Overview
Eddie and Venom are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo are forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie's last dance.
I’ll take a quick moment to just make clear that I haven’t been a fan of the previous Venom films, and indeed aren’t really a fan of the comic book character – he is fine as an opponent to Spider-Man, but in his own runs (aside from Agent Venom) he never really worked for me. That said, I settled in to watch this final part of the trilogy with the intention of seeking out some positives, and not dwelling on negatives, putting my preconceptions to one side to analyse the film from a critical, not personal, standpoint.
Unfortunately, as the film opened with an exposition dump monologue by the creator of the symbiotes, Knull (voiced by Andy Serkis), which made clear that none of this had been built up to over previous film, I knew I was in for a bumpy ride. You see, as interesting as Knull is in the comics (The King In Black storyline played across the Marvel titles), this trilogy should have at least hinted at the larger threat in the previous films, rather than just forcing it into here with what amounts to a “here’s what we forgot to tell you” speech at the start. To then not actually do anything with Knull for the film, instead he sends his Xenophage trackers to hunt down Eddie and Venom because they carry a ‘codex’ that can free Knull, seems like a waste, or a forced attempt to try to push for more films after this promised final entry.
With the idea of the codex comes another issue – this is lazily plotted with contradictory aspects throughout. Right from the start when Knull (who is imprisoned) sends his trackers out with the promise of granting them “their freedom” if they release him, I was wondering why they need freedom when they can portal travel around the galaxy? The codex, which Venom and Eddie have because Eddie died and Venom revived him, is explained as something that happens whenever a symbiote brings the dead to life – but then multiple other symbiotes do the same but never result in a codex? The whole plotline of the film is just a babbling mess of ideas to throw some random action moments involving symbiotes and Xenos at the screen.
In addition, and here’s my main issue with all three of these films, tonally the film is all over the place. The character of Eddie and Venom is played like a joke throughout, even when there are some darker moments of death or reflection on display, and the result is messy. Tom Hardy clearly has too much input here (he co-wrote the story), and he clearly wants to have fun with the bickering relationship between himself and Venom, but sadly it doesn’t balance well with the rest of the film. Around Hardy, the support cast don’t offer much – Rhys Ifans’ character and his family are a distraction at best, but their removal from the film wouldn’t have made a difference. Juno Temple seems to be trying so desperately to portray an American accent that she forgets to actually act. Stephen Graham looks bored to be there. Everyone is as two dimensional as the pages of the comics which inspired the film.
Look, this isn’t as bad as the second film, but it isn’t as good as the first film. If you are a fan of the previous entries, then I reckon you will get a fair bit of enjoyment from this. However all this trilogy has demonstrated to me is that Venom without Spider-Man doesn’t work cinematically, especially when it is burdened with weak story and uneven tone.