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.