Venom: The Last Dance

Playing Eddie and Venom, Tom Hardy wrings a surprising amount of sentiment from a performance that essentially involves talking to himself, and the film derives its tender tone from the notion that this partnership might finally have to come to an end.

An absolute car crash of a film. That's not to say that bits of it aren't entertaining... if you throw enough poop at the wall, then some of it it's gonna stick.

Venom: The Last Dance is not some great comic book superhero masterpiece, and neither were the first two pieces of this trilogy. But Hardy and Marcel had a game plan and they steadfastly followed it all the way to the end. I respect that.

The comedy is below par, the set-pieces distinctly unmemorable and the plot holes are gaping.

Billed as the final instalment of the Venom trilogy and feels like a contractual obligation for nearly everyone concerned.

The Last Dance remains steadfast in the franchise’s commitment to storytelling that, like a pot of water that never quite hits boiling point, is neither so-bad-it’s-good nor so bad it’s raucously entertaining, even if only unintentionally so.

As far as road trip tales go, “Venom: The Last Dance” finds a steady route.

Marcel does understand that humour is the key to engaging with this character, the "buddy comedy" interplay between Eddie and Venom, and she gives the film a light touch with plenty of charming moments.

So it's entirely possible that this movie felt like a letdown because the first two were decent and Tom Hardy is delightful but everybody involved just ran out of steam and gave up and decided to bum everybody out.

The tired dynamic between Eddie and Venom, underdeveloped new characters, and a weak central antagonist make Venom: The Last Dance the most uninspired entry in the series.