MOVIE REVIEW: Spider-Man - Far From Home
(Flight - Hans Zimmer)
Spider-Man has had a difficult run of it in the theaters. It's a franchise that's seen three major reboots of the character, several different timelines, and at least one scene where a web-slinging douche-bro dressed in black danced through the New York streets.
But as Chris Pine says, we don't talk about that.
Finally, Marvel seems to have put Peter Parker on a smoother road that promises a higher caliber of web-head. The first Spider-Man film with Tom Holland, 'Homecoming' is widely held as one of the best Spider-Man films of all time, and Holland's appearances in ensemble films like Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame have all been heavily applauded as well.
'Far From Home' is Holland's second solo outing, the difficult sophomore effort. Has it succeefded?
THE SHORT VERSION:
Yes. Come on, it's Spider-Man in the MCU, people. Be warned though, there's one part in this movie that might very seriously scare some younger viewers. You'll know it when you see it. God knows I did...
THE LONG VERSION:
So, seriously, spoilers are coming folks. There are several things that I'll be talking about in the coming paragraphs, and they're filled with amazing, movie-changing spoilers. If you plan to go see this film, please stop reading now. This'll ruin it for you.
Still here? On your head be it.
So, the short version is the short version for a reason. Far From Home is a good flick. The longer story is where i tell you that it's also one of the most...fragmented, disjointed-feeling, and sloppily conceived Marvel Movies I've ever seen. And that sort of blows me away. This sloppiness is entirely the fault of the movie's story, which is doing too many damned things at once, and none of them well. Seriously, the spoilers are starting now, and they're huge.
The first storyline revolves around the overarching plot of the film. Peter Parker has to team up with Quentin Beck and Nick Fury to stop the Elementals, a series of mythological titan-esque bad guys that wreck cities. The first half of this story is heartbreaking for anyone familiar with the comics because it establishes Quentin Beck as a good guy. In this, Jake Gyllenhaal absolutely CRUSHES it. I'm not a huge fan of that actor and was really concerned when they cast him as Mysterio, but he does such an amazing job that I was miserable by the end of the story's first half. I was miserable because the character of Beck shapes up strongly to be an excellent filler for Tony in Peter's life. This was a brilliant move on Marvel's part because Beck turns heel in the film's third act and it's gut-wrenching. Unfortunately, the agony doesn't stop when Beck switches sides. The manner in which he does it is one of the most, "Wait, what the FUCK?" series of moments in the entire MCU, and was so ludicrous that it managed to fall way outside of Kevin Feige's lead fridge. The Mysterio of the comics and cartoons is a villain with very specific powers, and those can only work a few very specific ways on the silver screen. None of them pan out well.
The second storyline that the film focuses around is the budding relationship between Peter and MJ. Now, I think I said this before, but it bears saying again that Marvel took a huge risk changing the character of MJ, but they were so thorough and careful about it that I actually enjoy this Mary Jane more than I have any other incarnation. No, she's not pale and red-headed, and she never calls Peter 'Tiger'. Fans of the comics will be frustrated by this. In place of this, you have a character that isn't just arm candy. She's brilliant in her own right, stands on her own two feet, isn't helpless, and does it all without rubbing your face in it. Marvel EXCELS at this kind of Girl Power.
I digress.
I love MJ, and I've really been looking forward to seeing how it all plays out between Peter and her. This film doesn't disappoint in its conclusion, but the path to getting there is clumsy, ham-handed, and cliched to the point of irritation. It's the kind of writing that I expect from a goofy rom-com from the '80s. It's not smart. It's not clever. It goes for the cheap laugh and frequently leaves you rubbing your face and hoping that the inevitable embarrassment will simply arrive and be done with so something else that's actually of value can happen on-screen. It does this again and again and again, and it's horrible. We have a great Spider-Man and a great MJ. More care with the formation of their companionship would have been appreciated here. Marvel just phoned it in.
The third storyline in this movie revolves around Peter dealing with his grief over the loss of Tony and the expectations that are now resting on the head of a 16 year-old who just wants to get to know MJ better and be a friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man. When the film does touch on this aspect of Peter Parker, it's MASTERFUL, and I actually found myself wishing they would cover it more. Holland's slow unraveling over the film is done well, just not frequently enough. In this, Iron Man 3 did really well. Stark's PTSD and anxiety were woven into the story quite well, and played a major part in his development as a character. The potential for that is here with Parker, but there's just not nearly enough time spent with it. You want to see Holland spend more time working through it.
