Review by C.J. Bunce

Why does Hollywood think we want to see good things end?  Movies–especially superhero movies–are here to entertain us, right?  So why all the drama?  Push “The End” aside and all that drama and there’s still a great, fun movie in the third and final Eddie and Venom team-up, .  It’s the decommissioning of Area 51, Venom wants to visit the Statue of Liberty, and a far-off evil alien has sent minions to Earth to bring back a key that will allow it to destroy everything.  Trilogy writer Kelly Marcel steps into the directing spot and the result matches all the fun of the first movie, Venom, reviewed here, despite bringing Tom Hardy’s version of Eddie and Venom to an end.  And it all happens as this strange buddy comedy pair even starts to sound the same.  Like the first Venom movie, is one of the most rewatchable movies in all the Marvel canon.  It’s now streaming in Netflix.

Of course, part of that “sounding the same” is because Hardy provides the voice for the CGI character Venom, too.  But this story taps into buddy comedy tropes of the past like Abbott and Costello and Hope and Crosby, with as one big road picture, complete with being stranded in the desert.  The MacGuffin this time is the Codex, the key to awakening a Kraken in a galaxy far, far, away named Knull (voiced by Andy Serkis).  It turns out killing Eddie or Venom will prevent the apocalypse from taking place.  Further adding a twist to things, if Eddie and Venom exhibit their full combination, it creates a beacon that draws the space aliens directly to them.  These are nasty creatures, a CGI update to the giant insects in Starship Troopers, only more up close and personal.

Through happenstance Eddie and Venom end up on a road to Area 51, where they are picked up by a family in a Volkswagen van taking the kids to hopefully see an alien before Area 51 is finally dismantled at week’s end.  Rhys Ifans (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Alice Through the Looking Glass) plays the dad and Alanna Ubach (Ted, Veronica Mars, Fairly Legal) the mom.  Area 51 is being dismantled by military man Strickland, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange, 12 Years a Slave, Serenity).  The problem with both Ifans and Ejiofor appearing in this film for Marvel fans will be their other recent appearances in Marvel movies.  You may just find yourself waiting for the multiverse to open up (as has happened in other Marvel movies) to reveal these people as their other selves.  Despite these actors in these new Marvel appearances, this does not happen.

Also at Area 51 are scientists, good scientists, who are analyzing all sorts of alien beings tied to Venom–the symbiotes–in a lab facility beneath Area 51.  The top scientist is Dr. Paine, played by Juno Temple (The Offer, Electric Dreams, The Dark Knight Rises), and her subordinate is Sadie aka Christmas, played by Clark Backo (Station Eleven, Outsiders).  These aren’t the mad scientists of the first movie or the bad guys with guns in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, but scientists concerned with their subjects.  The communication scenes land better and are more interesting than in the alien invasion movie Arrival, with Eddie getting help from a symbiote pair from his past.  These have never been your typical alien invasion characters, and this is certainly not your typical alien invasion movie.  This time the bad guys are clear.

Eddie and Venom fall from an airplane.  Venom becomes a horse.  They both eat up some vile thugs.  Venom gets hooked on the slots in Las Vegas.  Sadie becomes a new Venom-like character that ticks all the buttons on the kick-ass women list.  And Peggy Lu makes her third appearance as Mrs. Chen in the trilogy.  She has definitely made it as the welcome surprise in these movies, almost hooking up with Venom this time (they get a dance number… recall the title of the movie).

More than the action and fun, the story and relationship of Eddie and Venom is all heart.  Despite the goo and monstrosities and violence, you will come to love these guys.  Great pop music tracks the buddy comedy journey on their bittersweet last voyage–music from Queen, David Bowie, Cat Stevens, ABBA, Maroon 5, and others–the Space Oddity/Major Tom cover sung by the family should go up there with Captain Chris Hadfield’s cover at the International Space Station and the introductory scenes in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.  The tone and vibe of this picture couldn’t be better set.  This might be the best collection of pop songs on a soundtrack in years.

And the special effects are spot on.  For fans of the monsters of artist Todd McFarlane, this is the best adaptation of his creations on the big screen yet.  Equal parts sci-fi action spectacle and comedy thanks to writers Kelly Marcel and Tom Hardy, it’s a satisfying wrap for the trilogy.  Note: The movie has an end credits coda and post credits coda.  But both of these are trivial.

In the first sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, reviewed here, Eddie and Venom borrowed something from Neil Simon, creating their own take on The Odd Couple.  Bromance?  Buddies?  Whatever it was, they leaned into even more in this third entry.  Comicdom’s “Lethal Protector” is back.  Venom–the character and the comic book–could not have been adapted better than in this trilogy of movies.  It’s the best superhero film out of the gates this year.  See if you agree.  Released in theaters in late 2024, is now streaming on Netflix.