Statue of Liberty, which welcomes everyone.
For a superhero series that has so far asserted itself as a dull, vulgar counterpart to the finely networked storytelling of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Venom: The Last Dance offers some brooding thoughts. They already have Aliens like Superman busy and are now also loud in the SSU when the Venom finale climbs over the fence of Area 51 and dives into Area 55 below.
From ET to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Venom 3 dances with Steven Spielberg’s early sci-fi films
Here at the latest, the film written and directed by Kelly Marcel follows in the footsteps of Steven Spielberg. Marcel, the screenwriter and producer of the first two parts played a key role in shaping it and now making her directorial debut, turns Venom: The Last Dance into a road movie on the way to ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. A welcome surprise.
Even a little boy staring at the sky with wonder in his eyes is part of this unexpected story, and at the same time the most obvious indication of how Venom: The Last Dance rubs shoulders with its Spielbergian inspiration. Because the boy looks into the darkness not so much in amazement, but in fear. Under no circumstances does he want to see an alien. He’s extremely afraid of that, as he reveals to Eddie/Venom of all people.
Where Knull completely fails as a father, Eddie, with Venom’s whispering voice in his ear, scores bonus points with the boy – only to discover that he too can become an innocent child’s worst nightmare. Or as the slimy symbiote puts it: Reason for lifelong therapy. It doesn’t even take Venom’s disturbing appearance to frame Eddie as a serial killer.
With stolen shoes, torn clothes and scratches on his face, he makes his way through America. Rambles incomprehensible, incoherent sentences in front of himself and is not at a loss for a fistfight. Nobody would pack this stranger and his family into a van and head towards Area 51 in good spirits. But this is exactly the feat that Venom: The Last Dance achieves.
A drooling symbiote turns Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi cinema on its head – and it’s unexpectedly touching
The film’s most astonishing scene packs the dejected Eddie into a hippie bus in which David Bowie’s Space Oddity is sung as a family anthem. A splendid balancing act on the brink of cringe. In reality, the gate to Eddie’s lonely togetherness opens between Ground Control and Major Tom, so that we look forward to the eerie encounter of the third kind with heartbreaking foreboding.
The security of Spielberg’s sensitive sci-fi stories shines deeply in this scene. And at the same time awareness of them is bubbling uninhibited attitudewhich Venom has been showing off in theaters for six years. Will we experience the miracle of first contact straight away or will a disgusting monster head with fangs shoot out of Eddie’s back and lustfully devour everything that gets in its way?
Venom: The Last Dance puts Spielberg’s astonished gaze to the test and tells of a human-alien conflict that escalates to warlike proportions no one dares to call home. Because this home no longer exists. Because there is a dark monster lurking there. Or worse: because this home, this monster, tracks you down exactly when you have forgotten it.
And then the film also tears up the most iconic ET image: the Touch of fingertips. Marcel stages the moment with a wink and stops before the spark ignites – another reference in the brutal Venom mode. But secretly also a preparation for the fact that Eddie Brock’s universe is not a protected Spielberg world. The farewell is rough. And full of acid.
Is Venom: The Last Dance a subversive Marvel masterpiece? The answer is: not really. The film visibly feels comfortable in the cinematically completely unambitious framework that its predecessors set. Nevertheless, the Spielberg references tickle some interesting ideas and motifs out, which are undoubtedly anchored in the script. This last dance was definitely not an uninteresting conclusion.
Venom: The Last Dance has been running since then October 24, 2024 in the cinema.