Spider-man: Far From Home (Spoilers)

So while I was a little peeved with all the spoiler talk after Stranger Things aired this past week, I was calmed down by the fact that people got their crap together and didn't spoil anything for Far From Home, even though it took me more than the allotted weekend to see it. Again, I'm kind of pissed about Stranger Things, but I'm less pissed because I was pleasantly surprised by the end of Far From Home.

And I'm just gonna skip to the best spoiler of the movie hands down: J.K. Simmons is J. Jonah Jameson in the MCU!

There are a lot of spoilers I can and will talk about with this movie, but this made me literally cheer in the theater. 

Casting Simmons again as Jameson was always talked about but there was nothing really pointing towards it ever happening. There's something odd about having any actor reprise a role as a character but in a different cannon. But J.K. Simmons plays the role so well that it's just perfect and I know I'm not the only one who loved that addition.

I'll talk more about the ending in a second but more importantly I need to talk about Mysterio.

On one hand, it's pretty obvious that Mysterio was the bad guy in this film. I think it was clever in their marketing because if it had just been Mysterio coming in and saying he was a new superhero, people would have been able to call BS right away. But he brings up the multiverse, and this is right after Into The Spider-verse which also talked about the multiverse so even though I knew that Mysterio was a villain, even I was questioning, is he bad in this film or are they setting up the multiverse in the MCU?

And then if you don't know who Mysterio is, you can perhaps fall into the idea that perhaps he is good and perhaps be surprised halfway through when its revealed he's not, or be amazed by the multiverse approach.

But regardless on whether or not you called it, I still think Quentin Beck's reveal and backstory is really interesting because it calls back to Civil War and the augmented reality that apparently Quentin Beck created.

And I really liked that element of it. There are a couple of exposition dumps in this movie that actually really work and you understand why Quenten Beck is the way he is, along with the other disgruntled employees from Stark Industries who serve as the bad guys in this film.

It is fascinating how both villains from the MCU Spider-man films have been disgruntled Stark employees. While Gyllenhall is the main bad guy, it's really interesting that Mysterio is more of a group project with Beck at the head like a psycho director. I like this because it makes the characters more relatable because they're working class guys who get screwed over by the cavalier Playboy Billionaire Genius that was Tony Stark.

The problem with this is that we're getting to the point where the movies are starting to really promote the idea that power is corrupting, except if its in the hands of the right people. It's kind of an elitist message if you think about it too much. Sure Quenten Beck is an unhinged lunatic (which Jake Gyllenhall surprising plays brilliantly more and more), but it's been a theme in Avengers films that I kind of hope Marvel explores more in upcoming films instead of just always saying the Avengers are right.

Screen Junkies did a really good video on the potential rift that could happen between the X-men and the Avengers when Marvel decides to finally integrate the X-men into the MCU. The link is available here. It alludes to the fact that almost all the MCU films have centered on the idea of limiting the amount of power that is out there, except for the power the Avengers have because it's in the hands of the right people. While the X-men are more of a symbol of non-violent (or violent) protest to the status quo, the very status quo the Avengers would probably be defending.

While I'm not sure if they're actually going to address those themes, especially when the X-men come in. I think this movie has the potential to revisit some of the questions of past movies, namely the use of Avengers technology, especially now that Tony Stark is dead. Quentin Beck's followers, former Stark employees have a pretty valid point when they get pissed that a kid gets access to insane weapons technology like Edith (Tony's sunglasses) and they don't.

It feels weird for me to want them to revisit ideas brought up in Iron Man 2 (an objectively horrible movie), but it could be an interesting return for Justin Hammer (played by Sam Rockwell) to make that moral dilemma more accessible in a post Endgame world. What happens to Tony Stark's tech and weapons? Do they go to a 16 year old kid? Forget Quenten Beck, I'm sure there are a ton of people, probably in the government, not okay with that kind of monarchic nepotism.

But going back to Mysterio, I think he's probably gonna go down as one of more unique and intriguing villains, and I really hope the end credit scene where a doctored video, putting the blame of the final attack on London on Spider-man, indicates that Mysterio is still alive, because they really did him well.

It's revealed that Mysterio has been using augmented reality and computer generated effects to give off the impression that he is this new superhero, all in the goal to dupe Peter into giving him access to Edith, but also to give the power back to the every man and make himself the new Iron Man.

The really interesting part is that even if you know Mysterio's background, seeing his tricks and use of drones in reality is really really fun. The first few battles show him fighting as if he is an actual superhero. But then when its revealed, its like they pull the curtain aside and you see the behind the scenes effects and its just him in a mocap suit. It's brilliant.

But furthermore, the "dream" sequence where he augments Peter' reality is just the most quintessential Mysterio scene that it's going to be pretty hard for anything (especially a Scarecrow scene from Batman scene) to top it. It's taking a villain that uses his wits and illusions to fight Spider-man and that's not seen very often. Almost any other Marvel superhero might be smart but can back it up with some fist-y cuffs. But Mysterio isn't like that. He'd lose in a fight one on one. So he uses his illusions to fight Spider-man and its done brilliantly.

This all culminates in the mid credit scene. MJ knows that Peter is Spider-man, which I thought was an okay choice for this world and they're doing some cute swinging.

When suddenly there's a doctored clip that implicates Spider-man as the perpetrator of the drone attack in London and Mysterio reveals Peter's identity.

And of course you have the J. Jonah Jameson cameo, but there's a bittersweet part about this reveal.

