Venom: The Last Dance stays firmly in its ridiculous lane

Though neither of Sony's previous standalone Venom movies were cinematic gems, their strange blend of Odd Couple humor and bloodless body horror were enough to put them squarely in so-bad-they're-kinda-fun territory. It was hard to imagine a Venom feature - let alone a franchise - really working without a Spider-Man in the mix. But the box-office success of the films made it clear that something about Tom Hardy's take on the lethal protector was working for audiences and all but ensured that Sony would go for a third installment.

Venom: The Last Dance from writer / director Kelly Marcel is neither better nor worse than its predecessors. It feels like a film that's trying to stick to the beats it knows it can pull off well. Instead of diving into the multiverse to wow you with crossovers, the movie plays to the franchise's strengths with a story that's mostly about the ups and downs of being in a long-term relationship. And while The Last Dance doesn't exactly deliver on the iffy but intriguing comic madness Sony has been teasing, it does bring this gooey, gory bit of ridiculous adaptation to a fitting end.

As chaotic as the first two Venom films were, they were also a fairly straightforward account of how disgraced journalist Eddie Brock's (Hardy) life was repeatedly upended by the arrival of Venom (also Hardy), one of many parasitic aliens that crash-landed on Earth. Unlike other symbiote / host bonds that proved to be fatal, Eddie and Venom grew stronger because of their connection and found purpose in one another as they grew accustomed to sharing a body. The two had their fights and hit a big emotional rough patch, but they were always able to work things out when faced with a new deadly threat. The Last Dance picks up soon after Let There Be Carnage, which ended on a cliffhanger in another dimension. 

At first, it seems like the movie is using its multiversal connection to the MCU to pivot from its narrative past and start things over in a world filled with Marvel-branded superheroes. But The Last Dance instead decides to keep things focused on just how much has happened to Eddie and Venom in their universe during the surprisingly short amount of time they've been together.

Especially after Deadpool & Wolverine, the way The Last Dance basically gives the multiverse the middle finger is kind of refreshing and makes it feel like Sony and Marcel - who also wrote the first two Venom films - are trying to stay in a very specific lane, similar to Madame Web's.

As much as fans might want to see Venom in New York beefing with Spider-Man, that's just not what this franchise has been building to (yet). These are films about a haggard failson trying to hold his life together with the help of a wise-cracking goo monster who longs for the taste of human brains. And The Last Dance brings Eddie and Venom's story to a close by confronting them with the consequences of their past adventures.

With the government finally realizing how many strange deaths and symbiote incidents he's connected to, Eddie is on the run somewhere in Mexico as The Last Dance first opens. It seems like there's nowhere Venom and Eddie can hide without special-ops soldier Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his team finding them. But the duo figure - sort of unreasonably - that they might have a chance of disappearing into the shadows if they can just make it to New York City.