Spider-Man: Far from Home marks the Marvel Cinematic
Universe’s first foray after the major tectonic shifts in the status quo brought
upon by Avengers:
Endgame. The movie goes about its business with the assumption that everyone
in the audience has seen Endgame already (not an unfair assumption since
its well on its way to becoming the highest grossing movie of all time), with
the lingering question of “what’s next?” hovering above. Spider-Man:
Homecoming briefly dealt with this inevitable passing of the torch, but
Far from Home is when the characters really start to grapple with the
enormity of it all.
Set eight months after the events of Endgame, society
has gradually readjusted to life after The Snap (Oh, I’m sorry, “The Blip”),
where everyone has returned five years later unaged. Among them is Peter Parker
(Tom Holland), who is still mourning the death of Tony Stark, and dealing with
the stress of being the successor of his legacy. He hopes to temporarily escape
this during a class trip to Europe, but work follows him when Nick Fury (Samuel
L. Jackson) shows up with a new mission. Elemental giants from a parallel
universe have shown up and started wreaking havoc across the world, so now it’s
up to Spider-Man to stop the last one, with the help of new ally Mysterio (Jake
Gyllenhaal), a hero from the same alternate dimension as the elementals with
the power to create illusions, but also has ulterior motives of his own.
Structurally, Far from Home is a complete reversal from
that of Homecoming. Where Homecoming had Peter chomping at the
bit to prove to his mentor and to himself that he has what it takes to be an
Avenger, and Infinity
War and Endgame having him fight alongside them for the fate of
the world, Far from Home puts all of this to the test by putting him in
an Avengers-sized solo mission. But since this is a Spider-Man movie, that also
means having to balance hero work with normal life and trying to slip between
the two while keeping his peers none the wiser. Those moments of relative
normalcy are the heart and soul of the movie, with Peter attempting to escape
the limelight, hang out with his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalan), who ends up
spending the whole trip schmoozing with his new girlfriend (Angourie Rice), and
confess his feelings to his sardonic crush MJ (Zendaya). It plays out more like
a John Hughes movie than anything else, with the class of characters having
more screen time and pathos than they were given before and all the chemistry
between the actors from before still intact.
Peter himself still has his doubts and insecurities about
not just being Spider-Man, compounded by the pressure to fill the vast shoes of
Iron Man. Tony Stark’s ghost lingers both over Peter’s conscience and the film itself,
taking the place of Uncle Ben as Peter’s big motivator, which is doubly
inventive since the future of the Avengers is in uncertain jeopardy. Like in Homecoming,
this leads to some rash decisions that ultimately put himself and his loved
ones in danger. By contrast, Mysterio’s turn to villainy (oh, spoilers,
Mysterio is actually the bad guy), much like that of The Vulture, is a direct
result of being screwed over by Stark, showing that his legacy isn’t as clear
cut as one would expect, and reorients what you think the movie was really
about. It’s easy to predict where the third act goes once all its tricks are
revealed, but both the mid and post-credits scenes shake things up
exponentially and open a lot of doors that were otherwise not there.
One weird way that the two main plots intersect that sullies
the experience is the cinematography, which in terms of staging and texture is
incredibly flat and feels like a Disney Channel movie with a Hollywood budget, making
the lavish locations of Venice, Prague and London look washed out. The
exception to this is a trippy, CGI-heavy sequence where Mysterio’s illusion
powers are cranked all the way up. Although, considering that this is coming
off of the heels of Spider-Man:
Into The Spider-Verse, I’ll admit that I’m a bit spoiled when it comes
to striking Spider-Man visuals. Likewise, the action is significantly less
thrilling and treated more like a responsible burden. The best parts of those
battles with the elemental titans come from Peter trying not to be seen web-slinging,
whether it’s holding up a collapsing bell tower in his civilian clothes, or getting
mistaken for a brand new hero by the news when wearing a makeshift suit thrown
together by S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives.
Bottom line, Spider-Man: Far from Home is fun enough
and at its best during the character comedy but isn’t nearly as strong in the
action department, which makes it a bit of an outlier for a Marvel movie. It
doesn’t reach the highs of Homecoming or Into the Spider-Verse, but if you need
your Marvel fix until we find out what the post-Endgame MCU has in store, this
ought to do the trick.
7/10
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