Far From Home Ends the Saga

We’re twenty-three films deep into the Marvel universe now, and we’ve officially reached the end of Phase 3. Comic-Con just announced the movies coming to the line-up, as well as the TV shows coming to the new Disney Streaming Service (which I kind of hate myself for wanting to get). So, when Spider-Man: Far From Home hit theaters, it needed to be the perfect closer; we said goodbye to the original six Avengers (at least in the way that we knew them), and now it was time for us to say goodbye to the MCU as we knew it, because it’s all going to change from here. Because of that change, Far From Home not only had to outperform its Homecoming predecessor; it had to be one of the MCU’s best (while being helmed by Sony). And, though sometimes it’s connection to the last MCU film is a little shaky (honestly there needed to be a short or something about the effects of what happened in Avengers: Endgame because no movie was going to satisfactorily explain how things changed), but as an overall film, it’s a great time. It’s fun, it’s fresh, it’s completely different from the first film, and it’s a great way to not only deal with the changing of a universe we know and love, but to enjoy the fact that it’s changing. It’s not the same, but if Far From Home is any indication, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

Eight months after The Blip (which I will hereafter refer to as the Snap, since Blip is a stupid term and I can’t understand why that was changed) was undone, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and his classmates are getting their lives back to normal. Peter is looking forward to the class science trip to Europe, where he will have the opportunity to confess his feelings to MJ (Zendaya) and take a break from his duties as Spider-Man and the constant reminders of his former mentor, Tony Stark. He soon finds his plans derailed by competition for MJ’s attention in the form of classmate Brad (Remy Hii), and his vacation hijacked by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). A new threat has come to the world in the form of the Elementals, and Spider-Man is the only Avenger available to help combat them. But he won’t be alone – a traveler from another world who has fought the Elementals before, Quentin Beck (a.ka. Mysterio) (Jake Gyllenhaal) has come to offer his assistance in keeping the Earth from destruction. Peter finds himself at a crossroads – the world needs heroes, especially after the destruction left behind by Thanos, but is he ready to step up and be the next Iron Man?

People come into Marvel films looking for different things. Some people are comic fans who look forward to all of the hints and homages that are dropped; other people just want to have a good time. I fall into the camp of people who view the MCU as it has been explained by Joe Russo – “a massive organism of shifting parts and new ideas”. I enjoy seeing how all twenty-three movies feed into each other and create this larger-than-life experience. Because of that, Spider-Man: Far From Home was difficult to sit through the first time (I have seen it three times so far), because it did the bare minimum to be a part of the MCU. I get that there are limitations – Sony technically owns Spider-Man, and other Marvel characters are leased out to them through Marvel. Under the current agreement between Marvel (owned by Disney) and Sony, the MCU has the right to include Spider-Man in their group films (a five-movie contract that, with Far From Home, has just expired), and Sony has the solo film and television rights (that Marvel can approve first). But, since this is the first Marvel film released after Avengers: Endgame, and since the consequences of Endgame were so drastic, it’s hard to understand why they didn’t play a bigger role in the story. We’re catching up with Peter and his classmates only eight months after the Snap, and the only characters we see traumatized by the experience are Peter (for obvious reasons) and minor character Jason, who is trying to understand his younger brother now being older than him and pointing out that if aliens attack again, no one knows what the status of the Avengers is (including us as an audience). Now, sure, these kids that were Snapped weren’t necessarily in pain, and as far as they could be concerned, no time has passed. But that doesn’t mean that there should be no consequences to the Snap for them – their families have spent the last five years mourning, moving on, and aging, which none of these kids have. They’ve come back to a world that has fallen into shambles, living surrounded by a world that has moved on without them, and you are honestly telling me that none of them are even remotely affected by that? And it’s not even just about them – the affects of the Snap should be way more wide-spread than just the absence of the Avengers. One of Peter’s teachers talks about how his wife pretended to die in the Snap but ran off with another man, another way that the world was being thrown out of whack – a crazy excuse, but honestly, something that could have been replicated for all sorts of things to make a return difficult in just eight months. When we saw New York even five years after the Snap, it was in disarray, even falling apart. Half of all life was Snapped away, there was destruction, and then it all just popped back right into place. That should mean huge government issues world-wide, making the travel our characters are making ridiculous (if not impossible), not to mention that all the countries they visit should be just as out of sorts as America was (and should still be). I know that all these problems are not the point of the film – we’re here to watch Spider-Man be Spider-Man, and I get that. But maybe there should be some time to adjust to a post-Endgame world first, because that was a big deal, and it would be nice to see it acknowledged by more than just a few lines of dialogue in a the beginning of the movie.