All three of these storylines struggle on their own, but when you push all of them together into this movie, it just feels far too clumsy. It lacks the tight cohesion of other Marvel movies and feels, quite frankly, like someone didn't proof the script for the thing well enough.
Mind you, when the film DOES work right, and that happens a great deal of the time, it's hand-clappingly awesome. Thankfully, Far From Home is greater than the sum of its parts...but not by much. Not by much at all. In spite of all of its shambles, Far From Home is still a very entertaining movie. The tragedy is knowing what it could have been if people had spent just a little more time working with the story.
HERE THERE BE HUGE-ASS, MAJOR SPOILERS:
- One area where the movie's writing doesn't screw up is Quentin Beck in the first half of the film. Beck, and Gyllenhaal by proxy, are amazing. You want Beck to be a good guy SO BADLY, you're rooting for it, you're yearning for some kind of relief for poor Peter Parker. Then it all falls to shit and you hate Marvel doubly. Not only did Beck turn heel, but the manner in which he does so is very WTF. It makes it sting that much more.
- I'm sorry, but giant defense satellites full of Stark drones? I don't know where to start, except that someone needs to get that shit out of here. Now.
- Faith or not, Tony Stark would never have left Edith in the hands of a semi-confused adolescent male.
- Where's Karen?? Where's the voice of the lovely Jennifer Connolly???
- J. Jonah Motherfuckin' JAMESON! That is all.
- I don't know how they make Zendaya look as young and coltish as they do, but someone needs a raise.
- That shit with Zombie Iron Man was...legit scary. I peed a little. That was dark as hell for the MCU.
- The cast of people that the Starks have supposedly stolen ideas from is large, and awkwardly written.
- I'm really glad they explained away Nick Fury being such a massive, MASSIVE asshole, because I was really worried for a bit.
- The BARF Tech relies on a direct neural interface in order to create the images that are projected via hologram. They played fast and loose with a lot of that in order to make this movie work.
Spider-Man has had a difficult run of it in the theaters. It's a franchise that's seen three major reboots of the character, several different timelines, and at least one scene where a web-slinging douche-bro dressed in black danced through the New York streets.
But as Chris Pine says, we don't talk about that.
Finally, Marvel seems to have put Peter Parker on a smoother road that promises a higher caliber of web-head. The first Spider-Man film with Tom Holland, 'Homecoming' is widely held as one of the best Spider-Man films of all time, and Holland's appearances in ensemble films like Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame have all been heavily applauded as well.
'Far From Home' is Holland's second solo outing, the difficult sophomore effort. Has it succeefded?
THE SHORT VERSION:
Yes. Come on, it's Spider-Man in the MCU, people. Be warned though, there's one part in this movie that might very seriously scare some younger viewers. You'll know it when you see it. God knows I did...
THE LONG VERSION:
So, seriously, spoilers are coming folks. There are several things that I'll be talking about in the coming paragraphs, and they're filled with amazing, movie-changing spoilers. If you plan to go see this film, please stop reading now. This'll ruin it for you.
Still here? On your head be it.
So, the short version is the short version for a reason. Far From Home is a good flick. The longer story is where i tell you that it's also one of the most...fragmented, disjointed-feeling, and sloppily conceived Marvel Movies I've ever seen. And that sort of blows me away. This sloppiness is entirely the fault of the movie's story, which is doing too many damned things at once, and none of them well. Seriously, the spoilers are starting now, and they're huge.
The first storyline revolves around the overarching plot of the film. Peter Parker has to team up with Quentin Beck and Nick Fury to stop the Elementals, a series of mythological titan-esque bad guys that wreck cities. The first half of this story is heartbreaking for anyone familiar with the comics because it establishes Quentin Beck as a good guy. In this, Jake Gyllenhaal absolutely CRUSHES it. I'm not a huge fan of that actor and was really concerned when they cast him as Mysterio, but he does such an amazing job that I was miserable by the end of the story's first half. I was miserable because the character of Beck shapes up strongly to be an excellent filler for Tony in Peter's life. This was a brilliant move on Marvel's part because Beck turns heel in the film's third act and it's gut-wrenching. Unfortunately, the agony doesn't stop when Beck switches sides. The manner in which he does it is one of the most, "Wait, what the FUCK?" series of moments in the entire MCU, and was so ludicrous that it managed to fall way outside of Kevin Feige's lead fridge. The Mysterio of the comics and cartoons is a villain with very specific powers, and those can only work a few very specific ways on the silver screen. None of them pan out well.
