Spider-Man: Far From Home – Review

It finally happened!  I saw a relatively current movie, and in fact, I saw two in a row in what was my first ever theater-bound doubleheader experience.  Spider-Man: Far From Home is Marvel’s latest billion-dollar film, was released way back on July 2nd, and it was actually the second of the two films that I saw, but I’ll be talking about it here first given its earlier release date (tune in next week for my thoughts on Crawl, that ridiculous alligator-hurricane horror film that has been surprising people on the Rotten Tomatoes scoreboard).  After a month of having had this film available to you – and I say this knowing full well that it took me over a month to write about it – I feel like I don’t super need a spoiler warning, but here’s one for you anyways: I’m going to be at least hinting at major plot points below, and if you aren’t familiar with the characters of Spider-Man and Mysterio in the comics, you may want to wait to see this movie before reading, however far in the future that may be for you.

A question my boy Tobey was probably never fit to answer given the continued aging of his movies: does Spider-Man text and swing, and if so, what does it look like?

To say the least, Far From Home is exactly what you’d expect, but that doesn’t really make it any less fun than it is.  Like any Marvel movie worth its salt, it contains a smattering of family-friendly one-liners, a few of which are legitimately funny, and it’s packed with comic book beat-em-up action.  The visuals – best highlighted by the Elemental fights and (later on) the Mysterio mind-melding special effects sequences, which play much like scenes from Doctor Strange in all their mysticism – are predictably excellent and on-par with the surrounding universe, and Michael Giacchino‘s jaunty score reprises a number of the themes introduced in Spider-Man: Homecoming.  None of it – save, perhaps, for Zendaya‘s interesting take on Mary Jane, her awareness of Peter’s secret (great poke-fun-at-yourself moment here) and her eventual folding into the group that Peter’s friend Ned dubs “FOS – Friends of Spider-Man” – is particularly new or exciting relative to both the practices of the surrounding MCU and the Spider-Man mythos as we’ve known it since the Tobey Maguire days, but that certainly doesn’t mean it’s bad or remotely the worst of the countless Spider-Man films we’ve been given; we need only revisit the Andrew Garfield era, which wasn’t even all that bad in its own right, to be reminded of that.  Couched within its MCU clothing, Far From Home does its best to contain a teenaged love story that has its fair share of cute moments, and certainly does its damnedest to diversify the film from its contemporaries using that juicy center, but that’s about its only real source of originality.

The dreaded Hybrid Elemental: a combination of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water, and most likely a CGI nightmare for some poor overworked Marvel Studios graphic artist.

Spider-Man: Far From Home is in the unique position of having to clean up a lot of the plot-hole-riddled mess left behind by Avengers: Endgame, and it does this fairly well, even going so far as to take advantage of the fact that age gaps have changed in light of the “blip” (why they changed the terminology from the original “Snap” I do not know) in the form of comedy (at one point, we find the ever-annoying and cleverly reinvented Flash Thompson trying to order an alcoholic drink but being refused because he spent five years “blipped”).  Some of this expositional detail isn’t delivered quite as gracefully as it could have been, following the format of Homecoming to breathlessly cram as much catch-up data as possible into a beginning segment that’s framed as a student-made YouTube video, but given the task of explaining to audiences how things will be post-Snap, along with the time constraints, it’s at bare minimum a reasonable attempt.  And as can be readily imagined based on the outcome of the Endgame, and as promised by Far From Home‘s spoilerific final trailer that came out just after Endgame was released, a lot of the emotional content of Spider-Man’s second MCU outing focuses on Peter Parker’s addressing both his grief in the absence of mentor/father figure Tony Stark and the feeling that the metal shoes left behind are his to fill.  This last transitional vestige of Phase 3 is handled reasonably well here, allowing for some well-composed scenes involving the oft-forgotten Happy Hogan, and naturally appearing to indeed frame Peter Parker as the prodigal son inheriting Stark’s tech wisdom, heroic mantle, and of course his toys.  Tom Holland certainly seems up to the task, and continues to be one of the MCU’s most exciting young stars, urging us to hope that with all of the craziness promised in Phase 4, and with the continued contract dispute between Marvel and Sony, he remains involved.

The MCU’s take on Spider-Man’s Stealth Suit, which essentially looks like what Idris Elba is wearing for all of Hobbs & Shaw.  Maybe they have a costume-sharing deal between the franchises?

