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A List of Some Pretty Awesome Fan-Made Games From Your Favorite Beloved Properties



I was sorting through my various bookmarks saved when I reinstalled Chrome and Opera on my laptop after having to replace the hard drive and noticed that I had a bunch of these fan-made games compiled that I was either keeping tabs on their development progress or had them bookmarked to try out for myself whenever I got a chance.

Before I get into any legal trouble for bringing awareness to this games on this blog, I don't endorse piracy, but that's your own choice if you seek out these games for your own profit or personal gain. I don't gain any profit nor benefit for shedding light about these labors of love from my fellow gamers. I just want to enlighten my readers on some of these excellent byproducts out there.



AM2R: Another Metroid II Remake



AM2R is an action-adventure game developed by Argentinian programmer Milton Guasti and released in August 2016 for Windows. It is an unofficial remake of the 1991 Game Boy game Metroid II: Return of Samus in the style of Metroid: Zero Mission.

I personally consider AM2R the definitive Metroid II: Return of Samus remake and the main reason Nintendo got off their asses to do Metroid: Samus Returns for the 3DS. You can still find copies of this online floating around, but Nintendo has done one hell of a job hounding every website and host client to take down the files. This is the only game on this list that I personally had a chance to review in-depth actually.

I personally think that if you're a Metroid fan in any capacity that you should go out of your way to play this "remake" of sorts. DoctorM64's work on this game landed him a job with Moon Studios (creators of Ori and the Blind Forest) and he definitely deserved it with the impressive visual resume he displayed his talents within this fan-made game.




He-Man & She-Ra The Video Game




bWWd, a name that you're going to hear about again throughout this post, developed this fan-made game in the same vein of classic 2D beat 'em ups, but with the look and feel of the Masters of the Universe and Princess of Power cartoon series.

bWWd is still doing regular bug fixes and adding additional characters as of this posting.



Hyper Dragon Ball Z




Before Dragon Ball FighterZ was a gleam in the eye of Arc System Works, there was this game that essentially took everything that players loved about traditional '90s era 2D fighters (namely Capcom) and developed this game to satisfy that craving for something different than what was being offered from the tired and true Budokai series. This game came out in 2014 and still stands as the prime example of what could be done with the DBZ license if passionate fans were behind it.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2018 and we got that with Dragon Ball FighterZ. Hell, Arc System Works need to be thanking these guys (Z2 and the community effort behind this game) as far as I'm concerned.

For those wondering, this game was made out of the MUGEN engine and isn't the only one of it's kind as there's a Naruto game floating around in the same vein as this too.




Maverick Hunter X: Giga Mission (WIP)




This is a strange twist on Mega Man's iconic gameplay. This game takes everything that we love about Mega Man and turns into a 2D beat 'em up set in the Mega Man X timeline - specifically after the controversial Command Mission video game. The game is still pretty early in development, but I personally love what I'm seeing so far. You can follow it's ongoing progress in development over on it's Twitter account.



Mega Maker



In the same vein as the popular Super Mario Maker, you can create your own Mega Man levels.

Despite it's initial release, the game is still in development and receiving ongoing updates/fixes.




Mega Man 2.5D







Mega Man 2.5D is an unofficial fan-made game created by Peter Sjöstrand and Edgar Cebolledo.

The project began in 2009 as an animated mockup. Due to the positive response to it, development began on an actual playable version. The main aspect that sets the game apart from other Mega Man games is the Co-op Mode, which has two players fight side by side in order to get through the game. Another thing that's different in Mega Man 2.5D is the use of changing camera perspectives, which is featured heavily in the single-player mode of the game. Because of these game mechanics, Mega Man 2.5D features separate level designs for its co-op and single-player modes.

The idea is to have Mega Man 2.5D be a "greatest hits" type game that brings back stages and bosses from various Mega Man games, while at the same time putting a new spin on them.


Mega Man Unlimited





This game was created by MegaPhilX as a pseudo-sequel to Mega Man 9 as a bridge between the classic Mega Man series and Mega Man X series. In development, the legitimate Mega Man 10 was announced by Capcom, so a lot of things in-game had to be changed as a result. One funny thing to point out is that Capcom accidentally used some screenshots and media from this game for the marketing for Mega Man 10 in some media outlets, thinking it was the same game.

Zero appears in this game as the final boss as the "Z-Prototype" and is actually playable in an alternate adventure. The plot is similar to Mega Man 10's Roboenza viral outbreak spreading across Dr. Wily's Robot Masters, forcing Dr. Light and Dr. Wily to join forces to develop a cure. This virus is more akin to the Maverick Virus that is commonly known in the X series that causes Reploids to develop violent tendencies and go maverick.

I kept tabs on this game as I personally thought this was an excellent way to explore and bridge the lore for the classic and X series - something that Capcom themselves hasn't done to this day outside of sprinkling breadcrumbs throughout the later entries of the X series prior to Inafune's departure from the company.


Mega Man X: Corrupted (WIP)




Mega Man X: Corrupted is an unofficial, fan-made game by John K. Bacchus (also known as JKB) coded in AS3 using Flex compiler on Flash Develop. The game is modeled after the MMX series' features and gameplay, in the graphic style of the SNES Mega Man X games, with a non-linear interconnected environment, and skill trees to enhance characters and weapons.

Unlike standard MM and MMX titles with boss selection, the game uses a non-linear structure similar to the ones in MMZ1 or ZX games, effectively referred to as the Final Four Effect.

After completing the intro stage, you start in the hunter base and are tasked with stopping the eight Mavericks, but with your current equipment you can only reach three. Upon each of their defeat either you gain a weapon that allows you to travel somewhere new, or the Maverick's destruction causes something to change in the world and grant new places to explore. Examples of such would be Force Starfish, who gives you a weapon that can break hard blocks and crystals, and Sparking Scorpio, who relinquishes his energy back to the power plant so all its devices can function. The world is non-linear and many paths are dependent on the defeat of certain bosses.

The Mega Man X: Corrupted Mavericks don't just wait in their boss room for you to come kill them. They have agendas, and they want to make your life miserable. Each and every Maverick has a mission he's on for the first half of the game, and if you don't go after them, they succeed in carrying it out. One example is Warfare Milodon, who has taken over the weapons factory for the purpose of creating new and powerful mechaniloids for his force, and if he's not one of the first four bosses you defeat, he completes his research and elite enemies start appearing in the world, and Milodon himself gains a powerful new attack. This is the case for all of the last four Mavericks remaining, and all have some effect that makes the world harder and their boss fight harder. When in Sigma Class (Σ Class) all effects are active at once.

