Review 513: Spider-Man: Far From Home
My goodness, we've had so many Spider-Man films, they can't even give them full numbers anymore.This is Spider-Man: Far From Home, an fast paced, exciting, ambitious and arguably a superior Spider-Man film to Homecoming.
Peter Parker (Tom Holland) decides to join his best friends Ned (Jacob Batalon), Michelle Jones (Zendaya) and the rest of his school mates on European vacation. However, Peter's plan to leave super heroics behind for a few weeks are quickly scrapped when he begrudgingly agrees to help Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) uncover the mystery of several elemental creature attacks, creating havoc across the continent.
The film also explores a post decimation world and what the world is like without the Avengers and Tony Stark. Everywhere Peter goes he sees tributes to Tony who was his heroic/father figure and idol and now that he's no longer around, he feels that he could never live up to his legacy and why would he? He's still the new kid on the block whose still got a lot to learn and
Peter Parker (Tom Holland) decides to join his best friends Ned (Jacob Batalon), Michelle Jones (Zendaya) and the rest of his school mates on European vacation. However, Peter's plan to leave super heroics behind for a few weeks are quickly scrapped when he begrudgingly agrees to help Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) uncover the mystery of several elemental creature attacks, creating havoc across the continent.
The film also explores a post decimation world and what the world is like without the Avengers and Tony Stark. Everywhere Peter goes he sees tributes to Tony who was his heroic/father figure and idol and now that he's no longer around, he feels that he could never live up to his legacy and why would he? He's still the new kid on the block whose still got a lot to learn and
The primary theme of Far From Home seems to be Truth and Lies: Peter spends the whole movie suffering due to his decision to hide hid identity from Michelle, Fury involves him in a web of espionage and lies when they initially team up with Mysterio to take on the Elementals, the media is frequently promoting inaccuracies such as Peter's fake superhero "Night Monkey" in a hilarous sequence and most importantly Mysterio thrives on deciving others through his tricks. As he says It's easy to fool people when they're already fooling themselves" and "You'll see, Peter. People... Need to believe. And nowadays, they'll believe anything." Through his mechanisms, we see how easy it is for people to believe what
they want to believe rather than deal with the truth. Peter's so eager
for someone else to take the burdan of being "the next Tony Stark" that
he eagerly sees the best in Quentin and easily falls for his tricks. He also underates himself and overrate Tony
Returning director Jon Watts' direction is splendid, the cinematography is fantastic and captures the beauty of the various locals (Prague, Venice, London) that Peter and his friends visit on their travels. The action scenes are spectacular and visually creative, the special effects are beautifully elegant, the score by Michael Giacchino is splendid, the costumes are magnificent (throughout the film, Peter gets to wear a whole smorgasbord of Spider-Man costumes and each and every one looks distinct.
Beck's costume also looks impressive and is a cool update of the Mysterio costume from the comics).
The tension is just relentless.
Tom Holland delivers another winning performance as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. At the start of the film, Peter just wants to go on vacation spend time with his friends and not worry about super heroics
He beautifully encapsulates his sense of disappointment and self-loathing. He's trying to live up to the late Tony Stark's legacy while coming into his own as a hero. People are starting to think that Spider-Man will be the "new Iron Man" and the new leader of the Avengers which makes Peter's grief for Tony even more pronounced.
He wants to be a normal kid but he knows that's not an option. He's so desperate to get there that he hands Beck his position which has devastating consequences.
In a lot of ways, Peter's arc in this film is almost a contrast to his arc in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Whereas in Homecoming, he longed for the responsibilities of an adult, in Far From Home, Peter yarns to hang on to his youth.
Ultimately, this film is about telling him, "It's time for you to step up and grow up, kid" yet at the same time he's like, "But I still want to be a kid and go on vacation". This is a universal feeling that brings why this particular version of Peter Parker is so relatable.
It's terrific to see Zendaya get an expanded role as Michelle Jones. Her relationship with Peter is also given a great deal of focus in this film
Martin Starr and J. B. Smoove are simply great comic relief playing Peter's teachers Roger Harrington and Julius Dell respectively. With Smoove in particular having plenty of hilarious moments mainly due to him speculating that all the stuff with Mysterio is to do with witches.
Jake Gyllenhaal makes for a spectacular villain playing Quentin Beck/Mysterio, bringing a great deal of charm and charisma to role being able switch between both sides of the character brilliantly.
Returning director Jon Watts' direction is splendid, the cinematography is fantastic and captures the beauty of the various locals (Prague, Venice, London) that Peter and his friends visit on their travels. The action scenes are spectacular and visually creative, the special effects are beautifully elegant, the score by Michael Giacchino is splendid, the costumes are magnificent (throughout the film, Peter gets to wear a whole smorgasbord of Spider-Man costumes and each and every one looks distinct.
Beck's costume also looks impressive and is a cool update of the Mysterio costume from the comics).
The tension is just relentless.
