MCU Rewatch: Spider-Man: Far From Home

Directed by Jon Watts
Release Date: July 2nd, 2019
Starring: Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jacob Batalon, Zendaya, Samuel L. Jackson
Box office worldwide: $1,075,477,982

First off, if you think Tom Holland isn’t the best Spider-Man actor out there then I can’t take your movie opinions seriously. If you somehow think that this guy: 

Or this guy: 

Is a better Spider-Man than this guy: 

GTFO. Tom is as good as Spidey gets. PLUS, he actually looks like he’s in high school unlike Tobey Mac and Andy Garfield. Only reason I bring this up is because there were some dumb animals on Twitter saying Tom wasn’t the best Spidey… I think Garfield and McGuire are fine, but Tom is the GOAT

Ok, now: Spider-Man: Far From Home. It had a very tough test to live up to Spider-Man: Homecoming for me because that is one of my favorite MCU movies (I’ll review it next) (and just like how Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 had an impossible task of living up to Guardians of the Galaxy). Overall, it was real solid. I saw a lot of reviews from fanboys and fangirls that it’s a top 5 MCU movie… where does it rank for me?

Positives

• Tom Holland. Get it? I really f*****g love Tom as Spidey. He plays the awkward, dweeby Peter Parker to a T, and he plays the goofy, and bomb-ass Spider-Man to a T. It’s perfection and I hope Tom Holland plays this role for the rest of time. 
• Jake Gyllenhaal. Really, really, really good as Mysterio. Mysterio is one of my favorite villains from the comics because he’s so different than most, so I had major expectations for the character in the movie. And Gyllenhaal knocked it out of the park. He’s perfect in both roles of Mysterio: the new father-like figure to Peter Parker and the sociopath after we find out he’s a villain. 
• Mysterio’s powers/illusions are sooooo freakin’ cool. My favorite sequence of the entire film is when Quentin Beck lures Parker into the illusion for the first time in that empty building sequence. All the illusions that Beck puts on to trick Peter into giving up the names of his friends is great AND zombie Iron Man was a sick shot too. 

• Peter and MJ’s awkward, clunky relationship is adorable. And I love it. 
• I typically don’t like to count setting up sequels as a positive in the movie I’m reviewing, but Spidey’s ending and post credit scenes were so good that I’m yearning for the next movie. When Peter’s identity get cucked by Mysterio and the movie ends with Spidey saying “What the fu..” it’s incredible. AND WE GOT A J. JONAH JAMESON, PLAYED BY J.K. SIMMONS, CALLBACK FROM THE MCGUIRE SPIDEY. AND we also find out that the real Nick Fury is lounging in space somewhere while Talos was the one posing as Nick Fury on Earth. Again, soooo many possibilities on where to go with this. Space Avengers? SWORD? Idk! Also leads to my next point…
• After we find out that it’s Talos posing as Nick Fury, Samuel L Jackson’s performance becomes so much better. The first time I watched it, I thought to myself, “there’s something off about Jackson’s performance,” but I didn’t put too much stock into it. Now that I know he was playing Talos playing Nick Fury it makes much more sense on why Fury seemed a little too over-the-top-Fury, and it’s a great performance!
• The movie did a good job addressing the events and aftermath of Endgame without hindering on Endgame’s events. They addressed the “Snap” and the “Blip,” which is when everybody that got dusted returned, and they moved on to Peter handling the death of father figure Tony Stark. It was really emotional and worked uber well!
• We get fun web-slinging action in the final battle. Good fun 
• Fun bits like Peter calling AC/DC’s music Led Zeppelin and the tribute video to the Avengers from the school’s morning news anchors are both great. 

Negatives

• The traveling scene when Brad (the douche that wants to hook up with MJ) finds Peter in his underwear with that chick and when Peter accidentally orders a drone strike on Brad is a little gawky and prolonged. Those two scenes slowed down the 2nd act quite a bit. The point of it was to set up the drones for the final battle, but it just dragged on too long. It was still funny at times but I could’ve done with a more concise way to show the drones. Bottom line: the movie got a tad slow through the traveling scenes, and overall the 2nd act. 
• Ned and Betty’s relationship tried too hard to get a laugh throughout the movie. Could’ve done without it. 
• This is more of a nitpick than a serious gripe, but I didn’t like some of Beck’s Crew’s motives of helping Beck out. For instance, William Ginter Riva (the guy who appeared in Iron Man, which was a really fun callback overall I must admit) was apparently pissed off at Tony because he was fired from Stark Industries in the first Iron Man because he couldn’t build a suit…? So then wouldn’t that have been Obadiah Stane that fired him and not Tony Stark? Or maybe Tony fired him because he was helping Stane??? I’m not really sure… it’s just a nitpick. Beck needed a crew so I’m ok with letting the motives of the others slide. 
• Nothing against the actual movie, but the official movie poster is lame and looks like I could have done it in Microsoft Paint.

Overall Grade: B+

Another damn good movie from Marvel Studios. Many had it as a home run, but I like to think of it as a two-run double. It’s really, really good, I was thoroughly entertained, but it didn’t automatically put itself into the hall of fame… maybe after a few more watches it will change my mind! And for the billionth time, that’s not a bad thing because it’s impossible to live up to other MCU movies.

MCU Ranking

1. Guardians of the Galaxy
2. Avengers: Endgame
3. The Avengers
4. Captain America: Civil War
5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
6. Iron Man
7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
8. Captain America: The First Avenger
9. Spider-Man: Far From Home (I’d probably get castrated by Marvel fanboys for having FFH behind First Avenger, but this is where it falls.)
10. Ant-Man
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron
12. Thor
13. Doctor Strange
14. Iron Man 3
15. Iron Man 2
16. The Incredible Hulk
17. Thor: The Dark World

NEXT UP: Spider-Man: Homecoming

ONE LAST THING: I have wanted to see Spider-Man VS The Sinister 6 in a movie sooooooooooo god damn bad and we’re inching closer. We’ve got Mysterio, the Vulture, Shocker and Scorpion from Homecoming, and now we’re just missing a couple more. I’ve heard Kraven the Hunter is a possibility and all I want for Christmas for the next 10 years of my life is for Mark Hamill to be cast as… DOCTOR OTTO OCTAVIUS.