Kevin Fiege said, after this movie came out, that the MCU will take Spider-man's story to a place its never really gone on film and I can see that. Dead or Not (hopefully not dead) Beck has essentially screwed over Peter and changed the course of any Spider-man movie we'll see from this universe ever again.

On one hand, I'm very cool with this. We complain constantly how everything is remade or rebooted and we don't get original content anymore, well this is a totally new take on Spider-man. While his identity has been revealed in the past, there's never been a live action film that centers on an exposed Spider-man. I thought they were gonna leave it at Mysterio implicating Spider-man as the cause for the drone attack, giving him that label as a menace to New York and the world. But they go a step further and reveal his identity.

Spider-man has been a menace before, but not Peter Parker. And that's the bitter sweet element of that J. Jonah Jameson cameo.

We will never see the traditional Spider-man story lines of Peter working at the Daily Bugle. Jameson has always said that Spider-man is a menace, now he's gonna call Peter Parker a menace and wouldn't hire him in a million years. That's why I think the cameo is just that. We're probably not gonna see Jameson have a huge part in a movie because A) J.K. Simmons is far more popular than that role, but B) that dynamic of Peter hiding his identity while taking pictures of Spider-man is impossible now.

It's a strange balance of wanting original ideas, but wanting to see the classic comic moments on the big screen and Marvel is taking Spider-man in quite a different direction.

This was an issue with Homecoming.

These movies don't feel like they're chronicling the adventures of your friendly neighborhood Spider-man, they're the adventures of Spider-man The Avenger, Iron Man's protegee. And while that's not all bad, it loses that lovable every man feeling I got when I was playing the PS4 game. Tom Holland's Peter Parker is never going to have the opportunity to have that work life balance we saw in previous iterations of the character because he's now Tony Stark level famous (or infamous). And Peter's secret identity always set him apart.

Is it 100% gone? No. But here's a good example. At the beginning of the film, Aunt May is running a fundraiser for a homeless shelter she works at. This is clearly a reference to FEAST, a homeless shelter that Aunt May worked at in the comics and in the PS4 game. In a clever integration of the events of Endgame, Aunt May says that her work with the shelter is mainly due to the fact that when she fell prey to the snap and then returned 5 years later, her house had since been purchased by someone else, a fate that happened to a lot of people.

On one hand, this is a pretty clever integration of the world that this character is now apart of and explains the effect that Thano's snap had on the MCU world as we know it. Let me be clear, I liked this addition.

But on the other hand, this and other elements of Spider-man are so dependent on the events of the MCU that it doesn't really allow us to see these people as anything more than an attachment rather than their own character. Spider-man's identity is revealed, not based on his own choices, not because of a villain that is directly connected to him, but because Peter Parker is now the one cleaning up the darker parts of Tony Stark's legacy.

Is it all bad? No. I still really like Tom Holland's portrayal of the character because he's really damn charming and while he's super attractive, it's clear he doesn't know it. I talked about Peter's fallibility and how he's a kid dealing with immense responsibility. The action is still pretty quintessential Spider-man and he still feels different enough. There's still individual Spider-man elements in there.

But I think Spider-man losing his secret identity, even though secret identities really haven't been a thing in the MCU, is a pretty big deviation from the character. It's not about a kid who got bit by a spider and has to learn that with great power comes great responsibility, its about Tony Stark's protegee. There is literally a scene where Happy (side note: is dating Aunt May and I kind of dug it) looks over at Peter and we're supposed to infer that he's seeing a younger version of his best friend Tony.

A part of me just wished that we could have gotten a little bit more traditional New York, friendly neighborhood Spider-man, rather than the adventures of Young Tony Stark.

And I think this leads kind of well into the next important topic, and that's the future of Spider-man in the MCU.

I've heard a couple of things about Sony saying they need Far From Home to reach a certain box office number or they're taking back the rights or something. I try to avoid the business news like that because it cheapens the way the story is driven.

But Sony is in a weird place right now.

They had an absolute hit with Into the Spider-Verse. The dumpster fire that was Venom actually made them money. The need for Spider-man to attach himself to the MCU is gone and while I'm not totally clear on the contracts, I have to imagine Sony is considering if they need Daddy Marvel to bail them out anymore.

Before this movie, I didn't want Spider-man to leave the MCU because I just trust Marvel more. And I still do, but with Into the Spider-verse being a hit and Spider-man's identity being compromised in this universe, maybe it is time for that multiverse switch.

I'm still in the camp that I want to see where they go as this was a big cliff hanger. But if Sony ends up taking Spider-man back (probably rebooting him again because why wouldn't we have a 4th Spider-man 2 in 10 years) and doing something closer to the PS4 game, I actually wouldn't be super sad.

This is all very premature because I'm pretty sure there's a third movie planned set in the MCU and the discussion could be very different 2 or 3 years from now. But the idea of Sony taking back Spider-man oddly became more appealing after that mid credit scene and I think it has the potential to be a pretty big misstep for Marvel.

But what do I know?

Oh last thing: Nick Fury and Maria Hill were Skrulls in this movie... It didn't mean anything because they allude to the fact that Nick Fury is still very much alive and just hanging out on vacation in space. I guess it helps the fact that Nick Fury is kind of a moron in this film but overall, it was just a thing they added to give fan service. Not gonna lie, I might end up really being disappointed with how they use the Skrulls. But we'll see.

But was there any spoiler information I didn't talk about? What did you think? Is there a future for Spider-man in the MCU? Was the mid credit scene the worst or best thing that has ever happened to Spider-man? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie reviews and news coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!