Spider-Man: Far From Home

The web-slinging hero returns after the MCU milestone Avengers: Endgame, putting the final puzzle piece of the 23-film Infinity Saga into place.

The release strategy is pretty much in the same vein as how the first Ant-man was released after Avengers: Age of Ultron as a palette cleanser. As expected, Watts followed closely the blueprint of meta-humour that was established in Spider-Man’s last solo endeavour. As far as the story goes though, the results are a mixed bag. The much anticipated antagonist Mysterio is captivating the moment he arrived but falls short due to an awkwardly handled twist. Through his character, the film offers insights into the MCU post-Endgame and ties his motivations with moral issues brought on by technology. The MCU has done so brilliantly before (à la Captain America: The Winter Soldier), and we see a glimmer of that happening in Far From Home. Sadly, the philosophical discourse here often has to make way for flashy action sequences. And because of a muddled second act, we aren’t really sure how Peter learn his lesson, we should simply be satisfied with knowing that he did.

The most glaring problem with this iteration of the Spider-Man/Peter Parker character in the MCU is that even as a top tier character of all comic book history, he is still playing second fiddle to Iron Man who was at best a B-list superhero prior to the MCU. With Far From Home, I was ready to see MCU Spidey be free from the crutch of Tony Stark. Instead, with him wearing Tony’s glasses, playing around with Stark technology, and even picking up Tony’s mannerisms, it only intensifies the concerns that this Spider-Man is simply Iron Man Jr. To retain his pseudo-family dynamics with the Iron Man characters, they even squeezed in an inconsequential romance between Happy and Aunt May. Having said that, Holland’s impeccable portrayal of the character is admirable. Plus, we get to watch Holland’s Peter and Zendaya’s MJ fall in love with each other.

As a fan of the character and Holland’s portrayal, I don’t want to see him as the shadow of a ghost, I would much rather see Peter Parker stand on his own like he has many times before.

(Originally posted on 29 June 2019 @projectunwrapped)