Spider-Man: Far From Home

This movie ended up being so much cooler than I expected. Do not get me wrong, I was excited and thought it would be good, but I thought Marvel would go a little lighter after Avengers: Endgame. Also, I just assumed that the big villain reveal would be a letdown (I mean, any fan would see it coming). 

There will be major spoilers from here on out…

At first the movie makes it seem like things will be light and fun. The school reporters make jokes about “The Blip”, which is what they are calling the disappearance of half the people. I loved the complaint about repeating the grade even though the year was half over, or that half of their friends were now five years older. 

Yet, the movie is not all easy jokes and fun. We learn that Peter is going through some stuff. He does not think he is up to the task of becoming the next Iron Man/Tony Stark. He just wants to be a teenager, who enjoys his class trip to Europe and maybe tells MJ how he feels about her.

He meets up with Nick Fury, who gives him Tony Stark’s special glasses, which is actually the control for the Stark defense system. Fury wants Spider-Man to work with Quentin Beck (Mysterio), who is from an alternative Earth that was destroyed by Elementals that are here on our world now. 

I figured that Mysterio would be from another Earth, but that the big reveal would be that he was some criminal there. Instead, it turns out that Beck was a Stark employee and all of this stuff is holographic tech (the same technology that Tony used in Civil War to show a scene from his youth).

This is the advantage the MCU has now. They are able to expand on their own mythology. Instead of Mysterio being some kind special FX genius who wants to rob banks or something, they went with him being a disgruntled Stark employee (along with a bunch of other former Stark employees). It makes it more believable and even when we learn of Mysterio’s true nature, it still makes him seem sympathetic (and then he starts going off the rails and we know Stark was right about the unstable part). 

I loved the part where they sit at the edge of the building and talk about being a superhero. I think that Beck actually liked Peter and did not want to kill him at first. I figured the bar scene was an illusion. I mean, none of the patrons stared at two guys dressed like they were and discussing fairly openly about saving the day. 

I think the speech that Happy gives Peter was probably my favorite part. Talking about how Tony second guessed himself and that Peter is not going to be Iron Man, he is himself and Tony thought that Peter would surpass him. It was pretty perfect. 

A few odds and ends…

-I loved the both end credit scenes. The first was Mysterio’s final plan. He sends out a video making it seem like he was the hero and that Spider-Man was the villain. The video is played by the Daily Bugle’s J.Jonah Jameson (again played by JK Simmons!) and he (channeling an Alex Jones type reporter) outs Peter Parker as Spider-Man. The next scene shows us why Fury and Agent Hill had been acting a bit off all movie…it was actually Talos and Soren, while the real Fury is on a Skrull ship.

-I really love Zendaya as MJ. She totally turns the character into something different. She is quirky and weird, which totally works with Peter.

-I love the whole May and Happy relationship! I hope that continues.

-This was a perfect ending to Phase 3. I look forward to seeing where things go from here.