When the MCU got the rights to use
Spider-Man, I was cautiously optimistic. Marvel had already done a great job in
adapting their characters and stories into movie form, and while they haven’t
all be spectacular or amazing, the worst you can say about the lesser movies is
that they’re okay. Not great, but not awful either. And after seeing how Tom
Holland did his Spider-thing in Civil War, and then his performances in Spider-Man:
Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame I can say
with confidence that they’d exceeded my expectations. Sure, they had to make a
lot of changes to make the Spider-Man stuff fit in with the rest of the MCU
mythos and do enough altering so that Tom’s Peter Parker would be
distinct from Tobey McGuire and Andrew Garfield’s performances, but they stuck
the landing. Sure, Aunt May is now significantly younger, and as attractive as
Marisa Tomei always is, MJ is now Michelle Jones instead of Mary Jane Watson,
and Harry Osborn seems to have been subbed out for Ned (maybe) Leeds, but they’re
all great in my eyes. Shall we see if Spider-Man: Far From Home can keep
my optimism aloft? Let’s get to it.
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| Care to guess who in this photo is trustworthy? |
We open on the devastated town of Ixtenco,
Mexico. Agent Maria Hill and Director Nick Fury arrive to investigate. Just as
they begin their investigation, an enormous Man shaped creature made of Sand
(how odd) appears and attacks. It’s quickly stopped by a Mysterious man
in a fishbowl helmet. A week later, we’re shown this same trio fighting and
defeating a similar wind-based, almost Cyclonic, monster in Morocco.
We then jump over to Midtown Tech, the
High School of Peter Parker. We’re given a quick exposition dump from school journalist
Betty Brant. In quick succession, it is year 2024, they know that Iron Man,
Black Widow, Vision and (kinda) Captain America died defending the Earth, they
are now referring to the five years where half of all life was gone as “The
Blip,” everyone who was erased hasn’t aged in the five years they were gone,
and while things are weird, they’re adjusting. These kids adjusted way better
than I could have, to be honest. Peter, Ned, and several other students are
going on a cross country trip in Europe as part of their summer break. Peter is
rather stressed out about it, as he is planning on telling Michelle (MJ) Jones
that he’s got a crush on her. Add to it the additional stresses of being Spider-Man,
and seeing a bunch of homages to his now deceased mentor Iron Man, Peter really
needs the break. He also helps out Aunt May at a charity event for the Homeless.
Which I guess is a much bigger problem now that you’ve got a TON of people who’ve
probably lost their homes while being ash. She’s super supportive of Peter as Spider-Man,
first time for everything, which is good. But then Happy Hogan shows up with a big
check for May’s charity and things get… weird. Huh. Before Peter can think too
hard on his Aunt’s social life, he gets a call from a blocked number that Happy
is pretty sure is from Nick Fury. Then the unthinkable happens. Peter. Ghosts.
Nicholas. Joseph. Fury. Yeah… nobody does that. He redirects the call to Happy,
who is very much un-Happy to screen Peter’s calls.
The next day as Peter preps for the
trip, he spends a good couple minutes wondering if he should bring his Spider-Suit
with him. May tosses him a banana and is curious why it hit him, as shouldn’t
his “Peter-Tingle” have warned him? … I’ll get back to that later. He opts to
leave the physical suit and completely ignores his Iron Spider-Suit in its
weird vat container.
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| I guess cosplaying is big in Italy? |
Things don’t start off super great
for Peter on the trip, as his and Ned’s attempts at getting him to sit next to
MJ to begin his plan fail. Horribly. Peter ends up sitting beside the teacher
Mr. Harrington from the last movie. Dude has a super sad story about his wife
faking being ‘Blipped’ to run off with a hiking buddy. Ned ends up next to
Betty Brant who is less than thrilled to be next to him. And MJ ends up with
Brad Davis, a pretty boy classmate. Which is super weird for Peter and Ned, as Ned
points out that from their perspective, less then a year ago Brad was a 12-year-old
kid with a runny nose. That damn Blip, man. They land in Venice, Italy. Peter
discovers that on the trip over Ned and Betty had bonded and decided to start
dating. Which is shocking. But not as much as when Customs pulls him aside to
check his bags for contraband and he discovers Aunt May had packed his suit for
him. Damn it May! Thankfully the customs agent just takes out the thing setting
off the dog, a banana, and lets him go on his merry way. Guess Cosplaying is big
in Italy?
In Venice, Peter breaks away from the
group to buy a Black Dahlia glass necklace for MJ. The Black Dahlia is her
favorite flower because of the murder. That is the reasoning the movie give
multiple times. I think I love Zendaya MJ. He gets back to the class just in
time to see a giant water-based creature rise up from the grand canal. It’s almost
as if the water, or Hydro as the Greeks would say, is taking on a Man shape.
