Right now, I own bluray copies of all the MCU movies. I don’t know when was the last time that was even possible; I’m pretty sure there’s been one MCU movie in the theatre before the last one got its home media release for many years now.
With rumours of a delay to the Black Widow movie, I thought now would be an okay time to revisit the last MCU movie.
There will be some spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home, Avengers: Endgame and Infinity War, and Captain Marvel. Proceed at your own risk.
If Endgame is the final act of the MCU (part 1), and I think it’s a good one, this is a good coda to that.
The main story is about Spider-Man facing off against Mysterio in Europe. (That’s the main surface story; there’s a deeper story about Peter trying to live up to Tony Stark’s legacy after events in Endgame.) The mystery around this new character works for me; it kept me questioning if he’s a good guy or not. I know that in the comics, he’s been a bad guy since the 60s – but so have the Skrulls. As a reader, I’m saying ‘I know he’s a bad guy,’ but I’m also saying ‘and the Gladiator is a bank robber, and Zemo is a Baron.’
Mysterio is a great manipulator in this movie, too. The way he plays Peter like a harp from Hell is very well-handled.
I love that he – and Spidey – look like their comics counterparts.
Too often, in CBMs, they don’t.
I think the creators did a good job writing for teens; they behave realistically for their age group, without coming off as either too good or too bad, but a mix in-between. The same applies to adult interactions with kids; some are good at it, some aren’t.
That said, was it really necessary to have (strongly implied) teen sex? Really? (Ned and Betty. I know they were married in the comics; but this isn’t the comics, and they were adults there.)
The score is very good. Michael Giacchino has been turning out some great work over his career, and like most of it, Spider-Man: Far From Home is distinctive with a noticeable major theme; though it could stand to be a bit more memorable. It’s not as good as his Doctor Strange, but it’s still good.
I’ve mentioned before my habit of always buying the score (where possible) to my movies. This is what gets to me: Captain Marvel costs $25 for a download. Spider-Man: Far From Home cost $20 over the counter, on CD, from a bricks and mortar store. It’s an ongoing frustration.
They also use some songs I already know – opening with Whitney Houston’s version of I Will Always Love You, and later on adding some AC/DC. This helps ground the movie for me, and make this fantastic world they’re in feel more real. I always like it when superhero movies do that.
The movie is very definitely set after Avengers: Endgame, with a world dealing with the aftermath of half its population disappearing for five years. They give a good selection of various implications of the Blip (as this movie labels it); some of them well thought-out, ideas that make you go ‘Oh, yeah, that would happen!’
A couple of questions do come up, though:
What’s with the world’s Iron Man obsession?
The people within the MCU seem to focus all their energy and thoughts on that one Avenger, though they know others died. I know they’re trying to focus on the theme of Peter replacing Tony, but the world acts like there’s only one hero.
I’ve always wanted a scene in the MCU where Tony says to somebody “I’m Tony Stark,” and gets the answer, “Never heard of you.” (The closest we got was at the end of Civil War, some old guy, jk,saying ‘Are you Tony Stank?’.)
Aunt May keeps de-aging with every movie serial. How does she do that? Is she related to Merlin, perchance? She isn’t even Aunt May anymore; now Peter just calls her ‘May’. In the next iteration, she’ll be younger than Peter!
Nick Fury was really hyped up in all the trailers as a big part of the movie, but he’s only in it for about a minute. :/
The movie does do the adaptation clichés of having the love interest find out the secret identity and the bad guy dying off. Batman aged those beyond recovery five movies ago; but that’s a quibble.
It’s a little weird to me to set a Spider-Man movie outside of New York City. That’s really where the character belongs – and how can Peter afford the trip? – but I’m not going to dock any points from the movie for it.
Having a world tour is cool.
Christian representation:
None. At one point, Peter says “Thank God” but I’m taking that as basically just an expression. I don’t think it means anything.
What I’d like to talk about is the theology of Infinity War (since it comes up a lot in this movie, and I don’t see myself reviewing Infinity War itself).
In Infinity War, half the population suddenly dies with a snap, effectively dead. What are the theological ramifications?
Oddly, that’s actually in keeping with Bible teaching. “That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.” ~ Matt 24:39-41
This fits with the idea of half the universe disappearing.
Overall, this movie is amazing! Spectacular! Web of! (I regret nothing!) I highly recommend it to those who loved the first one, those who love the MCU, or those who just want to enjoy a fun ride.
One last touch I noticed on later viewings: Both MCU Spider-Man movies have ended (well, mid-creditsed) with the same line: “What the fu—”
(May in the first, one, finding out Peter is Spider-Man; Peter in the second, after a great twist that I won’t spoil here, in case you haven’t seen it.) Will this be one of those ongoing things that gets dropped when a new director takes over? (“It’s gonna be a hot time in the old town tonight!”)
Overall, I thought this was a pretty fun movie but it had some big flaws. I personally had some fanboy quibbles with the idea of Tony Stark a) creating a massive extrajudicial surveillance/killer drone program and b) entrusting it to a teenager. All my plot problems aside, I think that the pacing of the film didn’t give enough time to character growth and didn’t juggle the humor and drama as effectively as “Homecoming” did. It’s important for a Spider-Man story to have humor, but I felt like they alternated between jokes and attempts at pathos with a rigid five minute oscillation this time around instead of following a more organic flow. The source of the humor was more cartoonish and less of a relatable teenage variety than in the last film, too.
I noticed while watching that he seems to want to make Peter a killer (between this and his killer costume in Homecoming).
It isn’t just that he entrusted it to a teenager; he entrusted it to a teenager without so much as telling him he was giving him killer drones.
There’s a tossed-off line at the end of the Avengers-Defenders crossover from the 1970s that while the Avengers will explain to Earth about being sucked into Dormammu’s universe, the rest of the universe will never find out. Rereading it I wondered what kind of insane religious fervor that would trigger across the universe if it really happened.
Same with the snap. The Earth heroes know but there’s probably a lot of the galaxy that hasn’t heard, or didn’t believe the story at first.
I really enjoyed Far From Home, but you have a point about Tony-worship in the MCU.