Director: Jon Watts
Producer: Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal
Screenplay: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers
Starring: Tom Holland, Samuel L. Jackson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, J.B. Smoove, Martin Starr, Angourie Rice, Tony Revolori
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 129 minutes
Production Company: Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, Pascal Pictures
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Releasing
Release Date: July 2, 2019
Based On: Spider-Man by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
Synopsis: Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man must step up to take on new threats in a world that has changed forever.
Rating: 4.4./5
My Review
Spider-Man Far From Home provides perfect closure to the tragic aftermath of Endgame
Our favorite web-slinger is back, and this time we won’t be seeing him swinging around in New York City instead we see more of him in action at different locations in Europe. Peter Parker tries to have a vacation from being New York City’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man by joining his class trip to Europe, that is until Nick Fury hijacks his vacation by recruiting him for a mission that requires him to fly high and lift himself from the ground as come into terms with following the legacy of the one and only, Tony Stark. That’s a big burden for a kid to handle, but Peter Parker isn’t your typical teenager.
Spider-Man Far From Home serves as a breather from the heartbreaking events of Avengers: Endgame. There’s a lot more of emotional turmoil in Endgame considering it is the denouement to a strong ten year story arc and even though Far From Home is the last film in phase three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we all know that Endgame was the finale and Far From Home as the closure to Endgame; an acceptance. The whole movie is a tribute to Earth’s greatest hero, Tony Stark a.k.a Iron Man. The story still finds a way to revolve around him, from entrusting Peter to be the new Iron Man to Quentin Beck and his team’s motives.
In this movie, we’re dealing with a teenage superhero coping up with the death of his father figure as well as dealing with normal teenage problems such as crushes, love interest rivals, and bullies because let’s put emphasis to it, even though Tony Stark already knew that Peter Parker has the guts to be the new Iron Man, he’s still a kid. Peter becomes pressured about being the next big hero Earth ever had and because of this, he did a mistake that almost made Mysterio replace Tony Stark as the greatest hero, almost killed Nick Fury (because that’s part of Quentin Beck’s plan), endangered his friends, and gave the enemy the access to a technology that can either save Earth from great threats or can be used as a weapon. But then again, let’s emphasize the word ‘almost’ because, at the end of the day, the hero always win (that is until the mid-credits but we’ll get to that later)
As Marvel fan, I already know that Mysterio is the antagonist in the film and when he was introduced in the film, all I could do is anticipate the scene that shows his turning point as a villain. I was kind of disappointed that he’s been faking his superpowers and fight scenes all along, finding out that everything was just an illusion caused by technology was a let down since I thought that hey, for a villain, he actually has cool powers. Though from the beginning I find the elementals absurd and the final fight with the fire elemental seemed cool at first but lacked something grand, like I was expecting something thrilling but became lackluster when Mysterio fakingly sacrificed himself to stop the fire elemental and then somehow survived—that raised some questions. Before he willingly (and fakingly) used all his power to stop the fire elemental, he said that “It’s what he should’ve done in his planet” (non verbatim). He survived so why didn’t he just did that back there? Was he scared? What happened? But of course, Mysterio needs to ‘survive’ in order to look like a hero. It’s all part of Beck’s plan, his motives & backstory seemed fitting, he wants revenge for Tony Stark’s betrayal, he wants to outscore Iron Man as the greatest superhero ever known, (but c’mon, we all know no one can top Iron Man). A lot of people has pointed how some of the villains in the MCU lack in terms of certain thrill and vibe a villain must emit, I’m not sure where Mysterio stands, though, somewhere in between? But one thing’s for sure, Jake Gyllenhaal really did a good job in portraying the character.
Same as Homecoming, the Spider-Man movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe provides the perfect mixture of a superhero film and young adult flick. I have always adored the Spider-Man movies set in the MCU because aside from the action-packed scenes, it also shows Peter’s life as a teenage boy going through high school. That’s why there are times where you forget it’s a superhero movie and more like a coming of age young adult film. I hope to see more of the gang—MJ, Ned, Flash, & Betty in the next Spider-Man film. I enjoyed the scene where they’re with Happy and they try to outrun the drones, it was such a hilarious scene, I loved the interaction of the kids with Happy. Plus, Flash giving Peter a glance when he was saddened by the fact that his mom sent someone else (probably their butler) to pick him up to the airport tells me that maybe he knows Peter’s secret? Flash might be stupid at times but like everybody else in Midtown & Decathlon team, he’s smart. Maybe he put all the pieces together, and it Spider-Man’s identity dawned on him while they were about to be attacked by drones. Who knows? Maybe we do get a scene where the gang is involved with Peter’s Spider-Man antics. I just live for young adult groups solving mysteries, cases, & having one helluva adventure.
Before seeing the movie, I already saw a lot of tweets regarding the mid and post-credits scene; and they were all saying the same thing: It’s shocking. Truly enough they were right, the mid-credits scene frustrates me to the core. At the moment of watching it, it makes me want to strangle Beck for framing Spider-Man and yell at the crowd that they’re stupid if they believe Mysterio is more of a hero than Spider-Man; then again, they don’t know the whole truth to the story, so can’t blame them. I wish that SHIELD would take matters in their own hands and explain the events that happened in Europe in order to save Spider-Man from being a murderer in the eyes of the public. As for his identity, well, looks like he has to deal with it like most of the Avengers. This also means he has to say goodbye to a normal teen life, and there’s no going back. The mid-credits scene reminds me of the mid-credits in Homecoming where the Vulture confesses that he knows Spider-Man’s identity. I feel like Marvel have been teasing about his identity revealed to the public since Homecoming and they didn’t hold back in Far From Home, they completely went full swing. What worries me the most is that in the eyes of the people, this teenage boy named Peter Parker was the cause of the death of their new hope of a hero.
Seeing Spider-Man in action away from the bustling streets of New York City reminds me of what Christopher Nolan did in The Dark Knight, where we see the vigilante beyond the confines of Gotham City. Sure, we saw Spider-Man fight alongside Team Tony in an airport in Germany but him having much spotlight and action rather than just in airport parking lot proves that this version of Spider-Man is very promising. Tom Holland only has one more Spider-Man film included in his contract with Marvel Studios and most solo MCU films are done by the third installment, but I don’t see Holland stopping anytime soon.
Katharsis 