How odd. Peter ushers his classmates away, and dons a silly mask when he
realizes that he left his suit at the hotel. He gets knocked around by the
water monster, since he wasn’t dumb enough to leave his web-shooters behind,
just to be saved by the arrival of the Mysterious man in a bubble helmet. The
two lead this Man of Hydro from the canal and distract it until it’s seemingly
destroyed. The Mystery man thanks Peter for his help and flies off.
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| Where is Electro when you need him? |
Peter regroups with his class, who
are speculating what the liquid monster was and who this “Mysterio” is. The
news was calling him a mysterious man in Italian, which I guess translates to
Mysterio. How odd, and convenient. Flash read on a conspiracy website that the
Water creature was the result of a sailor getting transformed into a monster,
but no one’s buying it. That night, Peter finds Nick Fury in his room. To say
he was annoyed at being ignored is a bit of an understatement. He tranquilizes
Ned and threats to do it to the next person that knocks on Peter’s door after
several interruptions. Nick escorts Peter to their mobile base in Venice. There
he meets Quinten Beck, an interdimensional warrior from a parallel world. His version
of Earth had been destroyed by these creatures, the Elementals. He’d been helping
Fury track and stop the creatures since he’d arrived. The only Elemental remaining
is the Fire Elemental, who’ll attack Prague in two days. Peter says he can’t
help, as his class will figure out that he’s Spider-Man if the web head shows
up on another class trip, and because it’ll ruin his plans to ask MJ out
at the top of the Eiffel tower. He tries to suggest other heroes to help, but
Thor is off world, Dr. Strange is unavailable and Fury is touchy about Peter
taking Carol Danvers name in vain. But he lets Peter leave… oddly gracious of
him.
The next day Peter discovers that
his class trip has gotten an “Upgrade” and they’ll be traveling to Prague! Nicholas
Fury, you are a cheeky bastard. During a pit stop in route, Peter is given a
new stealth suit and a gift from the late great Robert Downy Jr. I mean, Tony
Stark. There’s a bit of a snafu when pretty boy Brad walks in looking for a
bathroom to see a pants-less Peter alone with a beautiful woman. He’d been
changing for the seamstress to check the fitting, not sure why he felt the
pants should go first to be honest. Brad snaps a pic and tells Peter he’s going
to inform MJ.
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| Why didn't Ned think to call him Black Tarantula? It was right there! |
Back on the bus, Peter discovers
that Tony’s gift is a pair of Sunglasses in Tony’s favorite style that actually
house a super advanced AI named EDITH. It stands for Even Dead, I’m The Hero,
Tony loves his acronyms. The glasses let him access the Stark Industries global
satellite network and a few thousand tactical drones. They can also hack your
basic security system and phones. How convenient. Peter almost gets everyone
killed when he accidentally sics a drone on Brad, but he destroys it quickly
and covertly before actually getting EDITH to delete the photo. Phew.
In Prague, Peter gets a tongue
lashing from Fury for being so stupid with a multibillion-dollar defense
project and Beck consoles him. Hmmmm… Peter and Beck gets Fury to protect his
class by getting them stuck in an Opera for four hours (yeah travel upgrades!).
He has Ned feed everyone a story about feeling ill before ducking out and donning
the stealth suit to help out. Unfortunately, MJ sees him sneak off and follows,
and Betty forces Ned to sneak out too, thinking Peter and MJ were going to the
Carnival of Lights. Shoot. The Fire Elemental arrives. Like the others, it
takes on the form of a Man, a man of liquid, Molten metal. How odd. Peter and
Beck work together to destroy it, but the creature grows too fast for them to
stop. During the fight, Peter’s web hits something unseen, tossing it into an
alley. Beck flies into it, trying to kill it by sacrificing himself. Peter, who’d
been forced to hold up a toppling Ferris wheel, watched in horror. Beck survives,
burnt but alive.
