Reel Snippet – Spider-Man: Far From Home
THERE ARE UNMARKED SPOILERS FROM THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE UP THROUGH AVENGERS: ENDGAME. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Summary: Thanos’ horrific plan of wiping out half of all life in the universe has been undone, but at the cost of Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) life. Peter Parker (Tom Holland), New York’s own friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and Tony’s own protege, feels the weight of his loss more than most, but right now he’s trying to focus on his class trip to Europe. He’s hoping to hang out with his best friend and confidant Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) and ask out his crush MJ (Zendaya) like a normal kid… but then the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. himself, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), pulls him aside to tell him that his summer’s about to become very abnormal. A mystic warrior named Quinten Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) claims to have traveled across the multiverse to pursue the Elementals, a collection of gargantuan titans made of earth, fire, wind, and water that mean to destroy the earth. So Pete’s got to put his vacation on hold to team up with Beck, who the locals call Mysterio, but this naturally puts a pause on Peter’s personal plans. Spider-Man is an Avenger, it’s true, but he’s also just a kid and soon he may have to make some decisions to favor one life over the other.
Review: Spider-Man: Far From Home is an odd movie to close out the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s third phase, as so many plot lines were wrapped up in Endgame. However, if you look at it as part of Tony Stark’s storyline, it makes a lot more sense, especially since he practically discovered Spider-Man in this series. In that sense, it fits into Phase 3 quite well. But taken separate from the MCU, how does it hold up as a movie? Well, let’s take a look.
So the citizens have come up with their own term for the five year death of half of the universe: “the Blip.” If I may be completely honest, that has to be one of the dumbest names ever given to an event. It makes sense within the generation and it probably seems like just a blip to all the victims. But compare the event to the other names it’s had, like the Snap or the Decimation (which might be the most egregious misuse of a word ever since “literally” started being used to describe things figuratively), the Blip is so anticlimactic. Yeah, let’s name this catastrophic event after an old video platform that got shut down and left dozens of content creators unable to recoup their livelihood.
Actually, that description makes it fit perfectly. Carry on.
Once again, Tom Holland continues to be the best live-action Peter Parker with his boyish charm and naivety coupled with his genuine charm and charisma. MJ gets a chance to stretch her legs as a character and winds up getting a lot of mileage, her snark and grizzly outlook making her one of the most interesting and fun love interests of the Spider-Man movies. What I could have used less of was the classmate’s antics. The characters themselves are fine, but they had these weird subplots like Ned getting super involved with a girl he just met (Angourie Rice) or this romantic rival for MJ (Remy Hii) being up in Peter’s business and being really annoying about it. I guess they’re fine, I just didn’t find any of it super funny.
For the most part, this movie is good, but the third act is when it becomes amazing. So once again, I have to spoil a good movie to really talk about it.
[LOOK OUT, HERE COMES THE SPOILER-MAN!]
Mysterio plays a big part in why I love this movie and the scene that reveals his true villainy, as well as his rousing speech to all his co-conspirators (one of whom worked for Obidiah Stane in Iron Man), is masterfully done. It also ties into Tony’s impact on the MCU because Beck turns out to be not a warrior from another universe, but a jilted ex-employee of Stark’s who helped design the holographic simulator program from Captain America: Civil War… which becomes the means to produce the theatrics and illusions that make the elemental threat look real. Yes, anyone who’s familiar with the comics will suspect that he’ll turn out to be the villain. But what fascinates me is that many superhero movies will try and downplay their villain’s abilities in favor of being more grounded and realistic. Here, the filmmakers asked themselves what it would take for movie-Mysterio to pull off his grand illusions in their world and made it happen.
One last spoiler before I come back to the basic review, it was a treat to see J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson again.
[HEY THERE, THERE GOES THE SPOILER-MAN!]
All in all, I had a good time with this one and it’s got me excited for what happens next for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. Even the stuff I didn’t like was original enough to be interesting and the stuff I liked just makes me want more. I have a hard time comparing this to Spider-Man: Homecoming because of how different they are. While I’m tempted to lean towards Homecoming because of how charismatic Michael Keaton was as the villain, this movie here has a lot that it can call its own. Also, I’m just now realizing that this is one of the two times I’ve seen Spider-Man travel outside of the US, the other being in the 90s Spider-Man animated series (I’m not counting when he went into space because that’s cheating). This movie opened up a slew of new possibilities and I’m excited to see how unfriendly the neighborhood gets for the future of Spider-Man.
Fun Tidbit: When a water elemental attacks Venice, one of Peter’s classmates suggests that it’s actually a sailor named Morris Bench getting transformed by an experimental water generator. While he’s laughed off and naturally wrong, this is the origin for a Spider-Man villain Hydro-Man, making the reference more than a little appropriate.
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