Spider-Man:
Far From Home Review — a Silly, Wild Ride Not Always in Full Swing
The most popular superhero
in the world returns to the big screen this week, as Sony's and Marvel Studio's Spider-Man: Far From Home arrives to grasp the superhero baton from Avengers: Endgame and continue the MCU sprint toward further box office
glory this year. Can it surpass the massive $880 million of 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming? Will it best 2007's Spider-Man
3 become the highest-grossing film of the franchise? Read
on and find out..
As the first film since Avengers: Endgame, one that's set immediately after that deeply-felt, gigantic Marvel Cinematic Universe chapter and whose protagonist shares a special connection with Iron Man, Spider-Man: Far From Home has some heavy-lifting to do from a narrative standpoint. For one, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is still processing his grief over the death of his mentor-father figure Tony Stark. And two, in a world that's memorialised Stark's help in saving the universe, Peter is left to wonder how best to honour his legacy. But those aren't ingredients for a fun Spider-Man movie. Far From Home finds fun in Peter's growing fondness for his classmate MJ (Zendaya) and his wish to go on a superhero-free vacation, which in turn powers character motivation and the plot.
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Though all those ideas
are ultimately a part of the whole, they aren't given equal weightage in Spider-Man: Far From
Home. The MJ aspect of the story is really the only constant
thing that sort of drives the film, with Peter caught between what he wants and
what he must do. And amidst the narrative necessity of the new threat — this is
a superhero movie after all — from its introduction to Spider-Man inevitably
winning the day, Far From Home doesn't give itself enough time to properly
examine the emotional fallout of the abrupt end of Peter and Tony's
relationship. The only memorable exploration of grief is a conversation with
Stark's close aide Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau). Considering the events of Infinity War and Endgame, that ought to be the heart of this Spider-Man film, but Far
From Home doesn't seem to have the answers.
Its humour chops draw
from the same well as other movies part of the MCU, though it distinctly has a teenage flavour to it given the
age of its principal characters. As the youngest Spider-Man on screen ever, this new Peter has been written as too
eager, largely hopeless, and unfailingly awkward. Holland has been terrific in
bringing that version of Spidey to life, which continue to fuel the laughs
across Far From Home. His complete ineptitude in executing his plan to impress
MJ further expands on those traits, as does his ineptitude in playing with the
gadgets designed by Tony, which was also a running theme in its direct
predecessor Spider-Man: Homecoming.
The comedy on Spider-Man
Far From Home also benefits off a minor subplot involving Peter's best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and his new girlfriend Betty Brant (Angourie Rice, from Black Mirror season 5), and the space it creates for small moments, such as those between Peter's aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and Happy. The film also mines humour from the hilarious twists and turns of the school trip summer holiday that Peter and his classmates go on, his increasingly desperate attempts to hide his alter ego from his classmates, and Peter's frustration at being unable to have a normal life without being called upon to serve the greater good.
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After giving us a peek at Mysterio, Spider-Man Far From Home
opens in a post-Endgame world where mankind is eulogising those that gave their
lives in an effort to bring back half of all life. Meanwhile, in his Spider-Man
costume, Peter is helping May at a Brooklyn fundraiser, where's he asked by the
press if he's going to succeed Tony as the leader of the Avengers. Forget being
the next Iron Man, Peter doesn't really want to be even Spider-Man right now,
at least not on this school trip to Europe. So naturally, he leaves behind his
suit and keeps ignoring Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who's trying to reach him.
But Fury doesn't take no for an answer, and he soon pushes him to join forces with
Mysterio and battle the Elementals, interdimensional villains that can turn
natural elements such as water and air into weapons.
How does Spider-Man:
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE MID-CREDITS SCENE?
Spider-Man: Far
From Home ends with
Spidey, aka Peter Parker (Tom Holland), taking his lady-friend MJ (Zendaya) out
for a pretty terrifying-looking web-swing around New York City. The mid-credits
scene returns to them just minutes later, completing their swing with MJ, now
frizzy-haired and shaken, suggesting that they should never do that again. But
then both of them have their attention diverted by a news broadcast. A video
clip has surfaced from the last confrontation between Spidey and
Mysterio, Far From Home’s seeming hero, who revealed himself as a
villain with a secret agenda earlier in the film. In this highly edited clip,
Spider-Man appears to order Mysterio’s drones to kill people (the phrase
“Execute them all,” out of context, now seemingly refers to victims rather than
to shutdown orders). Mysterio claims Spidey “says he’s going to be the new Iron
Man,” implying Spidey murdered Mysterio out of jealousy because Mysterio was
stepping up into that role. And then he outs Spider-Man as Peter Parker.
SO IS MYSTERIO
ACTUALLY DEAD?
Let’s hope not! The MCU has a running problem with creating
compelling villains with relatable goals, and Mysterio is one of the
franchise’s best villains so far. Like Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming,
he’s another victim of Tony Stark’s casual megalomania and disregard for other
people, and he’s a strong counterweight to Spider-Man’s grief and loss in Far From Home.
And his illusion tech enables some terrific scenes of fast-moving, disorienting
environments that shift every few seconds. It’d be a shame to lose him this
early.
But the video release doesn’t mean he successfully faked his death — given that he’s working with a team of smart, technologically savvy, grudge-holding people who could have edited and released that tape to avenge him. Still, it’s worth holding out hope. Yes, EDITH confirmed that all of her drones and projectors were offline when Peter asked if Mysterio’s death was another illusion, but that doesn’t necessarily prevent Mysterio from having another projector or other contingency plan that wasn’t tied to EDITH — and as we saw throughout the movie, he’s a careful long-term planner. Besides, the rule of sequels suggests he’ll be back regardless, if Far From Homemakes the money it’s projected to make.