The Final Four Effects are :

Warfare Milodon - Upgrades the standard enemies, making them stronger and giving them a red paint job similar to Milodon's. Certain enemies also get new special attacks.

Sparking Scorpio - Adds the black out effect on certain areas from some of the stages, reducing visibility. Certain Buster projectiles can produce a light source for a very short amount of time.

Crystal Rafflar - Creates crystal vines on certain stages, restricting the player's movement and reflecting X's buster shots. Some vines also include insta-death spikes.
Plasma Puffer - Corrupts some of the enemies, making them drop poisonous LE/WE/1-UP after they explode. If the player picks up one of the poisonous capsules his LE/WE/Lives will be reduced. The poisonous capsules can also be destroyed by shooting/slashing them.
Force Starfish - Upgrades the mini-bosses (and the Sentinel enemy), making them stronger, upgrading their attacks or even giving them new ones. They also receive a golden-yellow paint job, similar to that of Starfish's.
Warp Vulpex - Creates vortexes in certain areas of the map that will spawn random corrupted enemies.
Hurricane Hoatzin - Creates a storm effect on some of the map's areas that pushes the player back when moving. It also spawns a new type of enemy across the map - the Storm Balloon.
Neurohack Mosquito - Spreads infectious mosquitoes everywhere on the map that will infect a random enemy on sight, increasing their reaction time, health, and damage. They are immune to status effects while infected.

Very little has been revealed about the story, though JKB has confirmed that the game will take place as an alternate time line after Mega Man X5, thus Axl will not make an appearance.
Sadly, this fan-made game has been development for a VERY long time now and the last time I've checked since back in March of this year, there's no release date. JKBGames has been burning the midnight oil with video updates of his progress here and there on his YouTube channel though.




Mushroom Kingdom Fusion



Fusion Gameworks (Developers' Blog)
Discord Server Link (For general info, updates, & reporting bugs)

Mushroom Kingdom Fusion (Formerly known as Super Mario MF, then Super Mario Fusion) is a fan game created by Fusion Team. The main engine of the game is based off of Mario, but with many other characters playable including Sonic and Tails. It is a crossover of many video games.

On March 10, 2015, this game has been cancelled due to development issues, but as of 2017, the game has been scrapped completely due to Nintendo's numerous copyright strikes. That being said, there's still some playable builds of this floating around the 'Net, sporting over 50 levels and playable characters. There's a wealth of people still wanting to make this fan game a reality with playable patches and updates to the original demo/build, releasing as recently as May 2019.

I wouldn't mind giving this a shot over those insane Mario Maker levels that you have to be god-tier good at Mario games to beat.



Pokemon: Uranium




Pokémon Uranium is a fan-made game based on the Pokémon series. The game was in development for nine years, and used the RPG Maker XP engine. The game adds 150 new fan-made species of Pokémon, along with a new region. Similar to the official games, Uranium contains both online trading and online battling.

I'm not even hardcore into Pokemon (not anymore anyway...), yet I've heard about this one. Nintendo has been notorious about shutting down any site that hosts download files for this game, so you're on your own to fish up a copy. Boy, people think Nintendo are on the nuts of the emulation folks as of late, but that doesn't have nothing on how bad they have been hounding the guys who made this game.



Power Rangers: Beats of Power





This entry looks and plays like a sequel to the SNES/Sega Genesis original Power Rangers video games set in the Mighty Morphin' era of the franchise with sound clips and audio cues from the show.

This was released back on July 24, 2014 by Merso-X, who is getting pretty popular in this article at this point. The update to that initial release, dubbed Beats of Power - Special Edition, released February 25, 2017 as a PC only update that added 4-player local co-op, additional enemies, along with various bug fixes.

Merso-X has a sequel in development, dubbed Beats of Power 2, focusing exclusively on the Power Rangers Zeo series.



Power Rangers Zeo: Beats of Power 2 (WIP)



YouTube Channel (Merso-X's work on this game and others in development)



I know someone's going to be mad as hell at the lack of Tanya in this...

A sequel is being developed but rendered in the same visual style as the original Mortal Kombat games. I would love to know how they are animating this without the original cast, unless they are just using the stock footage from the first few seasons. So far this looks awesome.

This sequel is currently in development by Merso-X, who recently finished working on another noteworthy entry at the bottom of this list.


Super Smash Bros. - Project M




After the lackluster reception of Brawl and then Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS, fans got together and developed this title as a proper return to form in the vein of the beloved Melee from back on Gamecube, except with the enhancements to the game brought in with Brawl. This game was so beloved by fans that it became a tournament standard in some major competitive scenes until the almighty (or rather notorious) Nintendo stepped in.

In a bizarre way, I feel that this game is entirely responsible for Smash Ultimate having as many characters that it did along with Nintendo going out of their way to please their player base.

For those worried about possibly damaging their Wii/Wii U's attempting to install and/or run this fan-made game can rest assured that there are plenty of ways to play this legally without tampering with your console.

Out of all of the fan-made games on this list, I believe that this is most recognizable (or rather most popular) one in terms availability and accessibility.


Sonic: After the Sequel


GameJolt (Info Page)


Sonic: After the Sequel is a 2013 platform video game created by Brazilian student Felipe Daneluz (LakeFeperd). It is an unofficial game based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series and set between the official games Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Daneluz's second Sonic game, it follows Sonic: Before the Sequel, which set between the original Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Like its predecessor, After the Sequel stars Sonic the Hedgehog and his sidekick Tails in a quest to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds from Doctor Eggman.

After the Sequel was inspired by Sonic Heroes and other games both inside and outside the Sonic series, and it was developed with Sonic Worlds, an engine based in Multimedia Fusion 2 that reduces the amount of computer programming involved in game creation. It was released as a free download for Microsoft Windows personal computers on June 15, 2013. The game was very well received by video game journalists, who lauded its preservation of retro Sonic gameplay and its eclectic, 1990s-style soundtrack. The trilogy of Before the Sequel, After the Sequel, and their successor Sonic: Chrono Adventure performed unusually well for fangames, having been downloaded 120,000 times by March 2014.



Sonic: Project Hero (WIP)



I saw a bit of footage of this game in action and I thought it looked amazing to say that I'm not even too crazy about Sonic's 3D outings if I'm perfectly honest. It seems like that a lot of the mechanics from previous games were implemented here to please old and newer Sonic fans.



Super Thundercats: The Lost Eye of Thundera




Super Thundercats: The Lost Eye of Thundera is a remake of the 1987 game. It features updated graphics and music, smoother gameplay, stages featuring the Thundertank, and a much needed final confrontation against Mumm-Ra (the original game ends abruptly after completing the last stage).