The second storyline that the film focuses around is the budding relationship between Peter and MJ. Now, I think I said this before, but it bears saying again that Marvel took a huge risk changing the character of MJ, but they were so thorough and careful about it that I actually enjoy this Mary Jane more than I have any other incarnation. No, she's not pale and red-headed, and she never calls Peter 'Tiger'. Fans of the comics will be frustrated by this. In place of this, you have a character that isn't just arm candy. She's brilliant in her own right, stands on her own two feet, isn't helpless, and does it all without rubbing your face in it. Marvel EXCELS at this kind of Girl Power.
I digress.
I love MJ, and I've really been looking forward to seeing how it all plays out between Peter and her. This film doesn't disappoint in its conclusion, but the path to getting there is clumsy, ham-handed, and cliched to the point of irritation. It's the kind of writing that I expect from a goofy rom-com from the '80s. It's not smart. It's not clever. It goes for the cheap laugh and frequently leaves you rubbing your face and hoping that the inevitable embarrassment will simply arrive and be done with so something else that's actually of value can happen on-screen. It does this again and again and again, and it's horrible. We have a great Spider-Man and a great MJ. More care with the formation of their companionship would have been appreciated here. Marvel just phoned it in.
The third storyline in this movie revolves around Peter dealing with his grief over the loss of Tony and the expectations that are now resting on the head of a 16 year-old who just wants to get to know MJ better and be a friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man. When the film does touch on this aspect of Peter Parker, it's MASTERFUL, and I actually found myself wishing they would cover it more. Holland's slow unraveling over the film is done well, just not frequently enough. In this, Iron Man 3 did really well. Stark's PTSD and anxiety were woven into the story quite well, and played a major part in his development as a character. The potential for that is here with Parker, but there's just not nearly enough time spent with it. You want to see Holland spend more time working through it.
All three of these storylines struggle on their own, but when you push all of them together into this movie, it just feels far too clumsy. It lacks the tight cohesion of other Marvel movies and feels, quite frankly, like someone didn't proof the script for the thing well enough.
Mind you, when the film DOES work right, and that happens a great deal of the time, it's hand-clappingly awesome. Thankfully, Far From Home is greater than the sum of its parts...but not by much. Not by much at all. In spite of all of its shambles, Far From Home is still a very entertaining movie. The tragedy is knowing what it could have been if people had spent just a little more time working with the story.
HERE THERE BE HUGE-ASS, MAJOR SPOILERS:
- One area where the movie's writing doesn't screw up is Quentin Beck in the first half of the film. Beck, and Gyllenhaal by proxy, are amazing. You want Beck to be a good guy SO BADLY, you're rooting for it, you're yearning for some kind of relief for poor Peter Parker. Then it all falls to shit and you hate Marvel doubly. Not only did Beck turn heel, but the manner in which he does so is very WTF. It makes it sting that much more.
- I'm sorry, but giant defense satellites full of Stark drones? I don't know where to start, except that someone needs to get that shit out of here. Now.
- Faith or not, Tony Stark would never have left Edith in the hands of a semi-confused adolescent male.
- Where's Karen?? Where's the voice of the lovely Jennifer Connolly???
- J. Jonah Motherfuckin' JAMESON! That is all.
- I don't know how they make Zendaya look as young and coltish as they do, but someone needs a raise.
- That shit with Zombie Iron Man was...legit scary. I peed a little. That was dark as hell for the MCU.
- The cast of people that the Starks have supposedly stolen ideas from is large, and awkwardly written.
- I'm really glad they explained away Nick Fury being such a massive, MASSIVE asshole, because I was really worried for a bit.
- The BARF Tech relies on a direct neural interface in order to create the images that are projected via hologram. They played fast and loose with a lot of that in order to make this movie work.
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