Spider-Man: Far From Home (spoilers)

ClarkKent_DC July 10, 2019 at 1:27pm

I saw Spider-Man: Far From Home over the weekend. I found it quite enjoyable.
I'll throw up the photo spoiler-1.gif tag, and offer some thoughts:

As an epilogue to Avengers: Endgame, I appreciated its explanation of what happened to people when Thanos snapped his fingers. I almost wish there could have been more exploration of that, although not necessarily in this movie. It's a fascinating idea: Suddenly people disappear, no matter what they were doing. Flying airplanes, performing surgery, buying groceries, any number of things. And then they come back five years later but not a day older? (It was a funny gag that the one teacher mentioned his wife took the occasion to fake her death and run off with another man.)
I didn't think I'd like anybody better than Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker -- I definitely think Andrew Garfield was miscast -- but I love Tom Hollland's Spider-Man. He totally gives me the vibe I think early Spider-Man fans felt in 1963: earnest but not fully confident, but always striving to do the right thing.
It helps that this set of films puts Peter firmly in high school. Those stories were before I started reading comics in earnest, so it seems fresh to me. Plus, the movie characters are a mix of the 1963 characters, the Ultimates versions and some original faces, like M.J. It works for me, especially as they are all cast so well.
I'm still grappling with Hot Aunt May. I LOVE it, but for so many decades Aunt May was the very personification of "sweet, frail little old lady" -- emphasis on "frail" and "old." But now? This says it best:
I saw some commentary that Uncle Ben doesn't seem to be much of a concern in this new set of movies. It doesn't bother me. We saw Ben get killed to death in Spider-Man (2002) and Amazing Spider-Man (2012), and I don't feel like it adds anything to see it one more time. I actually appreciate that the origin wasn't rehashed yet again for this set of films; just get on with it.
Besides, these movies hang on the notion that Tony Stark was Peter's new father figure.
The loss of Stark hung over this movie a little too much for my taste. As I saw in one commentary about the movie, the world thinks Captain America is lost, too -- and that would be a much, much bigger deal.
I was initially thrown about Mysterio's story of being a dimensional traveler fighting off elementals that ravaged his homeworld because I know him to be a villain ... but, of course, that was the cover story for his con.
Peter giving Mysterio the E.D.I.T.H. glasses was a REALLY dumb move. Especially after he nearly blew up Brad (and the bus and everyone on the class trip!) before he figured out how the glasses work.
Shouldn't there have been more chaperones on the class trip for a group that size?
I loved the hall of mirrors bit in the last third where Spider-Man is swamped with Mysterio's illusions. This was a case where the movies could do something better than the comics, and it was done well.
A real surprise seeing J. Jonah Jameson -- and played by J.K. Simmons, the same actor who played Jolly Jonah in the Tobey Maguire films. I've said before (here, and here, for example) that Peter selling photos to the Daily Bugle makes NO sense in this day and age, and that's been dispensed with since the first trilogy. But it seems that Jameson has been reinvented for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a figure like Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh -- a bloviating blowhard wholly invested in pushing his agenda and uninterested in facts and truth. Sadly, that framing fits him, perfectly.
Worse, Jonah outs Spider-Man AND frames him for Mysterio's death. I saw an article speculate that this is a sign Daredevil might appear in the MCU, because Spider-Man will need a lawyer ... but that struck me as a lot of wishful thinking.
I'll probably have some more thoughts later. That's for starters.

ClarkKent_DC July 10, 2019 at 2:15pm

I just saw this from Yahoo: "Spider-Man Rights Could Revert to Sony If 'Far From Home' 'Fails to Make $1 Billion'"

Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) July 10, 2019 at 2:30pm

Well here's hoping it tops that number!

Thanks for such a lengthy critique, CK! A few thoughts to add:

I loved how the "blip" was handled -- and that Spider-Man's basic cast all were blipped away, and didn't age. And playing it for laughs was great, after the more somber Endgame.
As for Iron Man mourning vs Cap... I see your point. But I think two things mitigate it: 1) The movie's in Europe, which wouldn't be as Cap focused as the US, and 2) We're seeing things from Peter's POV -- not literally, but subjectively. So he'd notice more stuff about Tony than Steve, because it's more of a sore spot.
I loved the running jokes about the Peter Tingle and the Night Monkey. Pretty much all of the humor landed for me in this one.
On the other hand, it was only because I wasn't taking it at face value that the Elementals were engaging to me as "villains" -- they were basically like the dull, destructive threats at the end of most DC movies. It helped to know there was something going on behind the scenes, even before the movie clued us in.
Not that this was a problem for Kathy -- she didn't know anything about Mysterio, and was just thinking about how much she liked Jake Gillenhaal, when she sighed and realized, "Oh, damn, he's the villain, isn't he?" Since no threat that had any charisma emerged, it was easy to look around for who might secretly be a bad guy.
Loved the teachers -- the sad sack was fun, and JB Smoove as the witch-obsessed science teacher was a hoot.
JJJ as Alex Jones was a great move -- it'll be interesting to see him in a bigger role next time, and how much he differs from his original portrayal.
Zendaya's MJ is a lot of fun too -- I think her cynical smart/grim persona would be more attractive to today's Peter than the original MJ Party Girl personality would be. I'm looking forward to seeing her in Dune next year.
Happy and Aunt May.... that was some real comic gold they were mining. Loved their last scene together.

Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) July 15, 2019 at 11:38am

One thing I forgot to mention -- I noticed a handful of cars with license plates that started with abbreviations of Spider-Man titles. I saw ones beginning with ASM and MTU -- for Amazing Spider-Man, and Marvel Team-Up, respectively.

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Spider-Man: Far From Home (spoilers)

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