Another fangame made by the infamous Merso-X. This guy is racking up one hell of an impressive resume with these games based off beloved children's properties. This game however, I wouldn't be putting up to the top of my list of achievements as the original 1987 game wasn't much to write home about anyway, let alone worth making a remake for.



TMNT Rescue-Palooza


Made by the same team that made the He-Man & She-Ra game mentioned earlier on this list. If you love and devour all things TMNT (namely the 1989 animated series) then this game is for you. Much like the He-Man and She-Ra game, just about every TMNT character imaginable is in this game in some capacity, whether playable, as bosses, or for cameos. Definitely a love letter by fans of the series.

(Laughs) April O'Neil is even here in all of her yellow jumpsuit glory.


The title released June 13, 2019 by none other than Merso-X with help from bWWd, who worked on the previously mentioned He-Man & She-Ra game.
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PREVIEW -- Borderlands 3 Official Announcement & Reveal Trailers - What We Know So Far


We take a look at Gearbox's newest entry into the Borderlands series, Borderlands 3. Borderlands 3 is an upcoming action role-playing first-person shooter video game developed by Gearbox Software, the sequel to 2012's Borderlands 2, and the fourth main entry in the Borderlands series. It is to be released on 13 September 2019 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.




My initial reaction from seeing this trailer was nothing but smiles. The Borderlands series is always going to be known for it's charm and comedic style over anything else and they definitely knocked it out of the park in that regard with this trailer. At first glance, a lot of our old friends are coming back from the last few games (even a few from the short-lived Tales From The Borderlands), along with some new Vault Hunters (of course) and new foes to vanquish. I don't know if people have noticed, but the "Cult of the Vault" has existed even in Borderlands 2, so it's not that hard to see how the Calypso Twins would be able to assume power from anyone foolish enough to follow them in the wake of Handsome Jack's demise.




A part of me is afraid that maybe Gearbox might been overdoing it with the guns this time around, but at the same time, they have to after the insanity of the previous two games. The new locales look simply gorgeous and not bland like a lot of the areas in the previous two games. That's not even a primary concern in the least if Gearbox continues to recapture the magic that made the previous Borderlands outings so fun to play. That's all what really matters - between that and there being a generous amount of content.





(7/15/19) It took me a while, but I FINALLY got a chance to watch this stream in it's entirety.

It still looks like Borderlands to me - more or less - and the charm that we've come to love from it's characters and overall universe is still there too. I would love to know who is voicing the Calypso Twins as I think their voices go perfectly with the annoying streamer/shock jock vibe that they are going for.

My mind was blown right off the bat that you can equip/swap out not one but MULTIPLE Action Skills this time around. The new Siren is hella impressive having both Lilith and Maya's signature skills right off the bat, along with her unique ground pounce skill too. The new Operative class seems right up my alley combining both Mordecai and Zer0's skills together in new lethal combinations. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to lean towards trying this character right off the bat for sure. Seemed like there was little to no cooldown on using skills too, so that seemed like a major change. I'm guessing that the game is going to amp up the difficulty in terms of how many enemies spawn now too.

In terms of multiplayer changes, I love that each individual player gets their own instance of loot in their game, scaled to their unique player level. No more worrying about randoms stealing/hoarding loot drops like in the previous games. I never tried playing with randoms until Borderlands: The Handsome Collection was free on PlayStation Plus a month or two ago and I absolutely loathed that aspect of it. Another thing I liked was that enemies are now scaled to your player level in multiplayer, despite joining a lower level character(s)'s game session. I don't mind rushing my friends through the earlier part of these games, but at the same time, I want to get decent EXP gain for this grind. This is a welcome addition to close the skill gaps at times. This way, your friend doesn't feel useless while you do all of the work in multiplayer if you're higher level than they are. They can still contribute to the madness in their own way since the enemies you face will be scaled to their level on their end.

Out of the new guns that they showed off, I loved the guns with the MIRV grenade explosion upon reload. I'm so anxious to see what other surprises that Gearbox has up their sleeves in that regard. I know the legendary guns are going to be insane this time around if some of just the damn blue and purple drops are doing stuff like this casually.

The fact that you get to explore new worlds other than Pandora makes me wonder exactly how big this game is going to be. Sanctuary III looks cool, but I know I'm going to lose my way around that thing more often than not, especially when I still manage to get mixed up in Sanctuary in Borderlands 2 from time to time. The vending machine quality of life changes were more than welcome, especially the ammo refill option and the new ability to reclaim lost loot. Gearbox are going all the way to please everyone with this entry and I really hope it's a success after such a long wait. I doubt I'll buy it at launch, but I'm looking forward to diving in whenever I get around to buying it - which would more likely be long after all of the downloadable content and add-ons are released like I did with the previous entries.

What We Know So Far: 


Release Date


After having been leaked beforehand, Gearbox confirmed that Borderlands 3 is coming out on September 13.


Playable Character Classes

Note: Information straight from Gamespot.

The first trailer features a few familiar faces from the series' past, but much of the focus goes to a group of four new characters in the screenshot above, which are the Vault Hunters you'll get to control. The characters are as follows from left to right: Amara the Siren, FL4K the Beastmaster, Moze the Gunner, and Zane the Operative.



The Borderlands games tend to have a mixture of traditional shooter-RPG class archetypes, like Berserker, Hunter, and Soldier. However, the series is also known to utilize several unexpected classes that mash up a variety of interesting skills and abilities. This tradition seems to continue with Amara, a Siren who showcases a skill where she summons multiple ethereal arms, possibly alluding to her being a more melee-centric character. You can find out more about each character class in our in-depth explainer.


Confirmed Returning Characters


As stated, many of the series' characters are returning in Borderlands 3, which includes folks from Borderlands 1, Borderlands 2, and spin-off Tales from the Borderlands. Despite not making an appearance in the first trailer, Gearbox has stated that characters from Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel will appear too. Below you'll find the confirmed returning characters so far.

Brick
Claptrap
Ellie
Lady Aurelia
Lillith
Marcus
Maya
Mordecai
Moxxi
Rhys
Sir Hammerlock
Tannis
Tiny Tina
Zer0
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AEW Fight for the Fallen (July 13, 2019) -- Results & Afterthoughts



Fight for the Fallen was a professional wrestling event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It was the third event promoted by the promotion and took place on July 13, 2019 from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida. Fight for the Fallen, like the previous event Fyter Fest, aired for free on the B/R Live streaming service.

