take over human bodies on Earth. Venom: The Last Dance gives the creatures an overly complicated backstory. They were created by an evil ruler, Knull (Andy Serkis), and then rebelled against him, imprisoning him. Knull needs a rare MacGuffin called a “Codex” to escape his prison. Because Eddie and Venom are such good buddies, Venom has a codex inside its form. So, Knull summons a giant beast called a Xenophage (which resembles a cross between the Alien Queen and a giant mutant four-legged spider). The Xenophage’s mission is to retrieve the Codex, a procedure that would prove fatal for Eddie and Venom.

Meanwhile, Eddie has more earthly worries. He’s got an army general, Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor), chasing after him to destroy Venom. Also, Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple), a scientist headquartered in Nevada’s Area 51, wants to retrieve Venom to add to her collection of symbiote research specimens. It doesn’t take a research physicist or an army general to guess that eventually Eddie, Venom, Payne, Strickland, the Xenophage, and a bunch of other symbiotes will meet for one explosive last dance at Area 51.

The movie’s last act, which goes on far too long, features lots of explosions and shots of the goo-like symbiotes taking over various human bodies and transforming them into cheesy looking alien creatures. The Xenophage isn’t much better as an animated rendering, and I’ve seen better CGI on recent “Star Trek” reboot episodes. General Strickland and Dr. Payne would need personality transplants to even become two-dimensional. The movie’s only other new characters are Rhys Ifans and Alanna Urbach as a leftover hippie couple who are taking their children to see Area 51. (You don’t get any extra credit for guessing they’ll get involved in the final showdown.) They give Eddie a lift in their van and spend a few too many minutes singing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” It’s sweet at first, but hearing “ground control to Major Tom” for the fifth time wears on audiences.

What saves parts of Venom: The Last Dance is the camaraderie and chemistry between Eddie and Venom. That’s understandable since Tom Hardy plays Eddie and provides Venom’s voice, and he co-wrote the script with director Kelly Marcel. This movie has a few scenes that stand out. The best occurs in Las Vegas, when Eddie and Venom hide out with returning character Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu). The sequence culminates in a dance number featuring Venom and Lu in which she literally leaves the ground with Venom, to the tune of Abba’s “Dancing Queen.” Also, while many of the CGI scenes are lackluster, one in which Venom temporarily takes over a horse’s body, allowing it to “fly like the wind” with Eddie desperately holding on to the creature’s mane.

Unfortunately, the movie’s highlights are relatively few and far between. This is Kelly Marcel’s first directorial assignment, and her inexperience shows. Good moments like the interlude with the hippie family go on too long, while action scenes are unfocused and uninteresting. It’s no surprise her scenes with Tom Hardy work; they are longtime friends, and she gives him a lot of leeway in playing his characters (Eddie and Venom). But when Hardy and Venom aren’t on screen, even veterans like Ejiofor and Temple are reduced to playing cliched characters.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage wasn’t bad and would have been a good way to end the series. Unfortunately, the script of Venom: The Last Dance is one of the more muddled Marvel Universe sagas, mixed with occasional moments of Tom Hardy’s inspired goofiness. Those moments are enough to enable most viewers to sit through the movie, but not enough for them to enjoy the experience. The best they can hope for is that the film’s title is prophetic, and this movie represents the last dance for the series.