Meandering, predictable, and lazy, Far From Home is an entry into the MCU that cuts narrative corners through poor plotting and character work to open the door to the next stage of this unforgiving universe.
Following up the sweeping and grand finale of Avengers: Endgame, comes the end of Phase 3 and The Infinity Saga, Spider-Man: Far From Home. A film that looks to continue the dramatic circumstances left by Endgame, and to pave the way for the future of the universe moving forward. Starring Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhall, Zendaya, and Samuel L. Jackson, Far From Home takes Peter overseas on a school trip as he wants to leave the Spider-man suit behind in exchange for an easy-going trip alongside his pals MJ and Ned. As one could anticipate, danger comes to meet Peter when he leasts expects it, and revelations, antics, and action beats ensue over the course of the next 90 minutes.
Spider-Man is a character I genuinely love for many reasons. There are far too many to list right now and many of them require extensive real world connections and exploration to properly explain what a character like Peter Parker and Spider-Man means to myself. For those that have followed me for a while, know that I’m not particularly fond of the MCU’s iteration and take on the webhead. I was genuinely hoping that Far From Home would change my perception in the wake of the unfortunate circumstances of Endgame, and there was promise for this, but it ultimately fails to capture a single instance of dramatic weight to project onto Peter.
There are moments and glimpses that seem to promise the idea of what could be, but the script never allows it to be. Rather than internalizing the conflict within the protagonist and watering the planted seeds, they plant them and forget about it. Exchanging the opportunity to tell a story about inner turmoil and guilt in the wake of the greatest travesty and ultimate triumph, to tell a story about ...whatever this movie ended up being. Before I get ahead of myself, for a movie that follows and instantly references the consequences of Infinity War and the eventual triumph of Endgame, it seems to approach it with a misguided sense of humor. Playing the dramatic return of snapped individuals as a High School joke with deadpan humor. Rather than taking the opportunity to explore the significance of such a monumental event, we are thrust into a world that seems like it’s barely changed at all. Some ancillary, nondescript characters represent a change over the course of five years, but it’s once more played for cheap laughs and eventual inauthentic drama between the hero and his desires.
It’s a world that could be so uniquely interesting after such a devastating event, but it plays without any interesting beats or paths to follow. It could project this on a kid like Peter who lives in that happy medium as hero and citizen, but it never takes the time to. Speaking of Peter and his journey throughout Far From Home, I think the general idea of abandoning Spider-Man for an easy-going trip is promising, but it’s a story that doesn’t really develop at all. For the first 45 minutes to an hour, this movie struggles to find any real pace or narrative direction. It meanders around by capturing the abrupt, quirky antics of it’s students as the primary narrative. After a while I began wondering when anything remotely interesting would take hold of the story and give me something worth being invested in. Long story short, I never felt like this movie ended up achieving that, but there were moments that had me wondering why we ended up getting the story we got.
To be quite honest, the story here is painstaking and aggravating. It never feels deliberate or calculated for the slow pace it has, and there simply aren’t enough worthwhile beats presented to give the story some much needed energy. When it presents a character like Quinten Beck/Mysterio (played...gleefully by Jake Gyllenhall), it opens up the door for endless possibilities of mind games. Which, spoilers aside, does manage to introduce itself in multiple capacities, but I was left wondering why they went the route they did with Mysterio. There are glimpses of genuine jaw-dropping moments here, but they come so late in the game that it makes me wonder why the first hour dragged on as long as it did. All of the emotion and story (or lack thereof) that they tried planting in the earliest stages to prepare for the visual effects tirade of its third act makes the entire second half feel meaningless. There is no dramatic weight or emotional engagement to anything that’s happening on screen. It’s captured with a lick of style here and there, but it ultimately amounts to directionless, characterless meandering that relies on cheap tricks and faux-twists to make us forget that the movie hasn’t really been about anything at all.
It takes it’s time a bit towards the end to finally commentate on some dramatic ties between characters and thematic resonance, but it once again completely fails to achieve any level of reward because it isn’t written as such anytime prior. Instead of extending scenes with repetitive, lifeless humor; Why not take the time to develop character, themes, or the story? So many scenes drone on and on for no significant purpose other than to try and make you laugh at cringe-inducing jokes and eye-rolling references. Making you wonder when and where the time will come when this story is going to get an exhilarating breath of air to give this story something worth rallying behind to make it worthwhile. It never does.
Some of the action is a massive step-up from the flat direction of Homecoming. It actually feels like there is a sense of movement and kinetic energy to the action that his previous outing had a hard time with. The visual effects are a slight improvement for Spidey’s suits, but not fully envisioned with enough care to give it the extra time it sorely needs. Outside of the suits needing some work, there are a few (absolutely) stellar visual effects sequences that look like any comic-book cover or splash page come to life. It was in these moments that made me wish the movie was more like that, instead of what was actually given to us. It’s still not enough to make the experience worth it, but any diehard fan of Mysterio and Spider-Man will be grinning ear to ear and maybe wetting themselves a bit (I almost did). Tom Holland is also doing the best at what is given to him. It isn’t his fault that the writers can’t really find any interesting characteristics or emotional purpose (that isn’t entirely underwritten) to give him, but he’s genuinely great throughout. Being able to switch between deftly dramatic to wildly quippy is no easy task and he pulls it off with ease. He and Zendaya have a low-level, cutesie type of chemistry and it gives this movie more promise of what could have been, but definitely sets up for the future. Which really is all this movie seems to be. Again.
As you’ve read, Spider-Man: Far From Home is another underwritten, lazy, directionless, solo mishap to grace the third act of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Making no attempt to be narratively interesting due to a perspective-less Jon Watts direction, and a screenwriting duo that doesn’t lend itself to allowing the camera to tell it’s story. More so relying on inflating this story with miniature character moments that don’t really amount to anything special, and dropping a laugh out loud exposition dump that may just be one of the worst scenes I’ve seen all year. This is a movie pumped with air and there is nothing in it to make it interesting, because it becomes more concerned with juggling concepts, ideas, and brief moments of faulty promises, rather than dedicating an ounce of effort into making the characters and story about something meaningful, lasting, and touching. Having a villain like Mysterio opens up the gateways to so many interesting ideas to relate to the emotional pathways a story could tread down, but it is a character that is sorely miswritten and underutilized. Tapping into one of the few cool things he does, but he’s a character that doesn’t really resemble anything and the film-maker doesn’t use him to say anything about the hero, world, or story. Which is a huge bummer because Gyllenhall is my favorite actor and he played Quinten Beck admirably and as the nuisance one would expect, but the writers do him no service. Peter and Spider-Man is a character that has a mild sense of growth, but it comes with no emotional reward or satisfactory exploration because his journey feels unearned, manufactured, and short-changed. So many beats, reveals, and interactions feel hollow, out of place, and defeated by lengthy moments of drawn out humor that doesn’t lend itself to any identity or narrative purpose. I am glad that people are genuinely loving this movie, and I think it’s really cool that people are touched by this Spider-Man, but the direction they’ve taken this character is wholly dissatisfying and wildly uninteresting that this is probably my final straw with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If I thought any film was going to convince me to stick around with this franchise, I thought my good pal Spider-Man would have been the one to guide me, but instead it’s another defeated sigh from my seat in the auditorium because I have no idea what they're doing, why they’re doing it, how the hell they’re getting away with it, and I want no part of it anymore.
Spider-Man: Far From Home gets a 30/100