Venom: The Last Dance

Perhaps this was just one sequel too many as the story here is really rather thin, but there's still enough chemistry between "Eddie" (Tom Hardy) and his eponymous symbion to raise a smile or two. This time it's not just the pursuing human population that's a problem for them, but there are creatures from the homeworld of "Venom" homing in on their unique "codex" so that they can help free their leader from incarceration to wreak havoc on the universe. Along the way, they encounter the hippie "Martin" (Rhys Ifans) and his family and cadge a lift in their VW camper-van whilst offering a fairly tuneless rendition of some David Bowie. It all builds up to a fairly predictable denouement with humanity facing some tough choices, the seemingly indestructible aliens on the verge of success and our intrepid partnership having to consider the ultimate sacrifice. Yep, we've seen it all before and though the visual effects are pretty impressive, that's not really enough to sustain it as it rather procedurally rolls along. There is occasionally some wit in the script and Hardy looks like he's having fun, but Chiwetel Ejiofor is largely under-used and it relies far too heavily on repetitive combat scenes to really make it stand out amidst the surfeit of 2024 comic-book derivatives. It's all watchable enough, but it's not a patch on the first one from 2018.