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.

The Greatest Showman is a Cinematic Musical at its Finest

This entire film is summed up best by one of its more background characters – the critic, James Gordon Bennett, looks P.T. Barnum in the face and says, “I wouldn’t call this art, but perhaps a celebration of humanity.” This film is not art, at least not in the sense that it is perfect – it does get very close with wonderfully uplifting songs, spectacular dances, and the sort of magic that is the ultimate culmination of theater and film – but it also doesn’t aim to be art. The Greatest Showman draws us in with an extremely arrogant title and the promise of a musical unlike anything we’ve ever seen before (and yes, it was a musical, I want to emphasize that for everyone in the back who will complain that they didn’t know it was a musical when they bought the ticket), but it’s not about being a musical we’ve never seen before – it’s about reminding us how magical a musical can be. This movie was in production for seven years because it was a musical and studios worried about backing an original musical, even one that starred Hugh Jackman and was centered on a circus, and you can see that in all of the work that went into creating it. As far as story goes, it’s a little bland, but as far as magic goes? It reminds us of why we love movies, theater, and the circus in the first place.