As we wave goodbye to the DCEU, a murky prologue sets up the vengeful villain of this piece, and what follows proves to be the most ambitious, daft and perhaps enjoyable entry of the trilogy, with a throw-everything-at-it attitude and an actual effective story that sees Eddie/Venom on the run from the authorities and an ancient alien threat. This Venom movie offers a genuinely edgier tone as a counterpoint to the still-funny comedy antics, and the backstory creates an effective spine to the narrative. Tom Hardy - the saving grace of these films - is so enjoyably invested and committed in the character that once again he carries the movie, with strong back-up from Chiwetel Ejiofor, Stephen Graham and a nicely-controlled turn from Juno Temple as the lead scientist on the symbiote programme. The series' odd and unconvincing mix of hyper-real and cartoon styles is still evident, but the mad plethora of ideas at play gives this entry an undeniable energy. Overall, The Last Dance falls just above a mid-level Transformers movie, but this is perhaps a much better and more positive send-off to the Venom trilogy than the previous two films might have suggested. Presumably the mid-credits and end-of-credits scenes are now redundant. (Note to music supervisors: this film just about gets away with another play of an ABBA classic by the sheer silliness of the scene, but a particular Queen song is now way beyond overused in soundtracks).
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