But Spider-Man’s biggest weakness is in a sense also it’s biggest strength, and this goes back to its source material.  A problem that I don’t often encounter when watching entries in the MCU – both because of my own lack of familiarity and because of Marvel’s too-occasional penchant for making bold character choices – is knowing what’s going to happen because I have a certain (limited) degree of knowledge about the comics upon which the films are based, but in Spider-Man: Far From Home, anyone who is aware of Spider-Man beyond the many films featuring him will know that Jake Gyllenhaal‘s Quentin Beck will turn out to be a turncoat.  While I’ll readily admit that this made Mysterio essentially no less fun to watch, and while such a phenomenon has also surely shown up in other films, laying character’s hidden motives bare for any of Marvel’s truly initiated (Aldrich Killian in Iron Man 3, anyone?), it inevitably takes a bit of the wind out of the sails of the big reveal scene in Prague.  It’s still very well-sold by Gyllenhaal, who is clearly having the time of his life being part of the MCU – and who reportedly wanted to be seen wearing his suit whenever possible on camera – but knowing that the turn is coming only adds to the sense of “let’s get this over with” that the film at times seems to weirdly embrace.  With all that said, the cameos involved in the reveal of Beck’s special-effects team are awfully fun, providing an Endgame-ish set of flashbacks to Iron Man and Civil War while also posthumously calling into question Tony Stark’s already arguably dubious code of ethics.

Quentin Beck: known thanks exclusively to an Italian newscast as Mysterio.

Spider-Man: Far From Home doesn’t find the MCU quite at the height of its powers, nor the height that Endgame reached, but if you saw it with such high expectations as those, you probably shouldn’t have, and were bound to be let down in some way.  For what it is – the latest standalone entry in an ages-old character’s story, pitting him against a classic villain with a new MCU-ified twist while shooting some of its subtler webs in the direction of future films – it’s probably about as good as it could have been.  The mid- and post-credits scenes, complete with a downright glorious J.K. Simmons cameo in his fated return as J. Jonah Jameson, give us a meaty cliffhanger for Spider-Man’s own character arc while also fueling the fiery question on everyone’s mind by the film’s end: where are the Avengers, and why are they leaving a kid to fend for himself?  We’ll assumedly find out in Phase 4.

Zendaya’s Mary Jane, shown here thinking about how much dating Spider-Man is going to improve her morning commute.

Tune in next week for something completely different: a discussion of the zany but decently-crafted survival antics of Crawl.  In the meantime, thanks for reading!

Avengers: Infinity War Review

***WARNING – MAJOR SPOILERS WITHIN***

At one point I had planned to write my review of Avengers: Infinity War without including any spoilers.  That point was decidedly before I saw the absurd and unbelievable ending, in which Marvel does the unthinkable and shatters the expectations many – myself included – had both before and throughout the film’s events about who would survive and who wouldn’t.

Ironically, the Hulk is never spotted on Earth, so this image (taken from the trailer) is pretty disingenuous.

But outside of the gonzo ending, Avengers: Infinity War is in most respects exactly what you’d expect, and if you’re showing up at the theater to watch it, it’s exactly what you want: non-stop breathless action scenes punctuated by bananas CGI-fueled setpieces, featuring about a billion characters who only have enough dialogue to toss in a couple of zippy one-liners dripping with wit here and there.  While I’m not out to disparage the cast, who have all clearly done what’s been asked of them (and in some cases, done more), it’s a pretty easy gig for them.  They’ve all (far too many to waste time naming) played these characters, and now the goal is to just mush them all together, and their biggest job is simply to show up.  They all certainly do, some more briefly than others, but at the end of the day, it’s undeniably satisfying to see the Avengers working together with the Guardians of the Galaxy, regardless of any sort of acting prowess or lack thereof.

Another image from the trailer.  Not gonna lie, I’m still a little mad at Star-Lord, as this is mostly his fault.

The story of Infinity War is exactly fine in my book.  It doesn’t make a whole lot of groundbreaking choices, but it plods at a reasonable pace, with the plot being moved along primarily by the critical mistakes of a choice few protagonists (looking at you, Star Lord, you colossal buffoon).  We maintain the split-crew configuration featured in Captain America: Civil War, with Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, Drax, Star-Lord, and Mantis protecting the Time Stone and fighting Thanos on Titan, while Steve Rogers (formerly Captain America, now possible Nomad), Bucky Barnes (formerly the Winter Soldier, now possibly White Wolf), Black Panther, Black Widow, War Machine, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, and the Hulk fight Thanos’ minions and protect Vision and the Mind Stone in Wakanda.  There are also a number of floaters amongst multiple crews, namely Thor, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Gamora, and Nebula.  Omnipresent and in the midst of all the hubbub, though, is Thanos, the supposedly mega-powerful supervillain we’ve been teased with for literal years in post-credits scenes galore.  As a Marvel antagonist, he certainly doesn’t disappoint, keeping the MCU’s bad-guy hot streak going with a decently convincing motivation and a frightening amount of sheer power, displayed especially at the end of the film.  The good guys may have finally met their match with this one.