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| If Beck used his tech legally, he'd have made billions in movies. |
Fury congratulates Beck for his
work, and tells Peter that he needs to choose to step up or step aside. If he
wants to step up, he can meet them in Berlin for a debriefing. After a celebratory
drink Beck, Peter decides that he’s not worthy of the glasses and hands them
off to Beck. Beck takes the responsibility solemnly and promises to be a worthy
next Iron Man. And once Peter walks off, the shows over. Literally. The bar they
were at is revealed to be an abandoned building, with the patrons being
holograms and the staff start celebrating with Beck. Turns out, Beck is no
hero. It was all a massive Con. He was actually the scientist behind Stark
Industries advance hologram project as seen in the beginning of Captain
America: Civil War. He’d been infuriated when Stark had named his invention
the Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing or BARF. Tony fired Beck after they’d
argued about the name, claiming Beck was unstable. He’d since gotten a band
together of disgruntled Stark Industries ex-employees, including that scientist
that Stane yelled at for not being able to shrink the Arc Reactor in Iron
Man, and are planning on making Beck the next Iron Man. They used Beck’s “Illusion
Tech” as he preferred to call it, to create the Elementals. The cameras were mounted
on his mobile drones that also had weapons to make the damage the fake monsters
created seem real. They also made projections of Beck flying around and
blasting the things, and he’d hop in during distractions for any IRL
interactions. Their plan is to use EDITH to create an Avengers level threat and
make Mysterio the next Iron Man. Damned clever.
Peter, upon learning the trip is
being canceled early due to repeated monster attacks, gets MJ to go on a walk with
him. On the historic Charles Bridge, Peter tells her he’s got something important
to tell her. She tells him she knows he’s Spider-Man. He tries to play it off,
claiming he has no idea what she’s talking about and that black suited hero at
the carnival was “Night Monkey.” Way to name Ned. She isn’t buying it, claiming
she’d been watching him for a while now and seen several instances of him running
off just before Spider-Man swung in, or the like. MJ shows Peter the thing he’d
webbed and tossed away in the fight, claiming that it’s covered in the same
silk that Spider-Man uses. Peter, dejected at thinking MJ had only been paying
attention to him because she suspected he’s Spider-Man, is pulled out of his melancholy
when the projector turns on again showing another monster. Peter, realizing what
that might mean, freaks out, tells her he is Spider-Man and something very bad
is about to happen.
Beck and his crew are rehearsing their
“Avengers level Threat,” when he notices one of the Drones was damaged and
missing a camera. Going through the footage they see MJ grab it, and then show
it to Peter. An infuriated Beck yells at his cronies about how now they have to
kill Fury AND Spider-Man.
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| It's like if that Pink Elephant song from Dumbo included punching. |
Peter gets on his stealth suit,
explains the situation to Ned and MJ and runs to warn Fury about Beck’s plan.
He travels to Berlin and Fury, thinking he’d made it just in time, only for it
to be revealed that Beck just lured them into a trap. Using his drones, he
creates mind-bending illusions to distract Peter and beat the crap out of him
using the terrain and the drones. Peter is knocked around hard, is knocked from
the building and ends up at Beck’s mercy. In a surprise assist, Fury arrives,
shoots and killed Beck. He tells Peter that Beck’s goons will go after his
friends, so he needs to know who Peter had told. Peter blabs, and Fury reveals
he’s in fact Beck. An illusion within an illusion, props to commitment. The
fight continues for a moment, before Beck tricks Peter into being hit by a
train. He has his team reroute the class to London, to take out the three he needs.
Peter wakes up in a holding cell in
the Netherlands. The other detainees explain that he’d been found on the tracks
and was brought here to dry out. The Dutch are offputtingly cheery in this.
Peter breaks out and gets a phone to call Happy for backup. He’s all too happy
to fly out to the Netherlands in a Stark Industries jet to pick him up. Happy
helps patch him up, and then cheer him on by saying he’s just like Tony. They
fly out to London to stop Beck, and along the way Peter uses an onboard
workshop to throw a new suit together. Can he stop the master of illusions from
lying his way to the top? See the movie to find out. The answer will surprise
you.
The good first. The cast is great
in this one. Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, and Jon Favreau
are all great. As are Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders as the most
dangerous secret agents alive. And Jake Gyllenhaal is great as Quentin Beck. At
first, he comes across as a generic, stoic hero but when he drops the act it’s
amazing. Beck is like an insane movie director, orchestrating the show that is his
great con of being a hero. He had a really great line of shrieking “THEY’LL SEE
WHAT I WANT THEM TO SEE!” when his illusion starts coming apart due to Peter’s
meddling. The effects are spectacular. I don’t think they’d have been able to
pull off half of Beck’s illusions even five years ago, but the advances in CGI
made all of his mind-bending tricks seem almost real.
The bad is kind of minimal, mostly
suspension of disbelief type things. Like how did Beck and his crew learned
about the glasses and formed their plan around it just in time to pull it off?
