As much as I like Marvel films, the fatigue has fully set in now. I forget which review I mentioned this already in, possibly the Dark Phoenix review but to recap, I’m not really feeling it anymore for these superhero movies. It isn’t like they suddenly got bad, it’s just we’ve been bombarded with a new movie almost every 3 months. And this has been going on well past 10 years now. I’m shocked I’m not more burnt out than I already am.
Everyone else who happened to be seeing Spider-Man: Far From Home in the theater with me seemed to be having a good time, so this might just be a “ME” problem. After listening in on a few conversations after the film ended, like an eavesdropping creeper, I might have not of seen this with the smartest folks, as “YEAH BRO” was a major player in their vocabulary. One guy left before the film ended and his friends had to tell him what he missed, but what they were explaining to him isn’t what happened, so I don’t know if I can gauge how good a film was by these two chucklefucks.
I feel that after Avengers: Endgame there needed to be some time before the next Marvel Cinematic Universe film came out. It was a giant conclusion to something they spent years building up to. We desperately needed a break. And here we get another film continuing the plotline only a few months later. At least wait until Endgame is out on Blu-ray for fuck’s sake before releasing another movie.
Hell, they were promoting this film even before Endgame came out. That’s how eager they were to get this one out there. Problem with that was, Spider-Man died in the last Marvel movie, so showing a trailer starring our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, isn’t such a great idea. Maybe wait until the film that resolves his whole death thing comes out before promoting anything else. Just food for thought. I can’t think of any other time that has happened, can you?
This also promotes the first Spider-Man film to take place outside of New York City. Unless you count space and another planet.
This film is also banking heavily on you not having a clue as to who Mysterio is. I know not everyone seeing these movies are that familiar with the comics or like me, where most of my knowledge comes from the 90’s animated tv series. But just by osmosis however, you should know that Mysterio is a villain. Only a bad guy would wear a fishbowl on their head.
I always wanted them to introduce Mysterio in a Spider-Man movie, but I had no idea how’d they pull it off. The way they did it here is perfect, treating Mysterio like an egotistical actor on a mad power trip. This might be the reason why they decided to cast Jake Gyllenhaal for the role. I’ve heard he can be hard to work with sometimes.
Knowing that Mysterio is a shyster kind of put a damper on my enthusiasm I think. I knew going in he was a bad guy, I know that everything about him, his backstory, his powers all of it was an illusion. That’s what makes him interesting, he’s all smoke and mirrors, but that’s what I like about Mysterio as a villain, but maybe not as the main villain.
Mysterio always seemed like the kind of bad guy you fight for the first half of the film, until the main villain showed up.
What they did with the character however was interesting and I did enjoy it, especially Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance. I believe the last thing I saw him in was Velvet Buzzsaw, a film I didn’t much care for.
Spider-Man: Far From Home also did a great job of addressing some continuity issues I had with Endgame, mainly Peter Parker and the rest of his classmates now being “blipped” as they call it, back with 5 years having gone by, but them staying the same age.
Everyone they knew from school is now older, younger brothers are now your older brother. The geeky scrawny kid a few grades below you? Well he’s now five years older and hot. Not to mention has eyes on the girl you like.
The thing that sets Peter Park aside from other superheroes, he’s just a kid and has to deal with things a teenager his age would have to deal with, while also juggling that pesky job of being a well-liked superhero.
The other thing that makes him different is shit doesn’t always work out for Peter. Life kind of takes a shit on this guy and all he can do is take it. The Sam Raimi Spider-Man films did a good job of depicting that as well.
When Infinity War came out, I did a binge watch of most of the films leading up to it. I can say this now with no hesitation Captain America: Civil War sucked. I think the only saving grace was the introduction of Spider-Man.
And that leads me to Spider-Man: Homecoming. At the time I was pretty gleeful about this movie. But it does have some major issues, and that might have to do with two things.