The card comprised nine matches, including two on the Buy In pre-show. In the main event, The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) defeated The Brotherhood (Cody and Dustin Rhodes). Other prominent matches saw Kenny Omega defeat Cima and Adam Page defeat Kip Sabian.


In June 2019, AEW stated that all of Fight for the Fallen's gate proceeds would be donated to victims of gun violence. The following month on July 3, it was announced that the event would be sponsored by Farah & Farah, a personal injury law firm located in Jacksonville, Florida, and the proceeds from the gate would be donated to the Jacksonville Victim Assistance Advisory Council.


Sonny Kiss def. Peter Avalon (with Leva Bates)


Before I have the LGBTQ community up in arms against me about my comments on this match, hear me out. The only thing I'm going to say that AEW might want to slowly ease into showcasing this guy. I personally thought he was cool on Lucha Underground as it's pretty normal in lucha libre and Mexico specifically to have the cross-dresser gimmicks (dubbed "exoticos" in that culture) competing regularly. I don't know if mainstream wrestling fans are ready for that quite yet. That's why I feel that you have to ease into it instead of forcing a gimmick onto their mainstream audience. That being said, if anyone can pull it off and make mainstream wrestling fans a fan of it, it's Sonny Kiss (formerly XO Licious on Lucha Underground if you're interested in looking up his matches from Season 4).

As for the librarian gimmick(s), this needs to just die already. Peter Avalon nor Leva Bates can make this thing work. They don't have heel heat with this thing. People are giving them "go away" heat in regard to this gimmick. Someone needs to tell them to trash this thing and go back to the drawing board.


Bea Priestley and Shoko Nakajima def. Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. and Riho



I'm sure everyone has seen the botch where Britt Baker went to tag the wrong partner on the ring apron, but to be fair she suffered a concussion at some point of this match. I don't know whether it was before or after that botch, but damn this match went on far too long for my taste. The standout performer was Bea Priestley though as she was beating the holy hell out of these girls like they owed her money or something. Bea definitely put those days of being compared as a look-alike for Paige/Britani Knight. That time in STARDOM has done wonders for her in-ring game and aggression that she shows off in her match here. Out of all of the women in this match who I would love to see more of when they get started on TNT, it's her - even though I know they seem to be dead set on building around Britt Baker.


MJF, Sammy Guevara, and Shawn Spears def. Darby Allin, Jimmy Havoc, and Joey Janela



Outside of MJF (obviously) and Shawn Spears (who has definitely turned his stock around since leaving WWE), the biggest guy to watch here in Sammy Guevara. Much like Sonny Kiss, I thought he was one of their standout newcomers for Season 4, but unlike Kiss he didn't get too many opportunities to showcase his talents. This match did a great job of showing that he could hang with the "big boys" and held his own against Allin, Havoc, and Janela. Even though I still think that Coffin Drop spot on the ring apron was fucking moronic at Fyter Fest two weeks ago, I think Darby Allin has some promise. Cody Rhodes has to see something in the guy too to say that he would endorse him in a match like that on one of these iPPVs. I think it wouldn't kill the guy to add a bit more muscle - not just for he can be more physically appealing and look intimidating for his gimmick, but for some extra padding for doing high-risk moves like that Coffin Drop and the bump between the ropes to the outside.

After losing a fight against Enzo Amore of all people at a Blink-182 concert a few days prior to this event, I'm surprised the AEW crowd didn't boo Joey Janela out of the building. That dude does absolutely nothing for me anyway. I just don't see what's the appeal of him outside of being yet another guy, much like Jimmy Havoc, in this match who has a reputation of doing stupid spots. Commentary did have a great point though during this match. I could totally see all three of those guys - Allin, Havoc, and Janela in some sort of a trios faction from their similar gimmicks.

That being said, I was surprised that Allin ate the pin to Spears here. He already had his moment stolen from him with his post-match attack during the last show and they beat him clean here? Could've beaten Havoc instead and still had Spears go over if they wanted to give him a win.


Brandi Rhodes (with Awesome Kong) def. Allie



The video package that preempted this match was excellent. It showcases Brandi Rhodes' struggles to stop criticizing herself and finding where she belongs in this sport while Allie wants nothing more to beat her. Fast forward to the start of the match and it's a complete 360 in terms of role reversal. Brandi comes off babyface as all hell in that promo, but she is instantly working heel in this match, especially after recruiting Awesome Kong (again) to be in her corner.

(Laughs) I joked with a friend about this, but watching Brandi in this match, she wrestles like CAW (Create-A-Wrestler) in WWE Games with a default Diva(s) moveset. Every single thing she does here is just generic and plain. Brandi's strongest asset is her ability to heel it up and I applaud her for playing her strong points here, but this was just a nothing match, even with Kong assisting and taunting at ringside. That's not entirely her fault either as it was obvious that her and Allie were off on cues and chemistry in this match. I don't know whether or not it was due to them wrestling outdoors like commentary was playing off of, but you could tell that they were completely out of it by the time the finish came up. I couldn't help but laugh at Allie was out of place for that too.

If this was roughly a decade ago, I would have marked the hell out for the Aja Kong and Awesome Kong stare down. Today, it's obvious that both of these women are broken down. Aja Kong is set for surgery on her knee and meniscal injuries, as reported by Diva-Dirt. Awesome Kong isn't her top fighting form anymore either as anyone who saw her last two returns to Impact Wrestling can testify to that. She's clearly not as mobile/agile as she used to be. I could easily see both Kongs on opposing teams for a tag team match with Allie and Brandi Rhodes.


The Dark Order (Evil Uno and Stu Grayson) defeated Angélico and Jack Evans and A Boy and His Dinosaur (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) (with Marko Stunt)
To advance to All Out for an opportunity at a first round bye in the AEW World Tag Team Championship tournament



A Boy and His Dinosaur, the unlikely duo of Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, were the unexpected stars of this match. I don't understand why they went with the Dark Order winning this match, when they could have pinned Angelico and Jack Evans to get the same result without taking the shine off of Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus getting over with this crowd. It just screams typical WWE booking where they put the WRONG guy(s) over. As much as I enjoy Marko Stunt being the human crash test dummy/ragdoll for most bouts, I can't see that guy having a lengthy career in wrestling outside of getting the piss beat out of him and taking unnecessary bumps until it catches up with him and his luck runs out.

I know what to expect from Jack Evans and Angelico in terms of being familiar with their in-ring ability on four seasons worth of Lucha Underground, but the Dark Order wasn't bad at all here. I think Stu Grayson is the breakout star of those two though if AEW decides to split them all up down the road.