Tom Holland delivers another winning performance as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. At the start of the film, Peter just wants to go on vacation spend time with his friends and not worry about super heroics
He beautifully encapsulates his sense of disappointment and self-loathing. He's trying to live up to the late Tony Stark's legacy while coming into his own as a hero. People are starting to think that Spider-Man will be the "new Iron Man" and the new leader of the Avengers which makes Peter's grief for Tony even more pronounced.
He wants to be a normal kid but he knows that's not an option. He's so desperate to get there that he hands Beck his position which has devastating consequences.
In a lot of ways, Peter's arc in this film is almost a contrast to his arc in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Whereas in Homecoming, he longed for the responsibilities of an adult, in Far From Home, Peter yarns to hang on to his youth.
Ultimately, this film is about telling him, "It's time for you to step up and grow up, kid" yet at the same time he's like, "But I still want to be a kid and go on vacation". This is a universal feeling that brings why this particular version of Peter Parker is so relatable.
It's terrific to see Zendaya get an expanded role as Michelle Jones. Her relationship with Peter is also given a great deal of focus in this film
Martin Starr and J. B. Smoove are simply great comic relief playing Peter's teachers Roger Harrington and Julius Dell respectively. With Smoove in particular having plenty of hilarious moments mainly due to him speculating that all the stuff with Mysterio is to do with witches.
Jake Gyllenhaal makes for a spectacular villain playing Quentin Beck/Mysterio, bringing a great deal of charm and charisma to role being able switch between both sides of the character brilliantly.
He initially presents himself as a selfless, brave even compassionate hero whose sympathetic towards Peter's desires to lead a more normal life and comes across as a cool uncle figure. But as the film goes on we see he's anything but. He's unhinged, egotistical, ruthless, manipulative, values no one but himself and is ultimately only doing what he's doing for his own personal gain and on top of that is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way but giving the sense that one some level that he genuinlly did care about or at least respects Peter in spite of deceiving him.
In a lot of ways, Peter and Quentin are presented as almost mirror images of each other. Both of them are connected in different but very believable ways to Tony Stark and were employed by him to achieve great things and both got fired by him at various points when they failed to meet his expectations. For Peter, this became his origin to becoming his own hero. For Quentin, it was his origin to becoming a villain.
Initially, Peter becomes Spider-Man for all the fame and glory that comes with being an Avenger, but later grows out of it when he discovers the true meaning of heroism and the responsibilities that come with it whereas Quentin is only in it for the fame and attention no matter how dangerous or villainous his methods are.
In a lot of ways, Peter and Quentin are presented as almost mirror images of each other. Both of them are connected in different but very believable ways to Tony Stark and were employed by him to achieve great things and both got fired by him at various points when they failed to meet his expectations. For Peter, this became his origin to becoming his own hero. For Quentin, it was his origin to becoming a villain.
Initially, Peter becomes Spider-Man for all the fame and glory that comes with being an Avenger, but later grows out of it when he discovers the true meaning of heroism and the responsibilities that come with it whereas Quentin is only in it for the fame and attention no matter how dangerous or villainous his methods are.
Watching Mysterio's plan unfold, I was vividly reminded of Syndrome from Pixar's The Incredibles: Both are brilliant genius inventors with a backstory of feeling jilted by a superhero that they previously looked up to and who use their tech to engineer heroic situations in vain and petty attempts to surpass that hero's reputation, willingly putting hundreds of innocent in danger to achieve their endgames. Syndrome's plan works as a satire on superheros in general whilst Mysterio's serves as more of a commentary on fake news.
It's also great to see Jon Favreau return playing Happy Hogan, because he was on of Tony’s closest friends, Happy can empathise with Peter and what he’s going through.
As always, Samuel L. Jackson is a delight playing Nick Fury (even if his screen time is sporadic), the relationship and dynamic between him and Peter in this film is very much the mean new stepdad which contrasts with the "cool uncle' dynamic he has with Beck.
He pushes Peter even more saying that Tony chose him as an Avengers and that maybe he chose wrong which seriously hits home with both Peter and us as an audience.
In contrast to Tony, Fury doesn't see himself in Peter. Instead he sees him as an asset that he desperately need who is way too preoccupied with a bunch of high school problems.
Apart from that, he's also now operating in world that he no longer recognises, so he has to retool.
Like he says "I used to know everything and now I know nothing."
4.5/5
The Anonymous Critic.
It's also great to see Jon Favreau return playing Happy Hogan, because he was on of Tony’s closest friends, Happy can empathise with Peter and what he’s going through.
As always, Samuel L. Jackson is a delight playing Nick Fury (even if his screen time is sporadic), the relationship and dynamic between him and Peter in this film is very much the mean new stepdad which contrasts with the "cool uncle' dynamic he has with Beck.
He pushes Peter even more saying that Tony chose him as an Avengers and that maybe he chose wrong which seriously hits home with both Peter and us as an audience.
In contrast to Tony, Fury doesn't see himself in Peter. Instead he sees him as an asset that he desperately need who is way too preoccupied with a bunch of high school problems.
Apart from that, he's also now operating in world that he no longer recognises, so he has to retool.
Like he says "I used to know everything and now I know nothing."
4.5/5
The Anonymous Critic.
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