I don’t enjoy disliking Spider-Man films. Spider-Man: Homecoming
is the first Spider-Man film I can say I don’t like and nobody benefits from
that, people don’t want to hear negative opinions on a film they love and I don’t
want to have negative opinions. Far From Home looked like it was going
to be the exact same, the marketing for the film made it look like more of the
same mess of the first one-though to be fair Sony are infamously terrible at
marketing their movies-and I expected the film to be a disappointment, but I really
wished I would be proven wrong.
Perhaps it was that exact desire that made my watch of the
film so complicated, and even as I’m writing this I can’t fully decide on my
opinion. The film was still full of the half-thought out character arcs, bland
humour, uninspired action and over abundance of passable CG as the first one,
but the fact that I accepted that would be there almost numbed me to the
experience. Then every time the film actually did do something to impress me,
with more dynamic directing, a great villain and…some kind of an arc (We’ll get
to that)? I left overall positive. Unfortunately as time passes the positives
and negatives are getting more jumbled so hopefully by the end of this piece I can
come to a more definitive conclusion.
Naturally the place to start is with Spider-Man himself. Tom
Holland as an actor I’ve never had any problem with, and his portrayal of Peter
Parker is perfectly acceptable, any and all problems I’ve had with his version
comes solely down to the writing. Peter’s arc in this film unfolds across
several layers, coming to terms with the death of Tony Stark, trying to fill
his shoes while also become his own hero. Right off the bat the issue of Peter needing
to become his own hero was one already addressed in Homecoming but it
wasn’t done very well there and the movie still ended with him as Iron Man Jr
so I see why they wanted to redo it…Too bad it’s still done poorly. Peter can’t
be the next Iron Man, it’s not a role he’s meant to fill and he’s filled with
insecurities that he’s not good enough and constantly makes mistakes. It’s not
until Happy informs him that Tony was fallible and also made mistakes that
Peter stops putting him on a pedestal, but also they were systematically two
different people who represent different things, and he needs to stop trying to
be the next Iron Man and just be Spider-Man. This then however is completely
cancelled out by Peter then putting together a brand new suit by using Stark
tech, with AC/DC blasting in the background and Happy looking on proud of the similarities.
Goddammit, how do you make the same mistake twice!? In Homecoming
he learns not to rely on Tony’s tech to become Spider-Man yet at the end of
that film he’s given back the suit Tony made for him. In Far From Home he
learns to stop trying to be like Iron Man but then in the very same scene you
have him put together a new suit in the style of Iron Man!
Even the journey on this arc is paved with missteps. Peter
is a flawed person, he makes mistakes and feels this means he can’t live up to Iron
Man’s legacy, and also he wants to avoid his responsibility so he can enjoy his
trip and be a normal teenager, so when Mysterio comes along and presents himself
as the ideal superhero, it’s understandable Peter would want to pass on the
responsibility to him. However that does not mean Peter giving up Tony’s
parting gift and control over valuable Stark tech to someone he’s known for
only a few days is a reasonable step! This may in fact be the dumbest move I’ve
ever seen Spider-Man do across all of his movies, he’s not only trusting valuable
equipment to someone he barely knows, but is giving up something of sentimental
value from a lost role model of his.
The consequences of Peter’s mistakes wouldn’t happen if
someone with common sense were in this position. This problem comes back up
again when Peter’s identity is revealed to the whole world, which would be a
shocking development if it wasn’t for the fact this Peter Parker puts almost no
effort into protecting his identity. He takes his mask off in rooms filled with
people, again sharing his identity with Mysterio, someone he barely knows, and
even at one point is sat in a public bar with his mask off! It’s not a shocking
twist that his identity becomes public knowledge when he puts no effort into
protecting it. While we’re on the topic, didn’t Peter say in Homecoming
that if Aunt May found out about his identity she’d freak out, and yet in this
film she is perfectly fine and even encouraging of Peter’s outings? Does she
not care that he endangers his life every day? Does she even know her nephew
was killed off world in the snap? The end of Homecoming implied she was
shocked to discover it, yet here she is completely in support of him, did she
have an arc entirely off-screen? Or did she not care from the get go?
This movie is filled with not well thought out implications
and people not really reacting to major events that happen surrounding the
story, sometimes very big ones like…half the universe disappearing and then
reappearing five years later. It’s mostly passed off as a joke and this film
thinks that cancels out the need to deal with the repercussions of what that
world would deal with, but instead they decide to be lazy about it and everyone
is acting like nothing happened and the world keeps on spinning like normal. Even
all of Peter’s supporting characters magically got snapped and unsnapped together
so the dynamics don’t have to change at all. What a lucky coincidence!
Let’s finally move on to the big talking point about the
film, Mysterio, played by Jake Gyllenhaal has received wide spread acclaim as
being one of the best-if not the best aspect of the film and I’m inclined to
agree. For starters the fact that they were able to make a comic accurate suit
look pretty cool in live action is an achievement in itself. Mysterio is also
responsible for the best scenes in the film where he uses his illusions to psychologically
torture Spider-Man by showing him visions of all of his insecurities and fears.
It’s by far the most creative scene in the film with clever visuals and ties
into Peter’s arc as one of the few strong scenes that properly analyses him as
a character. It even then has a further pay off when Mysterio tries the technique
again but Peter is able to see through his tricks this time, even if they have
to undercut every serious moment with a joke (Peter Tingle? Really?).
That being said, this is like the sixth Marvel antagonist
whose origin is ‘Tony Stark dicked me over’? Two of those times being in
Spider-Man films. I would really like it if Spider-Man’s villains actually had
something to do with Spider-Man and he would stop being overshadowed by Tony
Stark, because despite his death he somehow feels like the main driving
character behind this entire film. Also the scene where Mysterio’s origin is
explained is some of the weakest writing the film has to over, with a dump
truck worth of exposition not even trying to be weaved in like natural
dialogue.
The ‘Full Mysterio’ scene as I like to call it isn’t the
only example of the film having a more creative direction, the entire film has
more flare as a whole. Homecoming often felt stagnant with basic shots
and minimal camera movement to give you any sense of weight or style. Far
From Home tries to experiment more with its camerawork, tries to have more
energy during the fight scenes and it makes them all the more entertaining. It’s
still nowhere near as good as what other Spider-Man films are able to do, but
it’s still a step in the right direction (Puns!) so it’s only fair to comment
on it.
I think this little piece has finally helped me come to a
conclusion. Spider-Man: Far From Home is a superior film to Homecoming,
it has better direction, a stronger attempt at an arc and moments of actual
creativity. However I still have to come down and say I don’t like it. The
story isn’t fleshed out enough, the arcs are stronger but still not good and
send conflicting messages. The script feels underdeveloped and rushed, I have
to put it down as a bad Spider-Man movie. It doesn’t sting as much as Homecoming
did, not just because it’s an improvement but because of adaptations like Into
The Spider-Verse or the PS4 Spider-Man game that I’m satisfied with
great adaptations of Spider-Man as a character that if the MCU Spider-Man never
impresses me then as much as that sucks, it’s not the end of the world for me.
-Danny