Or even when the heck did Tony have time to design and build EDITH. Tony’s
brilliant but I can’t see him programing an AI in the short amount of prep time
the Avengers had before their time travel adventure. Or the idea that EVERY
other superhero is busy at the moment. You’re telling me that Black Panther or
Dr. Strange couldn’t spare a Dora Milaje or a fledgling Wizard to help out? I
know of at least one Attorney, one PI, a Harlem folk hero and a minor millionaire
that have nothing but free time right now. I suppose that’s the issue one has
when we’re dealing with an expanded universe, more disbelief to suspend for the
tories to work. The character of Brad Davis was kind of pointless. No offense
Remy Hii, he did a great job, but he’s mostly there to ineffectively hit on MJ
and then be the butt of a peeping joke when he tries to draw attention to Peter’s
behavior and MJ and Ned try to discredit him. Honestly, I’d have just named him
Harry so people could speculate if this iteration of Harry Osborn will become
evil because he was framed as bathroom peeper. That’d be a… unique version of
his background. Also, the movie introduces Peter’s Spider Sense idea just for
it to not be useful in the first fight and instrumental in the climax. It’s
pretty odd. Side note, I love that May decided to call it the “Peter Tingle”
since he hadn’t given his sense it’s alliterative name in this iteration. It’s
such a mom thing to do, giving a cutesy and embarrassing nickname to something that
her son/surrogate son does. Also, not sure what the plan is for Beck beyond the
Syndrome idea to fake being the greatest hero on Earth. Like, even if he tricks
Fury, the illusions could only help so much the next time an actual invasion
begins. Earth has had like six in the last ten years, so you know there will be
more. Maybe he thought he could get SHIELD or Stark Tech to upgrade his tricks,
but it’s never mentioned. So Yeah, not that bad at all.
And I’ll say that I think this is
the first bit of Spider-Man media that didn’t try to visualize Peter’s Spider
Sense. Every other version that I can think off add some sort of visual or auditory
clue for us to know that it’s going off. A shuddering sound, a semi-visible pulse
going from Peter’s head, slow-mo of Peter’s surroundings, that sort of thing. As
near as I can tell, MCU Spider-Man’s Spidey Sense is just part of him. I guess.
Like with Homecoming, I want
to point out some of the fun things they did in this movie to make homages to
classic Spider-Man characters and story elements. Like with the last Spider-Man
film, they seemed to want to counterbalance the number of changes they’d made
to the Spider-Man mythos by doing as many nods to the source material as they
could squeeze in. The elementals, Earth, Air, Water and Fire design wise are
nods to four Spider-Man villains. They are Sand Man, Cyclone, Hydro Man and Molten
Man. They even use Hydro Man’s backstory of a sailor getting into an industrial
accident as the conspiracy website explanation of his existence that Flash
talks about. I can’t speak for Cyclone, but I know Sand Man, Hydro Man, and Molten
Man all fall under the category of an “untouchable villain.” Hydro and Sand Man
can take on forms that render them more or less intangible to Spider-Man’s fist
and webs, while Molten Man is so hot that the webs burn. They also did a nod to
one of Mysterio’s early schemes, where he used his hallucinogenic gas to
convince Peter he’d been shrunken down to an inch high and tried to smash Spider-Man
with a giant puppet of Mysterio. It was
one of the more mind-bending bits of his illusion fight with Peter. I liked how
they also kept that MJ figured out the Peter = Spider-Man thing before he told
it to her. She’s one of those that pays enough attention to realize her (at the
time) friend had a habit of never being around when things got weird.
This one is an A for me. They once
again had to make a lot of changes to make Spider-Man work, but the majority
were for the story’s benefit. The minor nitpicks I mentioned in the bad category
hardly detract from a fun but important tale. I even liked how they updated
Mysterio to match modern technology. He’s always been a stage magician villain,
using sleight of hand, magic tricks, guile and hallucinogenic gas to get the
job done. Adding the near perfect holograms of the illusion tech made him all
the more dangerous. I loved the deranged director angle they went with his character.
Like anyone who knew the character beforehand, I knew that Beck was going to be
lying through his teeth until his master plan was revealed. But I was surprised
as to how the story went. I mentioned in my Black Widow Possible Plot the idea
of using old tech and old surviving bad guys to threaten the Avengers again.
While I’m not vein enough to believe that I influenced how this movie’s story
turned out, but I’m content with the thought that my mind went in a similar
direction as professional screen writers. I hope that they continue with this
style of story for Spider-Man. Ones that are very MCU but also give nods to the
source material. That’s the only way I can think of them squeezing out seven
more solo Spider-Man movies out. Yeah, that’s the current rumor, three
trilogies for Peter Parker. As a Spider-Man fan, I’m stoked at the idea, but I’m
trying to keep my expectations low. I’ve been burned too many times. All I can
say in closing is, it’s been a hell of a ride and we’re only two solo movies
in. Sorry this one took so long, I love Spider-Man and felt like gushing. The
next post should be somewhat lighter, me thinks.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28482562
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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