The Dark Herald Recommends: Venom 3 – The Last Dance
Well, it is the best of the Venom movies. I do have to give it that. Even if that is about the same as being the finest hockey player in Zimbabwe. It did have a few things going for it that the others didn’t. I can actually remember what happened during this movie. That’s new for Venom.
Due to some arcane filmmaking technique known only to Sony Marvel. The previous Venom films stubbornly refuse to move from short-term memory register to long-term. Sony should sell it to the US government. Likely they have, come to think of it. But the result is that you really are hard-pressed to recall anything that happens in a Sony Marvel movie. Morbius, Venom, I can’t even remember what happened in the Kraven trailer, although I do remember it looked stupid.
But this time I can recall most of the events, whether that is an improvemen, well…
Tom Hardy appears to be done with the superhero bullshit and wants to go back to being a respected actor. Sony Marvel was in a state of flux when the last Venom film was released in 2021.
Quick reminder. Sony Marvel is technically the same studio as Disney Marvel. However, back in 1998 Sony/Columbia bought a license from the pre-Disney Marvel to use Spiderman and all related Spiderman properties. Sony Columbia has full creative control, but it has been a roller coaster for them.
The first series with Toby Macguire did mostly great business.
The second series with Andrew Garfield was a bit more mixed. Amazing Spiderman pulled in $750 million against a budget of $200 million. Amazing Spider-Man 2 came in lower at $700 million against a similar budget. Reviews and audience scores were both hovering around 50% approval. It was a serious underperformance. It was on it’s way down. This was at a point where Disney Marvel was routinely pulling down $1 billion per movie. Clearly, Sony Marvel had problems.
In February 2015 a deal was reached with Disney Marvel for their assistance. This was before Fiege was given full creative control and disbanded the Marvel brain trust that had been holding his worst instincts in check. Disney would pick a new Spider-Man and would help Sony with their next three Spider-Man pictures, in exchange this shared Spider-Man would be contracted for three Sony Marvel movies and three Disney Marvel movies with a few shorts for promotional purposes thrown in. All iterations of related characters to be jointly shared.
Spiderman Homecoming was a true collaboration with Disney Marvel mostly in the lead. However, Disney’s involvement was rumored to be dialed back considerably for Spider-Man Far From Home and there was notable friction with Disney’s involvement reportedly kept to a minimum in Spider-Man No Way Home. At the end of the movie, iterations of jointly held characters such as Zendaya Coleman’s Mary Jane were effectively written out of the franchise by the end of the movie.
There were two issues in play at this time. Sony was feeling confident enough to create their own superhero franchises using all of the Spider-Man characters they had acquired the rights to in 1998. Venom, Morbius, Kraven, and the rest of the Spider-Gang. The first Venom movie, which was made without Disney’s help, pulled in a very promising $850 million. Sony thought it was ready to go it alone, so they didn’t want a new deal with Disney.
Disney Marvel was also reluctant to deal as well because there was a serious possibility that they could regain the rights to all Spider-Man characters for a grand total price of $0.00. Columbia Pictures had been underperforming for years and film executives like Amy Pascal had been the kind of drama queens that the Japanese are never fond of. Consequently, Sony was seriously looking at the possibility of selling off Columbia Pictures. If Columbia acquired a new owner then the 1998 license would be immediately canceled as it is completely non-transferrable. If Sony sold Columbia then Disney would automatically get Spidey and company for free.
At the end of Venom 2, Venom and Eddie (I actually had to look up the character’s name) had landed in the Tom Holland Spider-Man universe. This is a very strongly implied promise that we would finally see a Spider-Man Venom fight.
However, a few things have changed since then. Venom 2 lost money at $500 million. Morbius was an outright bomb at $162 million. Madame Webb was obviously going to flop long before it got near the theaters.
Disney/Marvel hasn’t been doing all that well either. Consequently, it’s now in both their interests to create a new Spider-Man given that No Way Home raked in $2 billion. It was no longer in anyone’s interest (except the fans) to have a Venom match up
Consequently, Tom Hardy wanted out but he also wanted a lot more control of the last movie. And since Sony didn’t know what else to do with Venom 3 they let him have it.
This turned out to be a good idea. The relationship between the characters of Eddie and Venom are at least well-established, even if no one remembers what they’ve done together. Tom Hardy wanted there to be a decent ending if nothing else and the film… Startlingly enough, delivers on that.
The film opens with Eddie arriving through some glowing-portal-plot-contrivance and Venom declaring, “I’ve had it with this multiverse bullshit!” Okay, that was a promising start.
Eddie finds out he’s a fugitive because he’s been blamed for the murder of a character from the last movie named Mulligan (who actually isn’t dead). Venom eats some bad guys and then they run off so the movie can happen.
Cut scene and we are introduced to the new big bad. It’s Knull, the creator of the Venom symbiotes. For those not in the know, he’s an established god-tier Marvel villain. He’s way above Venom in terms of power, he’s up there with Thanos. Knull sends out his minions to find a “codex,” that will release him from this imprisonment.
Cut to an Area 51 that is being shut down. Okay, forget about any real-world stuff you know about Groom Lake. Here is what it is in the Venomverse. In 1947 there was a starship wreck in Roswell and the ship carried 8 venom symbiotes. There is an Army General who is in charge of keeping them contained. I have no idea why he let Eddie and Venom run around free for two movies but he’s on the case now.
They set out to pick him up and they have specialized sonic weapons that stun-lock Venom.
Eddie and Venom find out that one of Knull’s Trackers is after them because – Here’s the bullshit plot device – a “codex” is formed when a symbiote’s host is killed and then revived by the symbiote, which did happen to Eddie. So Eddie and Venom have a codex. The codex can be tracked by the Tracker when the symbiote is fully manifested (when Venom looks like Venom).
So Venom has to stay below the surface. This is a problem since Venom famously has control issues. The middle of the film is a muddle. A conflict with the General is established when he loses a squad trying to capture Venom. Eddie and Partner end up in Vegas. Apparently, the only reason they do this is so that Venom can have a ballroom dance with Mrs. Chen (from some previous Venom movies) to Abba’s Dancing Queen.
Then Venom and Eddie are captured so the movie can end.
Eddie runs into Muligan in the Area 51 prison. Muligan’s symbiote brings him up to speed on things then the Tracker arrives and kills Mulligan and Company. The rest of the symbiotes are released and there is a long protracted CGI fight scene. It’s not as bad as the usual Marvel production because Disney wasn’t allowed to screw it up. Eventually, the rest of the symbiotes are killed by the Tracker effortlessly. Then Venom swallows the Tracker and pours “Hyper-Acid” all over himself, heroically sacrificing himself, even though Venom isn’t all that heroic. There was a She-Venom left over in case this movie does better at the box office than I think it will.
In the end credit scene, Knull ends up escaping anyway. So Venom’s sacrifice was for nothing. Good job movie!
I’m making this flick seem worse than it really is. I would absolutely put it ahead of most of the Marvel movies I’ve seen since 2017. Structurally, it’s sounder than Deadpool and Wolverine but not by much. It leaves The Marvels in the dust, so it has that going for it. All in all, a nice way to end a movie series.
Eddie and Venom have a buddy story that is well-established, and Tom Hardy slipped into the role like a comfortable, old pair of Red Wing work boots. Never gonna win a fashion award but will get the job done. At the end of the day, men will always love a good enemies to brothers tale
It stuck the landing even if the rest of the movies were a series of literally unmemorable events.
If your sons want to see it, it’s not gory or Woke and I can think of worse ways to kill a couple of hours.
The Dark Herald Recommends with (little) Confidence (3.1/5)
