“The Last Dance” reviews ensure a 100% lazy Sony Spider-Verse

Sony's Spider-Man-free Spider-Man universe is something of a running joke in the comic book movie scene, as it's all about Spider-Man villains with no real Spider-Man. Well that's not true, Madame Web had Peter Parker as a few hours old child. But generally no.

Now “Venom: The Last Dance” is out and underlines the fact that all films in the Sony universe have achieved poor rating averages. However, the Venom trilogy is profitable and is appreciated by comic fans as silly fun, even if critics don't like it. Nevertheless, compared to the actual MCU, there are only two films that had rotten ratings (rating below 60%). From 34 films. This is how the Sony-Verse is broken down, including viewer ratings (of course this also includes the excellent animated Spider-Verse films):

• Venom: Let There Be Carnage – 57% critics, 84% audience
• Venom: The Last Dance – 37% critics, 77% audience
• Venom – 30% critics, 80% audience
• Morbius – 15% critics, 71% audience
• Madame Web – 11% critics, 56% audience

While it's proven that audiences like Venom movies and critics don't, I'm surprised to see a 56% difference for Morbius, which… I think that was part of the meme movement surrounding that movie when it came out (Morbillions of Dollar at the box office, It's Morbin' Time, etc.). Madame Web, meanwhile, is the worst-reviewed film of all and one of the worst-reviewed modern superhero films of all time, also with a Rotten Audience score. But I maintain that “Madame Web” belongs squarely in the “so bad it’s good” category, and watching it in the theater was a hilarious and entertaining experience.

Next up is Kraven the Hunter third The Sonyverse film will be released on December 13th this year alone. It seems like a pretty confident action film, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson playing a reimagined version of the villain who murders poachers instead of animals. I actually thought the trailer was pretty good, but if history has taught us anything, the odds are stacked against it.

The further development is quite chaotic. Tom Hardy has said unequivocally that he is done playing Venom, but Sony says it will be focusing heavily on more symbiote content, which appears to focus primarily on Knull, who was introduced in Venom: The Last Dance and directed by Andy Serkis is played. Of course, there have also been rumors since the first Venom film that the universe would eventually dip into the MCU, and while this was actually hinted at once, nothing came of it. Big fan theories include things like Marvel's mega-villain Knull crashing into the MCU for Spider-Man 4, but there's just no real evidence for this. Another theory is that Sony will “borrow” Tom Holland for some content, or cast its own Spider-Man and possibly even bring back Andrew Garfield. Wild speculation again.

Does Sony care how bad the reviews of these films are compared to the MCU? Most of the time, probably not. The Venom films, however they were reviewed, made a lot of money. I'm sure they don't want more Madame Web style bombs, but I don't think based on the reviews you can call all of these films total failures. But what happens next when there's no Venom left? I can't say I have much confidence in whatever that will be.

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