Venom: The Last Dance out of step, Christopher Reeve documentary a moving tribute

The story: Tom Hardy returns as American journalist Eddie Brock in a superhero blockbuster from Sony's Spider-Man universe, he and his alien symbiote Venom hunted by both of their worlds and on the run.

- Whang Yee Ling

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (PG13) 109 minutes, opens on Oct 24

Knull, god of the symbiotes, has escaped to earth in Venom: The Last Dance. And because Eddie/Venom hold the key to its survival, a US general (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is commanding a special operation to destroy the odd couple with the supervillain also in pursuit.

Like that is going to put a damper on their picaresque escapade. Kelly Marcel – the British scribe behind Venom (2018) and the sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) – makes her directing debut, and the trilogy capper, based on a story she conceived with Hardy, is notably a cheerfully silly road comedy of Venom pranking its hapless human host while they travel across the country.

It has Eddie riding a symbiote horse, straddling an airborne jumbo jet – "Tom Cruise made it look so easy!" he shrieks, petrified – and dancing to Abba in the Las Vegas penthouse of convenience store owner Mrs Chen (Peggy Lu), who is now a high roller.

Hardy energetically keeps up the jokey split personality dynamic. Eddie's love-hate of his id is almost endearing.