"Venom: The Last Dance" Pirouettes and Rolls an Ankle

Director: Kelly Marcel

Writers: Kelly Marcel, Tom Hardy

Cast: Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham, Peggy Lu, Clark Backo

Studio: Columbia Pictures/Sony Distribution, Marvel Entertainment, Arad Productions

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When Sony's foster child of the Marvel Cinematic Universe teased the idea of bringing Venom (Tom Hardy) to the screen, fandoms across comic publishers swooned with delight. Following "Venom: The Last Dance," those swoons have become moans, and one of the best comic anti-heroes ever illustrated is now schmaltzy comic relief.

That traffic jam of personality is not what Todd McFarlane and David Michelinie envisioned when creating the rebellious symbiote. Now, casual fans and canonical adherents can't unsee the "Buddy-Buddy" relationship between Eddie Brock and his alter ego. What was envisioned as Venom's last dance became a stunning fart-and-fall-down moment on Marvel's center stage.

Albeit difficult to sift through, "Venom" created a promise for watching a man's catharsis and the world's culmination. In "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," we were promised something awestriking as Carnage (Woody Harrelson) is a grueling force of evil that stops at nothing to make Venom feel his pain. Yet, Kelly Marcel didn't focus too heavily on the visceral whirlwind fans had expected when they went to the movies. It was a forced, ham-handed sequel that forgot fans pay attention to a character's backstory.

Welcome to Symbiote City

All those symbiotes; Not enough time. (Image Credit: Laura Radford via Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures/Marvel Entertainment)

That is the same approach Marcel took with the third of the Venom trilogy, who made her directorial debut with "Venom: The Last Dance." Characters were thrust onto the scene as if they were pushed into traffic--no backstory, no development, no interest in how the audience would care if they lived or died. We were met with an onslaught of new symbiotes, each with a compelling reason for being included in the movie. If only we were allowed to learn whatever that was.

• Toxin was Detective Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham), spawned by Carnage in "Venom 2." One of the more popular symbiotes in the comics, fans of the franchise knew Toxin would bring the heat. And, when he died shortly into the second act of the film, that anticipation smoldered fast. Fitting for the dumpster fire "Venom 3" is considered now.

• Lasher is the red and green Yuletide symbiote that became through Dr. Sadie Christmas (Clark Backo). In the comics, Lasher was Ramon Hernandez, who learned to create these butcher knife-type appendages. He was deadly and brutal and didn't exist in the movie.

• Phage bonded with Carl Mach in the comics. In the movie, he wasn't around long enough to know he was there, as seen by bonding with "Jim," a hapless security guard at the Life Foundation. Phage was one of the few symbiotes that gained a family in canon. His sister was Scream, the red and yellow firebrand symbiote who died quickly at the hands of a Xenophage.

• Agony is a symbiote you couldn't miss because she had all that hair. The purple and pink beauty came from Dr. Teddy Paine (Juno Temple) during the battle at Area 55 (although she came from Agent Leslie Geseneria in canon). Incidentally, Agony was the only symbiote to survive. Why? Who knows? There is no franchise future there.

• Rascal would have been nice to survive, but not so much. In the comics, this symbiote bonded with Normie Osborn. Yes, they were the Red Goblin. In the movie, Rascal is renamed Lava because it is scary, and we never catch the host's name.

And then, there was this guy.

This Ankle Was Broken

Knull is scary. And scarier still that Sony thought we would care. (Image Credit: Laura Radford via Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures/Marvel Entertainment)

Symbiotes are some of the most resilient and feared creatures in the Marvel catalog. That pecking order ends with Knull (Andy Serkis), who spent three-ish minutes on screen and had a perplexing post-credits scene. There he is, the symbiote god, strapped to his throne because he has nowhere else to go until the symbiotes do his bidding. With all that potential, we get a post-credit scene.

Planets will be mine. The King in Black is awake! I will kill your world. Everyone will burn, and you will watch!

Does that sound like someone familiar? Pointy tail, red suit, pitchfork? It's customary to borrow from a religious palette for inspiration, but Knull was supposed to be much darker and brooding. He wasn't allowed to do that and teased a future in a film that we probably would never see.

Unless there is some hubbub with all that new "Avengers" idea back in 2021 in "Eternals." In comics, Knull creates the symbiotes to fight the Celestials, creators of light. (Yes, again, with the God vs. Satan trope.) They are omnipotent beings in Marvel, having also created Deviants (Thanos, who is half-Eternal as well), Skrulls (Captain Marvel), the Mutant X-Gene (X-Men), and...the Eternals.

In the same film where it was rumored Knull was coming to reality, we had a dance-off. What?!

This is truly one of the most powerful entities in comics. He could stand tall against Galactus and still have room for lunch. Yet, the only promise we get of his power is Andy Serkis growling a tease in a post-credit scene. The entire experience was disappointing. And that's the gamble when trying to portray deity in a CBM--practicality.

When discussing a comic book movie, it seems like a misnomer, but people know these characters. Some fans grew up collecting covers of these characters. When any comic label says that this character has God-like powers, everyone knows who the template is. There is a reason no one has attempted to capture the Almighty's force in film: There is no source material.

Such is life with the Creator of the Universe or even with the King of the Symbiotes.

THE NERD ELECTIVE (SCORE): 4.5/10