Adam Page def. Kip Sabian



It was at this point where the show started to lose me. This match was too fucking long. I get it - they want to establish new stars by working with some of the top tier talent, but Page is fighting for the AEW World Championship in another month. If he's taking this long against a guy who is at the bottom of their roster, then how long is he going to take against Chris Jericho? I don't want to knock Kip Sabian either as the guy shows promise, but he could have had a different opponent on this show if they wanted to showcase his talents like they did at Double or Nothing.

Speaking of Chris Jericho, I thought he did an excellent job with the post-match attack and in-ring promo later in the show. He's still one of the best talkers in the business today and it shows. He did the bare minimum to sell this title match and put Page over as a legitimate threat to completing his goal.


Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fenix) def. SoCal Uncensored (Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky) (with Christopher Daniels)



This wasn't a bad match, but it ultimately boiled down to what almost every Lucha Bros. match turns into, a bunch of spots without rhyme or reason with a ton of near-falls thrown in. I felt the narrative was lost at about the same point where Christopher Daniels was ejected from ringside. That's when and where I felt like both teams just started doing shit and gave up on the actual tagging in and out of this match. It looked cool and all that in terms of athleticism, but it just continued to drag this show out the longer it went on.

That being said, I don't think it was a bad match, just one they could have shaved off a few minutes off of more or less.

The post-match tease of the Lucha Bros. climbing up a ladder and challenging the Young Bucks to a ladder match at All Out next month definitely got me hyped for that match, especially given both teams' impressive resumes in matches of that elk.


Kenny Omega def. Cima



This was arguably the best match on this entire card, but much like everything else on the tail end of this show, it was too long. After a while, I stopped caring about the near-falls and started looking at the clock wondering how much longer they were going to drag this out to say that they still had a main event to do. I dare say that this was Kenny Omega's best match in AEW to date while Cima continues a streak of impressive performances on these last few AEW shows. It's too early to say whether or not Cima's going to be major player for them, but he's definitely more than a minor blip on the radar for most non-savvy fans now.


The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) def. The Brotherhood (Cody and Dustin Rhodes)



While I felt that this match was a far cry from Cody and Dustin's performance at Double or Nothing, I thought this was a great display by both teams, especially the Young Bucks to show that they can work a "normal/traditional" tag team match while the Rhodes Bros. showed off that they can keep up with the Bucks' showman style.

By this point in the show, the crowd was clearly burnt out, especially from sitting in that outdoor venue for over four hours. AEW was dragging this thing out with the unnecessarily long matches like this was a WWE production.

Once again, I ask the same question - weren't these the very same guys that was saying that AEW wasn't going to be like WWE? Cody's remark about "You can't counter-program against AEW" didn't help matters either as they are acting like they already won the battle before it even started. There's still some glaring issues with their product as it stands. Clearly far too many cooks in the kitchen in terms of creative and booking matches. And this is the third show in a row where they don't seem to have a clear handle on timekeeping for their shows and was about to get cut off the air. To be fair, from start to finish, this didn't have anything that was embarrassingly stupid unlike Fyter Fest. This was a better structure to this show than the previous one and I applaud them for the improvements on that front. I wish Excalibur would just take the mask off and show up as a normal commentator. Alex Marvez just needs to get his anxiety and nervousness under control if he is a lock for doing commentary. Jim Ross is warming up to his colleagues better on this show than he did on previous iPPVs, but I think he will continue to improve over time. Marvez was definitely not as bad here as he was on Double or Nothing, but he's far from perfect. I firmly believe that Jim Ross and Excalibur could call this just fine as a two-man commentary team and just let Marvez handle some of the work backstage and off-air.
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REVIEW -- Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)



Spider-Man: Far From Home is a 2019 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, co-produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and the twenty-third film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is directed by Jon Watts, written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, J. B. Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Martin Starr, Marisa Tomei, and Jake Gyllenhaal. In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Parker is recruited by Nick Fury and Mysterio to face elemental threats from another dimension while he is on a school trip to Europe.



Cast:


Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Zendaya as Michelle "MJ"
Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill
Jon Favreau as Harold "Happy" Hogan
J. B. Smoove as Julius Dell
Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds
Martin Starr as Roger Harrington
Marisa Tomei as May Parker
Jake Gyllenhaal as Quentin Beck / Mysterio

Several other actors reprise their roles from Homecoming, including Tony Revolori as Parker's classmate and rival Eugene "Flash" Thompson, Angourie Rice as Parker's classmate and Ned's off-and-on girlfriend Betty Brant, and Hemky Madera as Mr. Delmar, the owner of a local bodega, though the latter's scenes were cut from the final film and re-purposed for a short film that will be included as part of the film's Blu-ray release. Peter Billingsley appears as William Ginter Riva, reprising his role from a previous MCU film, Iron Man, as a scientist who formerly worked for Obadiah Stane and who now works for Beck. Jeff Bridges and Robert Downey, Jr. also appear as Stane and Tony Stark through the use of archival footage from Iron Man and Captain America: Civil War, respectively.

The Elementals are modeled after Spider-Man comic book villains Hydro-Man (who was labeled as a Water Elemental and named "Hydro-Man" in the marketing with a mentioning of Morris Bench in a BuzzFeed article read by Flash), Sandman (who was labeled as an Earth Elemental), Cyclone (who was labeled as an Air Elemental), and Molten Man (who was labeled as a Fire Elemental and named "Molten Man" in the marketing), who appear in the film as visual effects.

Additionally, Numan Acar portrays Fury's associate Dimitri Smerdyakov, and Remy Hii plays Brad Davis, a popular student who Parker sees as competition for MJ's affection. Zach Barack portrays Zach, one of Parker's new classmates, while Oli Hill was cast in an undisclosed role that was cut from the final film.

J. K. Simmons appears as J. Jonah Jameson in the mid-credits scene, reprising the role he had in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy, marking the first time a character that had previously appeared in a non-MCU film with the same actor, appears in an MCU film. Ben Mendelsohn and Sharon Blynn portray the Skrulls Talos and Soren, respectively, reprising their roles from Captain Marvel, in the post-credits scene, in which it is revealed that they had been impersonating Fury and Hill for the entirety of the film's events.

Plot: (FULL Spoilers)


In Ixtenco, Nick Fury and Maria Hill investigate an unnatural storm, and later encounter the Earth Elemental. A super-powered man, Quentin Beck, arrives to fight the creature. In New York City, the Midtown School of Science and Technology restarts its academic year to accommodate the students who were among those resurrected in The Blip eight months earlier. The school organizes a two-week summer field trip to Europe, where Peter Parker, still distraught over Tony Stark's death, plans to confess his growing feelings for classmate MJ, and avoid heroics. At a fundraiser for the homeless coordinated by his Aunt May, Parker is forewarned by Happy Hogan that he will be contacted by Nick Fury, but Parker chooses to ignore the call. Parker leaves after being overwhelmed by questions about Stark.

