Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

Spider-Man is my favorite comic book character, but that hasn’t exactly translated into me blindly loving every movie about him. In fact, most of them have disappointed in some form or fashion. I even wasn’t as enamored or charmed by the debut MCU solo film for Spider-Man in Spider-man Homecoming, which, to me, was trying to shoehorn itself into being two different genres of films: a retro-1980s teen comedy and a modern-day superhero flick in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Good energy and mostly likable characters helped, but I still found the scenes involving the persona of Spider-Man to be lacking freshness or believability, and I found the MCU material to be too obtrusive to the overall story, making it feel more like an Iron Man spin-off than something more organic.

Spider-Man: Far from Home continues much of this going forward, with an expansion in locales beyond the home turf. It is both an improvement in the tone of the formula set by its predecessor and a disappointment because it clings too much to that formula. The Eighties-inspired teen comedy material is still there, though not quite as homage-laden this time, but it emerges as the best stuff that Far from Home has to offer on the entertainment front. It is a breath of fresh air coming after the heavy and emotional experience of Avengers: Endgame, especially as it takes into account the events that transpired in that film into account right out of the gate, including the scary ordeal suffered by Peter and many of his brethren, and the fate of the beloved mentor Tony Stark. However, what’s still lacking is the sense of awe, wonder, or the joy of discovery about the superhero side of things, finding the film becoming a series of prolonged animated set pieces that aren’t particularly thrilling and go on far longer than necessary.

Jon Watts returns as director, as do two of Homecoming‘s original six screenwriters, Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna, who also co-wrote the screenplay to another moderately entertaining but mostly forgettable MCU film in Ant-Man and the Wasp. The reduction of people touching up the script helps it feel less of a patchwork this time out, but it is still an unbalanced product that nearly completely unravels as it enters its second half, where herky-jerky CG elements dominate for longer and longer periods of time, while the more enjoyable teen-oriented character beats become mostly extinguished. While the budget for Far from Home has come down from $175 million to $160 million (one would gather that not having to shell out money to Robert Downey Jr. is the key difference), it still somehow looks and feels like a film that cost maybe half of that amount, with characters looking every bit like they’re performing in front of a green screen throughout, then going into full-on CG mode with a form of weightless physics employed that feel as the characters have popped out of a video game. One could chalk it up to a certain degree of being intentional, given that what we see is not entirely real at all times, but even on this level, what’s meant to be real looks as fake as the fake stuff. It’s not that it looks bad, per se, but it sure isn’t knocking anyone’s socks off compared to what we’ve seen over the last decades.

While the film doesn’t reveal who the villain is until well into the story, few will actually be surprised. Obviously, if you’re a Spider-Man comic book fan of any measure, you’ve likely heard of Mysterio, the master of illusion, as one of the primary heavies.  This take turns that on its head early on by making him into a good guy.  Jake Gyllenhaal gets to don the “fishbowl” as Quentin Beck, the interdimensional savior of Venice when a giant water monster surfaces to try to destroy the city.  Peter Parker happens to be there at the time, as he has traveled to Europe for a week-long class trip. Peter, of course, is gifted with superhero powers, but doesn’t have the “great responsibility of other incarnations of the character, and would rather just be a teenager and do teenage things, like trying to find a way to express his feelings to his major crush, MJ, doing it atop the Eiffel Tower in a move akin to Clark Kent in Superman II.  With the Avengers in a sort of disarray, Nick Fury assembles Beck, dubbed in the press as Mysterio, with Peter, who sees the new hero as a surrogate mentor to live up to in the wake of Tony Stark’s demise,  in order to stop future scary elementals from coming out of the woodworks again to destroy a major city.

Taken as a young adult romp in a superhero universe, it gets a passing grade for entertaining an audience that likely loves the superhero films but rarely can find one that will appeal directly to them on their level.  It is, at the very least, amusing when it tries to be.  Much of this is thanks to the performance of Jacob Batalon as Ned, Peter’s classmate, best bud, and biggest confidante since he is the only one who knows his connection to his popular alter ego of Spider-Man.  More than any other live-action Spider-Man series, this one does a great job of unifying Peter and Spider-Man as a single entity, as much the superhero alter-ego is just as naive and awkward in his fighting of villains as Peter Parker is at doing just about anything in his personal life. Laughs come out when Peter utilizes a pair of hi-tech glasses left to him by Tony Stark that allows him powerful control of his automated and AI arsenal, which Peter jealously seeks to use to spy on Brad, the hunky rival for MJ’s hand, only to come to find that he’s actually sent an armed and deadly drone to strike the bus of his target that he and his classmates are on. If he can’t even protect his friends from his own ineptitude, Peter thinks, what chance does he have on saving the world from more powerful and savvy enemies?

Interesting to note that, while much of the film plays things up as all fun and games, there is a theme here that resonates about the media and public perception in terms of the truth of who we know and what we see and think as the truth on a daily basis. Those with power may not actually have the capabilities to save the world or make it a better place, but they sure are good at manipulating what we see in order to seem like they have it all under control at all times.  It’s an interesting and timely notion that one wishes could have been more firmly integrated into the fabric of its overall story, instead of just an aside within a narrative that only really wants to play things up for laughs or with major effects-laden set pieces.  As entertainment, it’s fine, but, like Peter himself, it only reluctantly does what it does because it is expected, and would rather not get serious if it can at all be helped.  Both Peter and the movie just want to be liked; respect is for the real superheroes.  Some will be happy to see it as a charming, escapist diversion and nothing more, much like the Ant-Man series. While that may good enough to qualify as a hit, Far from Home is still far from a home run.

— Stay past the ending for a mid-credits and end-credits scenes that will set up things to come, not only for the Spider-Man series but for the MCU.

Qwipster’s rating: B

MPAA Rated: PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, some language, and brief suggestive comments
Running Time: 129 min.

Cast: Tom Holland, Samuel L. Jackson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei, Martin Starr, Remy Hii, Angourie Rice, Cobie Smulders, J.B. Smoove, Tony Revolori
Small role: Peter Billingsley, J.K. Simmons
Director: Jon Watts
Screenplay: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers