How serious do you think Marvel is with the subtitle in Venom: The Last Dance?  Is it an indication of what audiences have been suggesting with their patronage, or lack thereof, that their cinematic offerings are beginning to lose their appeal?  Even for me, a fan since the days when it was primarily a comic book company, their films are increasingly becoming stale.  I had that moment while watching the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), or whatever this belongs to (does it matter?), when I wondered whether any of what I was seeing meant anything to me.  As all these releases seem to do, it relies on you remembering things that happened in previous entries in their various franchises.  I barely recall anything from the first two in this Venom trilogy outside of the fact that Woody Harrelson was in Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021).  I guess he died because he is not in Venom: The Last Dance.  I suppose there are themes in it that can satisfy a Catholic reviewer like myself, like sacrifice.  Otherwise, it is a pretty big yawn, though I do hope you stick with me through what I have to say about it.

It may be Venom: The Last Dance, but we are first treated to a backstory about a villain who we never fully meet named Knull (Andy Serkis).  He lives beyond time and the universe, but is so evil that his home in the void is a prison, and he was put there by the symbiotes.  The MacGuffin, er, item he needs to free himself and conquer the universe is a “codex.”  Unsurprisingly, the one being in existence who has this is Venom (voiced by Tom Hardy) and his living host, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy).  Using a scene taken from Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Eddie and Venom are in a bar in Mexico chatting with the man (Cristo Fernández) serving them drinks about events from films like Avengers: Endgame (2019).  Eddie is getting caught up with those events when he is yanked back to his own universe for Venom: The Last Dance.  It is pretty much the same location, and a news story on the establishment’s television reminds Eddie/Venom that they are on the run for whatever it is that happened in the movie before this one.  He is wanted by the American government, who seems to know about the relationship between human and symbiote.  He is watched by somebody who we never meet who is standing in front of banks of computer screens plugged into surveillance cameras around the world.  With such resources at this person’s disposal, whoever he is, he is able to identify Eddie going into a warehouse where there are a number of dogs being bred in captivity for fighting.  Eddie and Venom have an agreement that allows the alien to eat humans as long as they are bad guys.  This is when Eddie turns into Venom.  Yet, doing so also brings the attention of the xenophage, a monster sent to Earth to find the codex residing inside Venom.  The only time these virtually unstoppable creatures cannot detect the codex is when Eddie is in human form.  This is something Venom informs him of as they try to make their way to New York City to hide from the authorities, but also because the visitor from another planet wants to see the Statue of Liberty.  As they essentially glue themselves to an eastward bound jet, a xenophage attacks them.  Meanwhile, underneath Area 51, which is slowly being “decommissioned,” is Area 55, a lab dedicated to studying other symbiotes that have come to Earth.  It is run by the military under General Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor), with scientific research being done by Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple).  She is living out her brother’s dream of working for the government in the pursuit of extra-terrestrial life, though he died somehow at her hands with they were children.  Like much of what happens in the film, it is a half-baked idea that ultimately goes nowhere.  General Strickland goes after Eddie/Venom when the military man learns of their location, but the xenophage finds them, too.  General Strickland watches from the air as his men are killed by an invisible beast and Eddie and Venom escape.  They are found in the woods by hippie alien enthusiasts Martin (Rhys Ifans) and Nova Moon (Alanna Ubach) and their two children.  Though the Martins are on the trail of otherworldly visitors, they kindly offer Eddie/Venom a ride to Las Vegas.  Doing so, of course, puts them back on General Strickland’s radar.  That would have been their only trouble had they not happened to find at the casino Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu), the convenience store proprietor from their neighborhood in San Francisco.  She knows about Venom, who insists on taking over a bit so that he can have a dance with Mrs. Chen.  I guess they have to honor the subtitle?  All this does is bring the xenophage, though Venom goes back inside Eddie, rendering them invisible to the monster.  The ones who can see them are General Strickland’s next task force, who manages to separate Eddie from Venom and take them prisoner to Area 55.  By this point, General Strickland has learned from another symbiote about the impending invasion of Knull and believes the only way to stop it is by murdering Eddie/Venom.  What prevents Eddie from dying is re-bonding with Venom, which, of course, brings the xenophage.  The destruction wrought by the creature leads to Dr. Payne releasing the other symbiotes they have contained in the facility, which bond to nearby hosts to help the fight.  And, of course, the Martins are nearby, having snuck into Area 51 to witness the chaos that spills out onto the surface.  In the end, with more xenophage being directed here by Knull, Venom absorbs them, tossing Eddie out and drenching them all in an acid bath.  The nonsense ends with Eddie finally getting to New York City and staring at the Stature of Liberty.

Through all the plot dead-ends and padding in Venom: The Last Dance, at least they stick with the notion of Eddie going to New York City.  I do not understand the logic of heading to such a highly surveilled location when you are trying to lay low, but at least it is something that meets its stated conclusion.  There is also symbolism in the famous French-donated symbol of freedom.  The symbiotes are portrayed essentially as asylum seekers, or more plainly, immigrants.  They all seem to know about this Knull character, who is supposed to be pure evil, and are trying to hide from him on Earth.  On the Statue of Liberty there is a plaque that is inscribed with words from a poem called “The New Colossus.”  It is only the last fine lines that anyone ever remembers, so that is what I will now give to you: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”  They were written by Emma Lazarus, an immigrant rights activist, who also had a close friend who went on to found an order of Catholic nuns.  Such prose is in tune with Catholic social teaching, which calls for society to take care of those “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”  While we only get roughly eight symbiotes, I would say that their few numbers at least make them “huddled?”  I am grasping here, but the care that Dr. Payne has for them at least puts her efforts in a Christian light.

One subject in Venom: The Last Dance that requires no grasping is sacrifice.  For Christians, it begins and ends with John 15:13, “There is no greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  This fits well with the film since Eddie is constantly referring to Venom as “buddy” or “pal.”  These nicknames are not delivered sarcastically either, but with complete sincerity.  Despite calling themselves the “Lethal Protector,” which is not Christian sounding, it is Venom that appears to have the most care for friends, while Eddie worries about the damage done to bad guys.  In other words, it is not perfect, so let us focus instead on Venom’s actions.  Each time the xenophage finds them, it is because Venom has taken over, thus activating the codex like a beacon.  The symbiote does this knowing the consequences and in order to take care of his human host.  The reason for the codex is the bond they share, which came from some kind of sacrifice Eddie made for Venom in a pervious film.  They explain it further in the movie, but it is an extraneous detail here.  What elevates Venom’s actions in the final moments is the stakes involved for the rest of our planet.  Without destroying himself and the codex as it is understood by now, the entire universe would be at risk.  Again, this is a common trope, particularly in superhero flicks, and this sort of thing has occurred in other MCU entries.  Yet, when the story is as thin as this one, you will take it.

I realize that saying the plot is thin in Venom: The Last Dance is not the most flattering thing to say about it, or original.  I want to be charitable toward it, even though it is not as funny as it probably hopes it is.  Is this truly the “last dance” for Hardy playing the character?  Who knows?  As such, there is not much to recommend it, but also little to warn you away from it.