“Venom: The Last Dance”, what is supposed to be the last chapter of the trilogy started with “Venom” (2018), is a schizophrenic mess which fails to mix well its goofy parts with more serious plot elements. While it is occasionally amusing to watch the comic interactions between the mismatched duo at the center of the movie, the story is also too thin and scattershot to hold our attention, and the overall result is another disappointing comic book movie during last several years.

The movie begins at the point not long after the ending of “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” (2021). Eddie Brook / Venom (Tom Hardy) has been a fugitive hiding somewhere in Mexico, and then he and his alien symbiote which imbues him with super-human abilities come to have a very big trouble on their way. The evil creator of symbiotes, who has been imprisoned somewhere in the universe, is looking for something Brook and his alien symbiote have, and one of those hideous alien creatures under this evil dude’s control comes down to the Earth for looking for Brook and his alien symbiote.

Meanwhile, Brook and his alien symbiote are also being pursued by the people associated with a certain top-secret US military project hidden at a site not so far from that famous military zone in Nevada. Once they find Brock’s current location, a bunch of soldiers led by General Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) immediately begin their pursuit, and it goes without saying that they soon encounter that hideous alien creature, which has a rather nasty way of killing whoever tries to interfere with its relentless pursuit.

Anyway, as trying to evade both General Strickland’s soldiers and that hideous alien creature, Brock eventually finds himself in the middle of Nevada, and that is where he gets some help from a goofy family guy and his wife and children, who happen to be traveling around Nevada just for getting any chance to see an alien around that famous military zone of Nevada. The movie has some fun with how Brock tries to hide his little secret from his unexpected helpers as much as possible, and we get a little amusing moment when they attempt to cheer up Brock with a brief musical performance while his alien symbiote is eager to sing along with them.

After more comic moments along the story, the movie becomes much more serious as Brock and his alien symbiote must confront their main opponent, and that is where the movie becomes a lot shakier than before. Hurriedly throwing its hero and several other characters into lots of busy action, the action scenes in the film feel merely frantic and jumbled, and you may get all the more confused when a bunch of additional alien figures appear later. While we surely get a big explosive finale in the end, we already saw that coming from the beginning due to something which can be regarded as an equivalent to Chekhov’s gun, and I must say that this is one of many occasions of ineffectual writing in the film.

Above all, it is often difficult for us to care about the story and characters of the film. Eddie and his alien symbiote are still an amusing mismatched duo, but their dysfunctional relationship is not developed that much from what was shown in “Venom” and its 2021 sequel movie. In case of several substantial supporting characters in the movie, they are mostly flat and bland without much human quality to engage us, and that is the main reason why we do not care much about whatever is being at stake for them along the story.

Tom Hardy, who also provides the voice for Brock’s alien symbiote in addition to serving as the co-writer and co-producer of the film, looks as committed as he did in the previous two films while also having a ball whenever Brock bickers with his alien symbiote. However, his fairly enjoyable efforts here in this film are often limited by the numerous half-baked aspects of the story written by him and director/co-writer Kelly Marcel, who also served as a co-writer in the previous two films, and I can only hope that he will soon move onto something much better for his career.

A number of notable cast members of the film are regrettably under-utilized, though a few of them fortunately acquit themselves well at least. Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is no stranger to comic book movie considering his supporting turn in “Doctor Strange” (2016), is thoroughly wasted without much to do, and the same thing can be said about Juno Temple and Stephen Graham, who often seems merely waiting for getting the paycheck. While Rhys Ifans generates some amusement as that goofy family guy, Peggy Lu, who delightfully stole the show as a Chinese convenient store owner who befriended both Eddie and his alien symbiote in the previous two movies, has another scene-stealing time during her brief but funny appearance around the middle of the film.

In conclusion, “Venom: The Last Dance” manages to reach to the end of its trilogy, but it is disappointing due to its deficient narrative and superficial characterization. After getting quite dissatisfied with “Venom”, I was a bit glad to see some sign of improvement in “Venom: Let There Be Carnage”, but “Venom: The Last Dance” sadly goes down back to the gross level of underachievement shown in “Venom”, and this surely lets me down a lot. To be frank with you, it is already being faded in my mind as I am about to move onto Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film which happens to be released in the same week in South Korea, and I am sure that my memory of “Venom: The Last Dance” will be almost wiped out after watching that Almodóvar movie.