You are getting introduced to a new Spider-Man without any background on him. I know, but this time we don’t really need a recap since we already have 5 other films that did that. But still, new Peter Parker, new Spider-Man, it would have been nice get a tiny bit of background on him. Actually, for that, you kind of need to see his part in Civil War as that was the abridged version of his backstory.
The second issue, Iron Man. As much as I love Tony Stark, he slightly hijacked Homecoming. I know he isn’t in it much, but he carries a heavy presence.
And that’s the problem. And it remains a problem even after his death. Oh, spoilers? Even dead, Tony Stark has still managed to hijack this film.
Peter gets this important piece of A.I. tech from Tony called EDITH, an acronym for EVEN IN DEATH I’M THE HERO. I get it. Tony was kind of like a father figure to him and him dying kind of affected Peter and how he sees himself as a hero.
He now feels like filling the role of Iron Man is up to him now. He’s feeling the weight on his shoulders and it’s a bit too much for him. That’s why he really needs this class trip to Europe.
He also really wants to plan this trip out so it gets him the chance to woo his new crush MJ, played by Zendaya. Who is Zendaya by the way? I get the feeling she’s a Disney star who made real shitty pop music for kids like JoJo Siwa.
Anyway, she plays MJ as a sardonic character who at times I’m mostly convinced has Asperger’s. She plays the character so unusual and I’m not entirely sure Peter Parker would fall for someone like that.
I think what it is, he’s picking up on the fact that she’s constantly watching him and staring at him when he isn’t looking. That kind of psyche subliminally puts the thought in your head, hey this girl must like me. I remember being that age and having that exact thought. I’d always catch this girl I sat next to in class looking at me. And of course you think, why would anyone just stare at you other than they like you, right?
Turns out, MJ was just looking at Peter because she suspects he’s actually Spider-Man. Crushing rejection.
So what is the plot to Spider-Man: Far From Home? Also, what’s with the “home” motif? Are all new Spider-Man films going to have something to do with the word home in it?
Spider-Man: Homework. Okay, dumb joke. Let’s move on from this. Considering how the film ends, maybe Spider-Man: Don’t Go Home would be more appropriate.
This takes place a few months after the events of Endgame. Everyone that disappeared during the snap, are now back, but with 5 years having gone by.
The school Peter attends is headed overseas on a class trip to Paris, with a few stops along the way.
Peter is still dealing with Tony Stark’s death, even having issues with his Peter tingles as Aunt May awkwardly calls them. In other words, his spidey sense.
To forget about the whole superhero thing, Peter wants this trip so he tell MJ how he feels, asking her out after he hands her this necklace of a black dahlia. It’s her favorite, you know, because of the murder… Again, she’s a weird girl.
While Peter is planning for his trip, Nick Fury and Maria Hill are tracking down rumors of a town that was destroyed by a tornado with a face in it in Mexico. While investigating, they come face to face with this human like tornado and the man named Quentin Beck who is fighting it.
Jon Favreau is back as Happy, who seems to be getting freaky with Aunt May behind Peter’s back. He lets Peter know that Fury wishes to talk to him, but not wanting to deal with whatever Fury wants him to deal with, Peter ducks his calls.
While on this trip to Venice, a city that has always interested me as it seems like a city constantly on the verge of sinking.
While there, Peter and his class are attacked by a water elemental, being fought off by Quentin Beck, who the media later names Mysterio. This film does touch on the theme of “fake news”, a term that has become extremely mocked over the past couple of years. Mysterio is the living embodiment of fake news. Hell, he’s even a deepfake, as the image we see of him is just a casted hologram projection. We see him wearing the full on superhero outfit, when in really he’s just wears a motion capture suit.
Reluctantly, Peter helps out in the fight, mostly trying to stop buildings from tumbling on top of pedestrians.
Mysterio manages to defeat the water elemental and takes off. Later that night, Fury shows up in Peter’s hotel room, making him to join him on a mission to save the world.
But still feeling inadequate and this getting in the way of his vacation, he refuses to help Mysterio and Fury fight off these elementals. According to him, he is from another universe, an alternate earth. On his earth, these elementals have destroyed his planet, leaving him the sole survivor.