HOW DOES THE SCENE
IMPROVE THE STORY?
MCU cutscenes often tease the next big film on Marvel’s docket,
but usually, those connections are fairly unrelated to the actual movie that
just played — they’re teases for a completely different film with different
characters. In this case, Sony likely isn’t part of the next MCU movies that
are lined up for Marvel’s presumed Phase Four, so it’s just teasing its next
Spider-Man movie — which is apparently going to shift the focus away from Peter
Parker’s school adventures and romantic life, and have him dealing with the
fallout of being outed as a superhero.
Given how lively and jokey Far From Home is, it may be that
the next Spider-Man movie will largely play off his outing as a joke. After
all, Far From Home mines multiple gags
out of Peter’s rival Flash (Tony Revolori) idolizing Spider-Man while sneering
at Peter, and it’s always seemed like that dynamic was a setup for a big comic
payoff when Flash finds out they’re the same person. But Far From Home also
repeatedly makes it clear that the people Peter cares about — his Aunt May, his
classmates, his newly minted girlfriend — are soft targets for his enemies, and
his new prominence on the international stage just means more enemies to come
after his friends now that his identity is public.
But that aside, it’s a fun scene because it so deliberately
bookends the existing MCU movies, capping off more than a decade of filmmaking.
Back in 2008, Iron Man kicked off Phase One of the
Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it ended with Tony Stark proudly proclaiming to
the world, “I am Iron Man!” This final film in Phase Three is so closely tied
to Peter’s feelings about losing Tony, and about his attempts to measure up to
Tony — which he arguably does in stepping up, saving lives, and reclaiming
Tony’s tech. And then in the movie’s final moments, we get to see how far he
still is from being Iron Man — he isn’t ready to publicly claim his identity,
or to deal with the fallout. It’s a parallel scene to the end of Iron Man,
but it’s also meant to show the vast gap between Iron Man and Spider-Man.
Besides, it finally sets up one of superhero comics’ most famous
long-standing non-super rivalries: Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah
Jameson (J.K. Simmons, who played Jameson back in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films
from 2002-2007) pops up to announce that Spider-Man is a public menace.
Jameson’s classic hatred of Spider-Man is an integral part of the superhero’s
classic world, and bringing Simmons back is a terrific in-joke for longtime
cinematic Spider-fans.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE
POST-CREDITS SCENE?
This one will instantly make sense to MCU fans who’ve seen Captain Marvel, and it’ll be baffling to everyone who only casually drops into the Marvel films featuring their favorite characters. In the post-credits scene, Nick Fury and Maria Hill are driving together when they both shapeshift into green, scaly, pointy-eared aliens. “How was I supposed to know the whole thing was faked?” one of them complains, referring to the elemental attacks around the planet. Ultimately, the two aliens agree they have to call up the real Nick Fury, who appears to be vacationing on a beach somewhere, although it turns out to be an elaborate hologram on a ship in space. (Perhaps it’s faux-Tahiti? As Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. watchers know from the running joke on that show, Tahiti is a magical place.) “Everybody back to work!” Fury says, as he wanders out of the hologram and goes looking for his shoes, preparing to end his vacation early.
WAIT, WHAT’S GOING
ON HERE?
The two aliens are Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) and his mate Soren
(Sharon Blynn), a pair of shape-changing Skrull introduced in Captain Marvel.
Originally presented as villains who steal people’s shapes to infiltrate other
cultures, the Skrulls were eventually revealed as refugees, desperately fleeing
the persecution of the alien Kree. Toward the end of Captain Marvel,
the remaining Skrulls end up finding a new home aboard the high-tech space-lab
of Captain Marvel’s mentor, Mar-Vell, which is where Fury is vacationing after
the epic battles of Avengers: Endgame. Apparently Talos and
Soren were tasked with helping Fury out by keeping the home fires burning on
Earth in his absence.
HOW DOES THIS FIX SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME’S BIGGEST PLOT HOLES?
There are a lot of seeming problems with Far From Home, and they all revolve around Nick Fury’s weird actions and weirder inactions. Why does he fixate on a reluctant 15-year-old as the only possible solution to the elementals attacking Earth? He claims no other heroes are available to deal with the problem, but he only name-checks three of them, when Endgame has given us a big, intense look at the now dozens of heroes available on Earth. When Peter accidentally unleashes a missile at his romantic rival Brad and nearly blows up his entire class, Fury chides him for it, but doesn’t make any attempt to take the missile system away from Peter. During the climactic fight with Mysterio, Fury just stands by and watches, without taking any action — he even leaves Maria to snipe the drone that’s about to murder him. Since when is Fury so checked-out and incompetent?
The answer to every Nick Fury-related question in the film is the same: that’s not Nick Fury! It’s someone much less practiced in the job, someone who has Fury’s resources (assuming the real Nick gave him full access, which is a big assumption) but not his specific experience with Earth and its problems, and apparently not his insight. Stories about young heroes (like the Harry Potter books or some of the X-Men movies) often have to find ways to sideline the adults in the story so they don’t just neatly clean up all the messes and leave the protagonists with nothing to do. Here’s a novel approach: “Yeah, the adults who should be handling this problem are weirdly prone to bad choices. That’s because they’re probably handling the problem like they might have in their own culture, or on their own home world.” Poor Fury. He just wanted a little time off after more than a decade of stressful movies, and then getting Blipped for five years.
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