Venom: The Last Dance Movie Review (2024)

Parents need to know that Venom: The Last Dance is the uninspired third movie in the comic book-based Venom series, following Eddie and Venom as they're hunted by interstellar monsters. Violence includes gun use (threats and shooting), deaths, explosions, blood swirling underwater, monsters attacking and devouring humans and other creatures, heads getting bitten off, fighting, death, stabbing with monster tendrils, aliens being spattered with acid, bloody wounds, and more. Language includes a use of "motherf----r," plus "s--t," "bulls--t," "a--hole," "goddamn," "ass," "bitch," "slut," "Jesus Christ" (as an exclamation), "d--k," "balls," and "hell." The main characters are drunk in a bar ("We are drunk!" says Venom), and Eddie complains of a hangover many times. A secondary character does shots to cope with seeing something shocking. Characters describe themselves as "sexy" or "hot" while dressed up.

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Violence & Scariness

a lot

Guns (and a bazooka) are used to threaten and shoot. Deaths. A character is shot underwater; blood swirls out from the wound. Huge monster attacks; monster devours humans and other monsters. Venom bites off four men's heads. Lots of fighting. Humans are stabbed with alien tendrils. Aliens are spattered with acid, burned. Alien is ground up in an airplane engine. Many explosions. Helicopter crash. Monster hit by truck. Kids briefly in peril. Bloody stomach wound. Flashback to twin siblings being hit by lightning; one is said to have died, and the other has scars on her neck and side. Gross stuff: Someone urinates on the main character's feet, dialogue about "anal probes."

Language

a lot

A use of "motherf----r," plus several uses of "s--t" and "bulls--t," as well as "a--hole," "goddamn," "ass," "bitch," "slut," "Jesus Christ" (as exclamation), "d--k," "balls," "piss," "hell."

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

a little

Main character is drunk in a bar. Venom shouts, "We are drunk!" Venom makes Eddie mix another drink, while Eddie asks for water. Eddie complains of a hangover several times. Secondary character drinks shots to cope with seeing something shocking.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

very little

Characters describe themselves or one another as "sexy" or "hot."

Products & Purchases

very little

Some offline merchandising, but less than with other similar properties.

Diverse Representations

a little

Main character Eddie is a White man. Several people of color are in the movie—including Black actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and Clark Backo, East Asian actor Peggy Lu, and Mexican actor Cristo Fernández (Ted Lasso's Dani Rojas)—but given that none are particularly fleshed-out characters, they feel like little more than tokens. Juno Temple plays female scientist Dr. Payne with a humanitarian streak; she wants to protect the symbiotes and study them rather than destroy them. Director Kelly Marcel is a woman.

Did we miss something on diversity? .

Positive Messages

very little

In a way, the movie is largely about teamwork, as Eddie and Venom are symbiotic and more or less a team, and characters who work together tend to get an upper hand on those who can't. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't really talk about the downsides of the symbiosis, and positive messages are largely overshadowed by the main character's moral ambiguity.

Positive Role Models

very little

After much trial and error, Eddie and Venom seem to be in sync here about what a superhero is, but several villains still die to provide food for Venom. And when Eddie shoots an opponent during a fight, he feels bad, but Venom tells him, "they didn't give you a choice."