Now the elementals are here on this earth, about to destroy the planet.
I’m not sure exactly why they needed Peter’s help though. I mean, I know the real reason Mysterio needs him there, but I don’t know what the fake reason is. He mostly acts as a lookout for when the fire elemental shows up, so Mysterio can show up and fight him off.
But why did they need Spider-Man for that? I guess Mysterio knew who Peter was, so he staged these events to take place where he knew he’d be? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just have it happen in NY?
I guess they run the risk of getting other Avengers involved, but the main goal in all of this is so Peter will trust Mysterio enough that he’ll hand over EDITH, a pair of sunglasses that control a massive satellite housing thousands of killer drones.
Mysterio has been using a handful of these drones along with his hologram technology to pull off this incredible illusion. But now with a thousand drones, he has enough to level a whole city, giving him an Avengers level threat to defeat and gain the top spot as lead hero.
They figure out Mysterio is a hack fraud when MJ discovers a piece of hologram tech that broke off from a drone during their last staged battle.
Afraid that Mysterio might be bugging their phones, Peter sneaks off to London where Fury is planning on forming a new superhero team with Mysterio spearheading it.
I like that Mysterio is also just a disgruntled employee of Stark Industries. The hologram tech Tony showed off during the start of Civil War was Mysterio’s tech, that Tony renamed BARF I think.
Everyone else helping Mysterio pull this grand illusion off are also disgruntled workers we’ve seen in previous films as well. The idea that Tony would give Peter EDITH has put them over the edge.
After getting the shit kicked out of him, Peter regroups with Happy, who supplies him with a new suit making machine, this time adapting it to better suit a battle with Mysterio and his mind bending tech.
Mysterio stages another battle, this time using all the killer drones he now has access to. The plan is to make it seem like all the elementals have combined together, making a massive monster that only he can defeat.
Peter is able to gain back his spidey sense and fight through what is real and what is a hologram, stopping Mysterio before he destroys the city.
MJ and Peter make their feelings known and I guess start dating. I don’t know if I’ll get into the post credits scenes, just that the more I think about them, I’m not sure they make a ton of sense.
I’ll just mention the one I saw in theaters. I had no idea there were two end credit scenes, so I had to watch the second part on YouTube, but he first one I was smart enough to stay through.
Before Mysterio died, his team cut together a video to make it seem like Spider-Man was the villain all along, then revealing his true identity to the world.
A bunch about that kind of doesn’t make sense or could easily be proven fake. Like for instance, Quentin Beck. Wouldn’t it be pretty easy to find out who he really was? A google search would probably show he worked on hologram technology for Tony Stark and not some alternate reality superhero like he claims.
Even as unenthusiastic as I was about this one, it still gets a SEE IT rating.
It’s still a pretty solid film that kids will love. The humor I wasn’t all that crazy about this time around, setting it in Europe reminded me of an early 2000’s teen sex comedy like Eurotrip.
I really enjoyed the battle Spider-Man had with Mysterio, not knowing what was real or fake.
I’m still up in the air about how I feel about Peter’s friend Ned. At times, I was slightly annoyed by him but in other times it felt right to have him there cracking a joke or making light of a situation.
I’d sacrifice him for more MJ or Aunt May. This film really needed more Aunt May.
I also really enjoyed the relationship between Peter and Mysterio, even if I knew it as all bullshit on his part.
I remember hearing the rumors from geeky fans with YouTube channels thought that this Mysterio from an alternate earth would be how Marvel would introduce X-Men and mutants into the mix. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. I’m still a proponent of keeping X-Men separate from the MCU, which is ironic since X-Men have been an analogy for segregation.
Anyway, check this one out in theaters. I’m sure this will still be playing when the next MCU film comes out.
Next week I’m reviewing Crawl, so stay tuned for that!
Want EARLY access to our videos, uploads, and movie/script reviews? Members get them FIRST! Follow this link to our Discussion Forum.
And be sure to check out our Notes Service, where I give my detailed thoughts and suggestions on your script.