As an MCU movie, Far From Home is a little off the mark. But as a Spider-Man movie? It is off the CHARTS. While not on the level of Into the Spider-Verse, Far From Home highlights the MCU’s Peter Parker perfectly and gives him room to grow as a character. This is one of the first times we really get a sense of how smart MCU Peter is – sure he goes to a smart-kid school and we know he created his own webs, but because most of his tech has been supplied by Tony Stark in this universe, he’s been more of a kid in his previous appearances. In this film he stands toe to toe with Mysterio while talking about the idea of a multi-verse, he works specifically to create his own suit and build up its strength, and the final battle shows his critical thinking skills in the heat of the moment as more than just luck – he actually puts thought into his fighting. We get to see his Spider-Sense at work for the first time (the name they’re using for it is kinda stupid too but at least the film recognizes that it’s more of a joke than a term they’re going to keep). We also get a great side of how the death of his mentor is affecting him – a subtle detail in the film is that Tony Stark is everywhere. There are the obvious ones, like Peter finding a documentary of Tony on his plane flight, or the Iron Man mural he stares at after his fundraiser. But there are other moments where Peter doesn’t even acknowledge the Iron Man pictures everywhere in his life, like the mural in the airport when his class gets to Venice. Tony is everywhere, and this all plays into the ever-growing pressure on Peter’s shoulders. This is also the first time, more than any of the other films the MCU has done with him, that we really can see Spider-Man as a fighter, as a hero in his own right. While the movie constantly is asking “Who will be the next Iron Man?” they don’t try to make us believe that Peter will be Iron Man – he is finally coming into his own as a hero and as a character, and Far From Home highlights all of his different aspects perfectly. He’s snarky, insecure, kind, tough, vulnerable, naive, and at times he is just done taking the hits. Granted he’s still a teenager, and there’s a lot of room for him to grow, but if Spider-Man is going to be taking a larger role in the MCU (not replacing Iron Man, mind you, but stepping up to a new team), I’m happy to see that his growth is continuing. Some other MCU characters, even in their own movies, haven’t made strides like this. And in all fairness, he is the only character making these strides. I’m not here to say that I don’t enjoy seeing the other characters back again – MJ’s chemistry with Peter is beyond adorable without changing the personality that we loved from Homecoming, and Ned (Jacob Batalon) is still the heart of both comedy and awkwardness. But we can admit that they are not around for personal growth – they just help Peter with his. Even Nick Fury is more of a caricature of himself than his other MCU appearances (though given the end credit twist, that may have been an intentional acting choice). The really unsung, great performance was Jon Favreau’s reappearance of Happy Hogan, a bit of a stand-in for Tony Stark but also the only guy who can really give Peter what he needs in this hour of need. It’s also very touching as an audience – the guy who introduced us to Iron Man, who directed the first film of this amazing expanded universe, now stands as the man who helps Peter put the cap on the end of Phase 3. It’s the end of an era.

*Spoilers* It’s always a pleasure to be able to commend a villain in a Marvel movie, because out of the current 23 movies, there are maybe six villains who have provided the right amount of amusement and awe (not necessarily six movies, though, Loki wins all of his appearances). Mysterio is now one of those six. Gyllenhaal absolutely killed his performance as the newest trickster villain – he had the perfect chemistry for the part, both with his costars (the bromance with Holland is especially endearing), and as the megalomaniac that he’s keeping hidden from the world. His speech to his crew at the moment of the big reveal is a great character moment, and Gyllenhaal has the ability to switch on a dime that Mysterio needs. And that’s saying nothing about the doubt he instills in Spider-Man (through some pretty awesome mind games and hypnotic sequences), which is the perfect note to hit at this time in his story arc. If anything, my complaints about Mysterio have nothing to do with how he was portrayed, and everything to do with what he represents as a MCU character. Revealing that Mysterio is actually a former employee of Tony Stark paired up with others who hated the father of MCU heroes is an homage to how this series started (and continued, since someone was always pissed at Tony), but it’s also overdone, and it makes Mysterio one of several villains, rather than a standout. Now most people figured that he was going to end up being the villain because even someone who barely knows his comic alter-ego (i.e. me) knows that he is a trickster, not unlike Loki, and nothing he says can be taken at face value. But a vendetta against Tony Stark, at this point, just seems…small, and it takes away from Mysterio. His comic alter-ego was a former stuntman, and all of his illusions were his own creations. The goal to make everyone listen is an interesting one, and his line about being the smartest guy in the room but no one paying attention “unless you’re wearing a cape and shooting lasers” is a good motivation, but making it all tie back Tony Stark and his dismissal of his employees turns a cool villain into someone whose charisma saves him from becoming the usual Marvel bad guy. Congrats Gyllenhaal – you did something for Mysterio no one else could.

4.5 / 5

Now, it’s up to Sony and Marvel to reach a new deal – they gave us J.K. Simmons back, now let’s put him to good use.