In Venice, during the trip, Parker and his friends are among those attacked by the Water Elemental, which proceeds to wreak havoc on the city. Beck arrives and destroys the creature, while Parker attempts to help. Fury meets with Parker and gives him Stark's glasses, which were meant for his successor. The glasses are equipped with the artificial intelligence E.D.I.T.H. (Even Dead, I'm The Hero), which has access to all databases of Stark Industries, and commands a large orbital weapons supply. Beck claims the Elementals killed his family and that he hails from a different reality, one among many in the Multiverse. Parker rejects Fury's call to arms, opting to rejoin his class, but Fury covertly redirects the school trip's itinerary to Prague, where the Fire Elemental is projected to strike. It appears at a carnival, but Beck, with Parker's help, destroys it. Fury and Hill invite Parker and Beck to Berlin to discuss the formation of a new superhero team. Parker considers Beck worthy of being Stark's successor and bequeaths him the E.D.I.T.H. glasses. Unbeknownst to him, Beck is revealed to be a former holographic-illusions specialist at Stark Industries who was fired for his unstable nature, leading a team of disgruntled ex-Stark employees, using advanced projector drones created by William Ginter Riva to simulate the Elemental attacks.

Spidey's newest costume comes equipped with the web glider wings as a tribute to the Steve Ditko era of Spider-Man comic book lore.
MJ deduces Parker is Spider-Man. They discover that a piece of debris she retrieved during the carnival battle is a projector that presents a simulation of the Air Elemental, leading the two to realize Beck is a fraud. When preparing for another illusion, Beck discovers MJ took evidence of his deception. Parker travels to Berlin and meets with Fury, only to realize that the version before him is an illusion created by Beck. He battles multiple illusions; ultimately hit by a train, Parker survives, badly injured, and falls unconscious in a train car. Awakening in a jail cell in the Netherlands, he breaks out and contacts Hogan. Hogan flies Parker to London and reveals a suit-manufacturing machine left behind by Stark, which Parker uses to synthesize a customized costume. In London, Beck orchestrates an Elemental Fusion, seeking to kill MJ and any others to whom she might have revealed his secret. Parker breaks through the illusion, regains control of E.D.I.T.H. and defeats Beck, who dies by a misfired drone gunshot. Riva escapes with the drone files and recordings, while Parker returns to New York City and begins a relationship with MJ.

In a mid-credits scene, reporter J. Jonah Jameson of the DailyBugle.net blames Spider-Man for the Elementals' attacks, broadcasting doctored footage of the incident, filmed and recorded by Beck, in which he incriminates Parker for his death and reveals Spider-Man's secret identity. In a post-credits scene, the Skrulls Talos and Soren are revealed to have been masquerading as Fury and Hill the whole time, as directed by the real Fury, who commands a Skrull spaceship.


The Verdict: 

I saw this film on the opening night (Tuesday), despite having a shitty day involving car trouble and miscellaneous other nonsense. Overall, I thought it was just okay - same in the vein of Captain Marvel before Avengers: Endgame and Ant-Man & The Wasp following Avengers: Infinity War. It serves as the epilogue or rather the aftermath to the world in the wake of the events of Avengers: Endgame now the world is recovering - at least on Earth.


Cast

It's not Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy but I like this pairing more than I thought I was initially. 

I feel that Zendaya has come into her own as "MJ" in this film as her and Tom Holland's Peter Parker/Spider-Man have great chemistry in the scenes that they have together. Even if she's not the traditional Mary Jane Watson from the traditional, yet iconic Spider-Man lore, I think she is a great fit for this character. She doesn't have to be a redhead either to sell that fact that her and Peter belong together. Besides, the biggest thing that people are forgetting is that this is Spider-Man after all and Peter's gone through a laundry list of girlfriends in his history. Who says that MJ isn't just going to be forgotten about or written off in a few more years? Jacob Batalon as Peter's best friend Ned Leeds is still as hilarious as ever, this time coupled with Angourie Rice's Betty Brant in their on/off relationship throughout the film. Tony Revolori's casting as Flash Thompson doesn't bother me as much here as it did in Homecoming, but that's mainly because I doubt Marvel Studios has any plans to do with this character in this continuity like the comics have done over the last few decades and that's a good thing. I just can't help but see this iteration of Flash Thompson as Disney's Doug version of Roger Klotz, where he's the snobbish rich kid. Besides, Flash here is just as scrawny as Peter Parker. Why aren't the other kids bullying him and beating the shit out of him on a regular basis. There's nothing remotely "terrifying" about this kid in the least. I will admit one thing though. One thing that Spider-Man's cast of minor characters lacked was diversity and it's great to see that coming to fruition here. Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio/Quentin Beck was great here on both sides of the coin. During his heroic phase, I almost pegged him as a suitable replacement for Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark/Ironman on his performance, especially when he was wearing the EDITH glasses. Holy shit, I think that dude missed his calling to play Ultimate universe Tony Stark in a few more years or something. That was borderline horrifying in terms of how much alike him and RDJ look and act like. As for Beck's "true" nature as this film's villain, Gyllenhaal delivered in that aspect too. I have absolutely no qualms about his performance as this character. Gyllenhaal helped bring Mysterio to life in this film masterfully. Marisa Tomei is still absolutely stunning and gorgeous as Aunt May Parker - a role I still feel like she's too hot to play. At the same time, I don't mind the change. Much like a lot of these castings for classic Spider-Man characters, it opens the door for new interpretations that I'm not opposed to seeing.

One thing I have to applaud Marvel Studios on. There wasn't any flashback material or any voice over content to remind us of Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark/Ironman as the angel (or rather devil) on Peter Parker/Spider-Man's shoulder as his voice of reason. Tom Holland, or better yet Peter Parker/Spider-Man had to carry this film on their own and it was a great test to see how he would fare in this role. Let's not forget that the initial Ironman film isn't looked back on as very good either. It was "great" at the time, but would regarded as a "passable superhero origin story" now by today's standards.

