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Review of 'Spider-Man: Far From Home'

By Fanpicked MediaPublished 5 years ago 6 min read
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Copyright: Marvel Studios/Sony Pictures

2018 was the unofficial year of Spider-Man, for better and for worse. Marvel’s posterboy (and my all time favorite fictional character) had a standout scene in the biggest movie of the year, Avengers: Infinity War. He then had a critically acclaimed and best selling video game on the Playstation 4. After that, he appeared in an animated film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which went on to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. And to further prove the popularity of the wall crawler, his greatest villain, Venom, had a hit movie, and Spider-Man didn’t even appear in it! Sadly, it was also the year that Spider-Man’s co-creators, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, died mere months away from each other. Now one year later, the web-slinger is appearing in his seventh live action, solo movie. How does it compare to the other installments? Let’s find out.

Set after the events of Avengers: Endgame, the effects of the two Infinity Gauntlets snaps done by Thanos and Iron Man are explained as “The Blip,” in which half of the world’s population disappeared, only to reappear five years later as if nothing happened. Peter Parker (Tom Holland, in his fifth appearance as the character) and his science class are going on a trip across Europe, but Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, in his record eleventh appearance as the character) is calling upon him to help save the world from “The Elementals,” a foursome of monsters who take on the form of earth, wind, water, and fire, and caused a bunch of havoc around the world. Also there to help is Quentin Beck, AKA Mysterio (my second favorite Spider-Man villain, after Venom), played by Jake Gyllenhaal (who ironically almost played Spider-Man in the original Sam Raimi trilogy), however, as his name applies, Mysterio’s motives aren’t what they appear.

Directed by Jon Watts, Far From Home, like Homecoming before it, feels like a superhero movie if it were written and directed by the late, great John Hughes. While this was a cute and interesting spin on the Spider-Man mythos in Homecoming, it’s rather tiresome here. An aspect that many fans (myself included) don’t like about this version of Spider-Man is that he comes across more as “Iron Man Jr,” due to his heavy use of technology provided to him by Tony Stark. This aspect is made even worse in this movie, as Peter is now living in the shadow of the late Mister Stark, and everyone expects Spider-Man to become the next Iron Man. Frankly, I found this plot point to be eye-rollingly insulting to the character, as he’s never treated as his own man with his own merits.

Furthermore, I still don’t like the character changes that were done to Spider-Man’s supporting cast. Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) just should not be an attractive 40-something year old that everyone drools over, in this case by Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau). Likewise, I don’t like nerdy Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori), as it goes against the timeless jock versus nerd dynamic between him and Peter. Ironically enough, the first “Amazing Spider-Man” movie had the best representation of the Thompson character on the big screen. And while the jury is still out on what is going on with the “MJ” character (Zendaya Coleman) being portrayed like the Ally Sheedy “basket case” character from The Breakfast Club, at least her weirdness was dialed down in this installment. Still, the romance between her and Peter comes across as forced, as Peter showed no real interest in her in Homecoming, yet now he has a whole romantic plan to confess his love to her.

Another major problem I had with the movie was the pacing. The entire first act, and first half of the second act are rather slow to get started, and are mostly long winded set-up. Yes, it has good character development, and a few funny moments, but it feels like it goes on forever and ever. It isn’t until the second half of the second act when a big plot twist is revealed that the movie picks up steam, but once it does, then it gets helluva lot more interesting. Yes, the payoff is great, but the set-up could have taken half the time to get there. And in typical Sony fashion, each and every electronic product used on screen is a Sony brand product, although the product placement isn’t too in your face until the mid-credits scene, in which case the movie stops being subtle all together with what it wants you to buy.

Nit-picking aside, Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio is easily the best thing in the entire movie. Once his true motives are revealed, he is easily one of the best comic book villains to grace the big screen. As I mentioned, he is my second favorite Spider-Man villain, due to his mastery of illusions, and in my opinion, there’s nothing more threatening or scary than not being able to trust your own eyes. Mysterio’s standout scene is when he tricks Spider-Man once, has a psychedelic battle with him, only to trick him yet again, and nearly gets him killed. It’s downright horrifying to a degree. So this movie perfectly captured the fearsome nature of the character, even if they took a lot of liberties with his backstory, but that’s nothing new when it comes to villains within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Also, when this movie takes a line of dialogue from a movie that Marvel made eleven years ago, and a scene from a movie that they made three years ago, and turns them into plot points, it just goes to show why Marvel Studios is untouchable these days in terms of box office, and the concept of shared continuity.

Lastly, the computer-generated imagery is quite good. Each of the “Elementals” are based on other Spider-Man villains, namely Sandman, Hydro-Man, Cyclone, and Molten Man, and each have their own level of detail and believability in appearance. Hydro-Man seemed the weakest looking to me, but that’s probably because water is always a hard element for CGI artists to deal with, although he does have a great introduction. Molten Man is easily the best looking of the bunch. And Mysterio’s illusion technology also looks cool, and when it appears on screen, you know something bad is about to happen. Oh, and the mid-credit scene is a must-see, the end credits scene, not so much.

As for my ranking of all of Spider-Man’s movie appearances thus far (because the Internet just loves lists), it would be as follows:

  1. Spider-Man 2
  2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
  3. Spider-Man 1
  4. Spider-Man: Homecoming
  5. Avengers: Infinity War
  6. Captain America: Civil War
  7. Spider-Man: Far From Home
  8. Avengers: Endgame
  9. Amazing Spider-Man 2
  10. Amazing Spider-Man 1
  11. Spider-Man 3

All that being, I was a little disappointed in this installment of the franchise. It was by no means horrible like Spider-Man 3, but it just didn’t have the tone of a true Spider-Man movie. If anything, being part of the MCU has overwhelmed the character, and made him a supporting role in his own movie, in a way. Because of that, I give this flick a solid three out of five stars. If you’re a die hard Spider-Man fan like me, you’re probably going to see this movie no matter what, but I can only recommend doing so at matinee prices, or with a gift card. Otherwise, you can wait for On Demand, streaming media, or physical disk rental. That concludes this fanpicked review. And remember, when it comes to the media that you consume, be like Indiana Jones, and choose wisely.

Short Version

Pros:

  • Standout performance by Jake Gyllenhaal.
  • Great CGI work with the Elemental monsters.
  • Must see mid-credits scene.

Cons:

  • Pacing in the beginning is entirely too slow.
  • Spider-Man is overshadowed by Iron Man and other MCU factors.
  • Still don’t like the creative liberties with Spider-Man’s supporting cast.
  • Verdict: *** (three out of five stars).

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Fanpicked Media

Watcher and critic of movies, television, and streaming media. Helping you pick the media that's best for your consumption.

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