Thanos – basically a purple Josh Brolin with gigantic arms/hands and a really weird chin.  Menacing.

In any case, what results from all the noise is a film that’s doubtlessly worthy of the ten-year buildup and the estimated $320 million price tag, even without considering the jaw-dropping ending.  It embodies a culmination of a generational phenomenon that’s similar to the final Harry Potter movie, and its scope is (dare I say) similar to Justice League, given that at one point you have Spider-Man (a relatively grounded MCU member) fighting alien creatures in deep space and on Titan, and that’s just one example.  The difference, though, is that Marvel has taken the time and done the due diligence to build each character up before mashing them together and dropping them into such an earth-shattering scenario, and by virtue of both that and its much lighter tone, it clearly succeeds in places Justice League didn’t.  What I will say, though, is that Infinity War did leave me slightly longing for a more grounded and traditional Marvel adventure without so many faces to keep track of.  Maybe it’s silly to give the MCU credit for making me want to see even more of their future comparatively more subdued movies, so I won’t.  With that said, if that was indeed their backwards plan…it worked.

Spider-Man (Iron Spider) in space!

The good news – we won’t have long to wait to figure out what happened to all the folks lost in The Snappening, as the yet-untitled Avengers 4 is set to drop on May 3rd, 2019.  In the meantime, we have Ant-Man and The Wasp coming later this summer (perhaps Marvel’s cruelest joke of all is using Infinity War to dramatically increase my minuscule interest in seeing that seemingly already-played-out hero story; now I need to see where he lands in all the chaos), and then in March of 2019 we have Captain Marvel, which is apparently poised to take place in the 90’s and assumedly set the stage properly for a character who is evidently – according to Nick Fury and Maria Hill’s brief post-credits stinger – supposed to swoop in and save everyone.  While there are a number of rumors swirling about Avengers 4 (including but not limited to talk of time travel, Soulworld, and the Quantum Realm), we’ll just have to wait and see how the surviving heroes can manage to undo what’s been done.

Oh you know, just a talking raccoon, a sentient tree, and a one-eyed demi-god on their way to attempt to reignite a neutron star to forge an all-powerful axe.  Welcome to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Because let’s face it – those who are “dead” aren’t truly gone.  More specifically, while Gamora and Loki are likely out of the picture for good, all who kicked the bucket by quietly turning to dust in Infinity War‘s last five minutes I’d say are all extremely likely to return, especially Marvel’s new poster boys King T’Challa and Spiderman (who, among others, already have future solo installments confirmed).  This theory is heavily bolstered by Dr. Strange’s telling Tony Stark that “there was no other way” before fading into whatever shadow realm all of those characters entered.  Having used the Eye of Agamotto (read: the Time Stone) to view just over 14 million conflict scenarios with Thanos, and having only found one possible future to be victorious for the good guys, the assumption is that Dr. Strange knew what he was doing when he gave up the Time Stone to Thanos to spare Iron Man’s life – something he had expressly proclaimed earlier in film that he would never do.  All of this boils down to a few strong suggestions:

1.) Tony Stark needed to survive for the Avengers and Co. to succeed in defeating Thanos, and therefore he’ll play an instrumental (and perhaps final) role in Avengers 4.

2.) As a corollary to Suggestion 1, Dr. Strange’s vision of the future must have shown that our heroes must first lose a battle before they can win the war.

3.) Thanos is super screwed, though it’s unclear how.  Captain Marvel must be pretty dang powerful.

Lots of combined brainpower here.  And Wong.

If I were to lay money down on who I thought would survive Avengers 4 (and/or return from the shadow realm, as I’ve been calling it), I’d bet on pretty much everyone who departed at the end of Infinity War, along with a chosen few of the people left behind (namely Black Widow, who is slated for her own film).  I still see Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor as most likely to shuffle off their mortal coils – due to both contracts and character arcs – but Marvel has taken my presuppositions regarding the Infinity War and subverted them beautifully (they really toyed with me with Iron Man in particular, basically killing him in the manner we all expected and then saving him at the last second), so at this point I’d say anything is still on the table.  We’ll see soon enough.

Check out Avengers: Infinity War (currently in theaters literally everywhere) if you haven’t already, though if you’ve read to this point and haven’t yet seen it, you’ve been hella spoiled.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.