Narrative


Nick Fury and Maria Hill stumble across Mysterio as a "visitor from the Multiverse" who is here to save our reality from the threat of the Elementals. I couldn't help but notice that each of the elementals were based off a theme from iconic Spider-Man villains from the comics - the Fire Elemental = Molten Man, the Water Elemental = Hydro-Man (Flash even makes a comment about the actual Hydro Man from the comics existing in this continuity), the Earth Elemental = Sandman, and the Air Elemental = Cyclone. So much of this film's publicity was marketed around the Multiverse being introduced here and this film ends up being a farce in the same vein as Ironman 2's marketing with The Mandarin. The similarities to Ironman 2 wouldn't stop there though as the bulk of this film has Peter struggling to live up to massive responsibilities that Tony Stark has left on his shoulders following his death to step up as the hero to step up in his place, much like how living up to Howard Stark's reputation haunted Tony Stark in that film.


Best exchange in this entire film. 
You can't fault Peter who just wants to go on vacation with his friends and just take a break from everything that he's had on his plate as of late, especially with his Avengers-related adventures from Captain America: Civil War to Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War and finally Avengers: Endgame prior to this film. The kid's been through a lot. He was snapped out of existence and then "blipped" back into reality a whopping FIVE years later with the bulk of his classmates. I can't blame the guy for wanting a break from everything and wanting to just relax for a bit.

For the record, I think that name "The Blip" was perfect for the event where everyone came back post-Snap. I busted out laughing so hard in the theater when they first said it and even more so from the stories from people when it happened. That's exactly how I figured it would happen. If Marvel Studios were smart, they would make a comedy one-off film, compiling all of these various reunions and stuff from the day of The Blip. This film proved that the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn't have to take all of its continuity so damn serious all the damn time. It wouldn't hurt to have fun with making fun of it every now and then. Seriously, this is a cinematic universe that makes fun of itself with various pop culture references on a regular basis, so don't think they aren't going to have fun with this notion for the next few years.

My favorite ongoing joke throughout the film was how much Aunt May and Happy Hogan were hanging out and getting along with each other with Peter on the sidelines going "WTF?" from his facial expressions. It reminded me of that ongoing joke between Pokemon anime fans who are quick to point out how much Professor Oak is hanging around with Ash Ketchum's mom, Delia Ketchum, or they are at each other's house/lab when Ash happens to call home while on his many Pokemon-related adventures. At least here, Peter wasn't completely oblivious to it like Ash's dumb as rocks ass is all the time. The final moments of the film has Peter sitting them down and asking them both WTH is going on between them in comedic fashion. May states there's completely nothing going on between them as they are just really good friends while Hogan just looks mortified. Ouch, (Not so) Happy Hogan got friend zoned.

My major gripe with Mysterio was that I wasn't buying his act after like the second appearance/act of heroism. I was almost counting down that he wasn't who or what he said he was saying that he was to Fury and Hill. It just came off a bit too convenient at one point. This guy knows how to beat all of these Elementals when he said it destroyed his world when we're not told next to nothing else about him. It seemed like a well-written fan-fiction from what he was selling to Fury and Spider-Man. Truth be told, that's exactly what he was as a result of the think tank of former disgruntled Stark employees that he had aligned himself with. I thought that was rather cool twist on Mysterio's usual gimmick. They cranked his theatrical Hollywood movie maniac turned villain motif to eleven and gave him writers, tech experts, costume designers, and even optical illusion experts to craft everything under the sun that was needed to convince anyone to buy into his charade. I thought that was a nice addition to Mysterio's "gimmick" as I thought it was pretty nuts that he was doing all of these theatrics on his own in the comics. In the MCU, he has a whole team of disgruntled ex-Stark Industries employees backing him up. My only issue with that part of his backstory is that why did they have to tie yet another villain to Stark Industries, especially all of the D through Z tier minor characters who may have been in the background of these films for the last decade or so? I heard people complaining that the Vulture in Homecoming was an ex-Stark Industries employee too and you could not be further from the truth on that statement. Vulture/Adrian Toomes was running a salvaging company that was forced out of business by Damage Control (yeah that exists in the MCU). It is a government agency known as the U.S. Department of Damage Control (D.O.D.C.), a joint venture between Stark Industries and the United States government to clean up after the Battle of New York, an act which drives Adrian Toomes's salvaging company out of business and causes him to subsequently take the Vulture mantle. Spider-Man just ends up being the guy stuck with cleaning up Tony's messes with people who hates him and/or his company, which isn't that much of a stretch since Peter Parker was his protege.

There's a saving grace though with killing off Mysterio here. He doesn't even need to be alive to give Jake Gyllenhaal a reason to come back. Thanks to his colleagues' technology and mastery over illusions, he can reappear in future films as a hologram to continue to haunt Spider-Man/Peter Parker. I thought that aspect was a stroke of genius as you don't need to keep the real Mysterio alive but to make him a martyr like how he wanted to portray himself as when he took down the last Elemental.

We have to talk about how much Spider-Man's spider sense is downplayed in this film. Aunt May refers to it as his "Peter tingle" early on, but for the vast majority of the film, it seems to be nonexistent. I don't understand why that is since it was there when the Black Order first arrived on Earth in Infinity War as it made his hair stand on its end.


As much as I loved the extended sequence of illusions and mental imagery by Mysterio messing with Spidey's head, I thought they downplayed Peter's Spider Sense to the point that he didn't even have it until the plot demanded it. I get why they went that route since he technically didn't have that ability in Homecoming, but showed signs of it manifesting in Infinity War to a certain degree as shown above.

In Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Spidey instantly saw through Mysterio's deceptions and illusions after realizing that the pending danger wasn't triggering his Spider Sense. After that, it was only a matter of sorting out the illusions from the robotic props and obstacles. Spidey would deal with Mysterio in a similar manner in The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series.

We something similar here in the film's climax, but there wasn't any real drama to it. Peter just like flipped a switch internally and he was able to navigate through Mysterio's bullshit without question when he was stumbling and struggling to deal with it previously. I will give Marvel Studios credit to making his illusions and holograms have physical threats to them with the assistance of his robotic drones. I just felt like the element of discovering and mastering this ability over the course of the film was lost here and it came across as much of a plot device as the Sword of Omens in every single episode of Thundercats (original version) when a problem arose and they needed a magical solution to everything under the sun. (Laughs) She-Ra's Power Sword was just as fucking bad in her original series too.

(Sighs) As much as I loved the final climax between Spidey and Mysterio, I wish the MCU put more effort into developing Spidey's Spider Sense. 

Where Do We Go From Here? (Pure Speculation on Phase 4 and Below)

Holy shit, J.K. Simmons is back as J. Jonah Jameson!!??
At this stage, there's a ton of rumors floating around about where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going to go next. With the two major revelations or rather bombshells dropped in the film's two credits teasers, I can safely assume that Spider-Man is going to be focal point of the MCU going forward - at least until the Sony/Marvel Studios deal falls through if you believe the rumor mill as of late.

