Aftermath - Spider-Man: Far from Home
When I walked out of Homecoming, my only real reaction was "I laughed a lot." When I walked out of Far from Home, my only real reaction was "I laughed, but not as much."
Probably the big common point among my least favorite MCU movies is how incredibly bland they are. Films like Ant-Man and the Wasp and Iron Man 2, while not exactly anything to gouge your eyes out over, just are kind of easily forgotten, you know? The one enigma is Thor: Ragnarok, which is anything but bland, just annoying. Spider-Man: Homecoming was teetering on that bland edge, but it soared just high enough to prevent me from lumping it with those lesser movies. Far from Home takes a dive off that ledge and becomes probably the most forgettable Spider-Man movie ever made. Objectively it's not worse than Amazing Spider-Man 2 or Venom (yes, I'm standing by my guns that Spider-Man 3 is a good movie), but I feel like I'll remember those movies in the morning. This one, not so much.
That's not to call it a bad movie, just one that's hard to care about. The humor is broader than the last one, and I felt like sometimes it pushed itself just a little too far just to squeeze a nutty joke in, and I just felt as if the film was straining itself at times. It wore me down in the fairly aloof first half of the film, which is just wacky travel shenanigans with Peter and his friends. The film is probably the most action lite film of the Spider-Man series, and I found myself just wanting to take a break from the screwball comedy and just jump to the violence. I like character moments, but holy hell movie. At least make them
meaningful character moments. These character moments are like popping Skittles. So much Skittles.
I can't be too hard on the movie, because like Homecoming, its best moments make it worth watching, but there's just nothing as deliciously good as the car scene between Peter and Tombs in Homecoming...or almost
anything in Into the Spider-Verse. The character moments I reacted to usually revolved around the awkward teenage romance between Peter and "MJ" (still not sure if she's supposed to be Mary Jane or not, gah). I felt Zendaya was very poorly used in Homecoming and her meatier role in Far from Home is a grand improvement, though it doesn't make up for her glued-in-place lack of purpose in the previous film. But I'm glad she's a part of this franchise, because her "I like you but I can't tell you because shy" relationship with Peter in this film is just adorable. Peter's attempts to try and overcome hurdles in telling her how she feels about her is charming, though I'm not entirely sure that his attraction to her was something that evolved in these movies. Her interest in him was alluded in the previous film, but his being "crazy about MJ" is in full swing at the beginning of this movie, even though he hardly noticed her at all in the previous film. But a lot can happen in a year, I suppose. I'm willing to roll with it because it's one of the things I genuinely enjoyed about the movie.
I also think one of the things that makes the movie is Mysterio. The primary plotline of the film is based very squarely on the fact that the heavy hitters of the Avengers are now dead or retired, and it looks for the next major hero to carry on their legacy. Part of the film is Peter pondering whether he can handle stepping into that legacy or whether he was ever meant to, while Mysterio comes in on a cloud of smoke and seems like the natural choice to lead a new team of Avengers. I actually didn't put this together before I watched the film, because I didn't really think that hard about it to be honest, and I understood Mysterio to be the most perfect character choice for this film because of that. Mysterio's final role in the film is hardly a surprise to seasoned Spider-Man readers, though I'll put it in spoiler tags just in case...
Mysterio is of course a "false god" and the villain of the film, with his battles with the "Elementals" being illusions to gain the trust of SHIELD and Spider-Man to gain access to technology that he believes is rightfully his. I loved the way he was used here, right down to his supervillain speech where he lays out his entire plan to his crew, who should know it already but whatever, IT'S FUN! As usual, the most interesting stuff happens toward the end, where Spider-Man has to work his way through some crazy illusions, but Far from Home is usually at its brightest when the villain is onscreen.
Overall, I found the film very hollow, like an illusion of something better, maybe (if you'll pardon the reference). There are some fine moments, but following up Endgame dwarfs this movie, and it even struggles to live up to Into the Spider-Verse, which blows it out of the water. It has its charms and I think most will find it fun, though it feels more like a sitcom than a movie to me. In fact, my audience pretty much treated it like one, with hysterical laughter at barely there jokes and right down to a big "wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!" at a kiss in the finale. At that point it feels less like I paid my money for a movie and more like a extra long episode on the big screen.
Favorite Moment -
Yeah, I really adore that chemistry between Tom Holland and Zendaya. I felt it the most during that scene as the second act transitions into the third and Peter tries to tell MJ that he likes her but MJ blindsides him by saying she knows he's Spider-Man (thank you for ruining this in the trailer, Sony! You dipsh*ts). It escalates as Peter tries to awkwardly cover his tracks until a plot point is uncovered (I know this is in spoiler tags, but I'll refrain from naming what) and in his state of shock and in the need to do something fast he just admits he's Spider-Man. I love how MJ's response is "Wait...really?"
End Credit Scenes -
The rumors are true. Marvel has made the single greatest decision that they ever could have done and cast JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson in the MCU. Unfortunately the way this mid-credit scene sets it up makes it feel like his role in any future MCU installment will be limited, as he shows off a video Mysterio left for the world that accuses Spider-Man of being his killer and let's the entire world know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. This is a pretty major plot development to spill out in a mid-credit scene though, and honestly, I kind of hated it. Dealing with the aftermath of this event should be a Spider-Man movie of its own, and here it's really just a punchline. I also am mixed on having Spidey's identity publicly announced to the world while he's still in high school, which seems to be jumping the gun. But hey, we've never seen it in a Spider-Man movie before, I guess.
The second scene reveals that Fury and Hill were Skrulls during the entire movie, and Fury is actually off-planet. Given how in secret post-Infinity Saga MCU is at this point, I can't say for certain what this is setting up. Captain Marvel 2, maybe? The Eternals? It sure as hell isn't Black Widow.
Stan Lee Cameo -
Alas, it looks like Endgame was Stan the Man's final cameo. This is the first MCU film without him, and also the first Spider-Man film. Such a hole. However, I do recall hearing Marvel was toying with the idea of digitally inserting him in future films, and at one point toward the end, in the crowd of New York I thought to myself "Did I just see...?" I unfortunately didn't think about it fast enough, so I'd have to watch the movie again to find out. If nothing else, the film has a tribute to Lee and Steve Ditko at the very end of the credits.
Final Infinity Saga Ranking1. Black Panther
2. Captain America: Civil War
3. Thor
4. The Incredible Hulk
5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
6. Avengers: Infinity War
7. Doctor Strange
8. Iron Man
9. Avengers: Age of Ultron
10. Captain America: The First Avenger
11. Avengers: Endgame
12. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
13. Thor: The Dark World
14. Iron Man Three
15. The Avengers
16. Guardians of the Galaxy
17. Spider-Man: Homecoming
18. Captain Marvel
19. Ant-Man
20. Spider-Man: Far from Home
21. Ant-Man and the Wasp
22. Thor: Ragnarok
23. Iron Man 2
Spider-Man Round-Up1. Spider-Man 2
2. Captain America: Civil War
3. Spider-Man 3
4. Spider-Man
5. Avengers: Infinity War
6. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
7. Avengers: Endgame
8. The Amazing Spider-Man
9. Spider-Man: Homecoming
10. Spider-Man: Far from Home
11. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
12. Venom