From what I have read among the rumors and alleged leaks, the line-up for Phase 4 is the following: Captain Marvel 2, Black Panther 2, Doctor Strange 2, The Eternals, Shang-Chi, Asgardians Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and possibly another Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel. The big rumor that I heard about was that there's not going to be one major big bad like Thanos this time around. Instead, there's going to be an Earth-based threat, namely Norman Osborn, to challenge the Earth-based heroes while the galactic/interstellar heroes deal with another threat in the cosmos, Galactus. This would split the focus between Earth and space conflicts and end the phase without a big Avengers team-up. To be honest, I would be perfectly fine with that. Cool the jets a bit after Avengers: Endgame for a few years and allow everyone to come down from that emotional high point. Let's be realistic here - no matter how you felt about Endgame, whether you loved or absolutely hated it, it was a master class feat of cinematic history, bringing all of those characters together for two films back to back with Infinity War and Endgame. Expectations are at an all-time high of what's next for the MCU and how they are going to top that. I get people that people want to see them continuing to raise the stakes and push the envelope on how far that they can take these films, but every now and then we need stories like this to cool things down a bit and bring the emotions back down to Earth.

I'm speaking for myself when I say that I don't need a whooping scale of that magnitude in every Marvel Cinematic Universe film. Why? Because the comics aren't like that. All of the heroes have their own adventures to take part in and individual narratives to tell. We can have everyone join forces again down the road. What's important is to establish that they all have friends and allies to call on if they need it - with the keyword on IF.

For the record, I thought Far From Home did a good job explaining the lack of Avengers to aid Peter with this situation with Mysterio. Following the Snap, most of the Avengers were either off-world or dealing with the aftermaths of that dilemma. With (mostly) everyone back following the Blip, there's even more problems to deal with following the five year gap, so I would like to think that everyone would have their hands full in terms of dealing with every crisis that pops up, both on Earth and off world. Let's not forget what Captain Marvel said in Endgame, "Not every planet has Avengers, y'know..." Spider-Man just happened to be the closest one in the vicinity to deal with Mysterio and the Elementals when Nick Fury came calling. On top of that, Mysterio went to great lengths to contain the crisis in just Europe and blackout most technology (with EDITH of course) from any interference.

From the route that they are heading, I think that Peter Parker's secret identity being blown isn't a big deal at all when majority of the Avengers' secret identities were already public knowledge after exposing HYDRA to be operating within SHIELD. On top of that, revealing that the real Nick Fury isn't on Earth, but has been operating in space while the Skrulls, Talos (the same one from Captain Marvel)and Soren fills in for him and Maria Hill makes it even easier to remedy that situation. You can easily say that there's a shape-shifter in their mists (while not exposing the post-Snap/Blip world to the Skrulls) and clear Spider-Man's name that way. It would be the perfect excuse to introduce the Chameleon into the MCU in some capacity. J. Jonah Jameson's big expose on Spider-Man's identity would make him hate the Wall-Crawler even more if it's revealed that his big scoop was bogus. Speaking of Jameson, let's give J.K. Simmons a round of applause for coming back to reprise the character that he was born to play in BOTH instances of the character to date in film.

Since the "real" Nick Fury is in space with the Skrulls, then it's safe to assume that he's hard at work, establishing a base and a wealth of resources to bring SWORD to the MCU. I wanted to see this appear in Agents of SHIELD a few seasons ago, but it makes sense to do so here to have Earth prepared for any further extra-terrestrial threats like Thanos again. Talos and Soren's reveals helped fill in the plot hole about why Fury was so trusting of Mysterio when Fury has a habit (or rather reputation) of questioning everything and everyone around him. He said it himself in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, he doesn't fully trust anyone. If the real Fury was in charge, he would have seen through Fury's bullshit a mile away. Double goes for Maria Hill too. Several writers for Marvel Studios have come out and said publicly that the "real" Fury was there for Tony Stark's funeral in Endgame, but I have a feeling that the real Fury and Hill haven't been on Earth since the end of Age of Ultron. Talos and Soren probably were the ones who got dusted after the Snap and that's why Captain Marvel was so adamant about coming straight back to Earth to help deal with Thanos, especially with her extended time away from Earth working with the Skrulls for the better part of two decades, according to their timeline.

This is merely speculation at this point, but if Tony Stark really wanted Peter Parker to be his successor then they could fast track him into starting Parker Industries like in the comics. After Otto Octavius took over his body in the infamous Superior Spider-Man storyline and Peter Parker regained control over his mind and body, he was left with this newfound business endeavor, thanks to Doc Ock's machinations to be a better Spider-Man than Peter Parker. The MCU version could see Parker gain the same notoriety and fame that Tony Stark did after exposing himself as Ironman and Stark Industries can seek out to help clean up his image since he's still an Avenger and one of their own. Besides, who else is going to run Tony's businesses after it's clear that Gwyneth Paltrow is done with the MCU as well following Robert Downey Jr.'s departure in Endgame? It would be a great position for Tom Holland's Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Marisa Tomei's Aunt May to fall into going forward. She's already got the connection and onscreen chemistry with Jon Favreau's Happy Hogan. It would be a stretch to establish but I would totally buy into it. Once again, everything in the MCU doesn't have to be completely copy and paste with the comics. Besides, Holland is going to age out of looking like a teen sooner more than later like most actors (look at the kids from Stranger Things) so it would be a great idea to start thinking towards his college years and better yet, his adolescent years. If they really are going to introduce Norman Osborn into the MCU, then Osborn's OsCorp would be the perfect rival company to challenge Peter Parker taking on the enormous task of either being in charge of Stark's assets and resources or in charge of his own multi-billion dollar corporation. Alternatively, that could be a thorn in MCU's plans as they could want to market Spidey off his ability to draw in younger fans from being to identify with him, but I could easily see that Sony wants to go that route with Miles Morales with their sequel(s) and/or spin-offs to Enter the Spider-Verse while Marvel Studios goes their own route with his stories, much like the comics currently.  

Even though the film is a far cry from the emotional rollercoaster that was Infinity War and Endgame, Far From Home has a few great laughs and moments that is worth a few high-fives all round to close out Phase 3 of the MCU. 

Watch It or Don't Bother?

Watch it, but don't go out of your way to do so, especially if you got caught up in the prerelease marketing about the multiverse and all of that being teased. You would be setting yourself up to be disappointed by the time the credits roll, especially if you're going into this film expecting to be blown away in the same vein and manner as Avengers: Endgame. That being said, I enjoyed this film for the most part, even though Mysterio's "true identity" was easy enough to see coming, but the ending teasers made up for it in a sense.

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