Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) review

(Disclaimer: I apologize in advance, folks, but due to the nature of this being the first MCU film after Avengers: Endgame, I will have to address what is easily the biggest of that film’s spoilers. I have the feeling that most of you reading this have already watched the film (it did just become the highest-grossing film of all time, after all…), but in the slim chance that you haven’t seen it yet, all I can recommend at this point is that you watch Endgame first.)

When we last left the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it had just reached the culmination of its legendary run up to this point with Avengers: Endgame. It goes without saying that the film was a true epic in every sense of the word, effectively providing the franchise’s dedicated fanbase with a satisfying conclusion to what has now officially been designated as ‘the Infinity Saga’. However, as it turns out, it ultimately wasn’t going to be the final installment of this saga. Instead, that honor goes to the follow-up to 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home. As most of you know, Spider-Man’s inclusion in the MCU ultimately came courtesy of a deal between Marvel Studios and Sony. While the latter has held the character’s film rights for the past several decades, the lackluster performance of the Amazing Spider-Man reboot series led to this deal that would see both parties working together to develop a new iteration of the character, who made a phenomenal debut in Captain America: Civil War. Thus, just like Homecoming, Far From Home is an interesting release in terms of its distribution because while Marvel Studios is currently under the Disney banner, both Homecoming and Far From Home are officially Sony productions. And yet, because of Kevin Feige and co.’s involvement in the production, it’s still technically an MCU film at the end of the day, with Homecoming director Jon Watts returning to direct along with most of the main cast from the previous film. And because of this, Far From Home is yet another superb outing for the MCU that brilliantly handles the ramifications of the epic, emotional finale of its immediate predecessor while also giving us a taste of what’s to come for this legendary franchise.

Not long after the events of Endgame, teenager Peter Parker (Tom Holland) returns to his hometown of Queens to resume his duties as the friendly neighborhood web-slinger, Spider-Man. At the same time, though, Peter has struggled to overcome the death of his mentor/father figure Tony Stark. Thus, when Midtown High organizes a summer vacation to Europe, Peter signs up for it, eager to take a break from the superhero lifestyle and hopeful that this trip will give him a chance to reveal the blossoming feelings that he has for his classmate Michelle AKA MJ (Zendaya). Unfortunately for Peter, his superhero life quickly follows him to Europe, and he ends up being approached with a mission by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders). The two inform him that due to the cosmic implications of ‘the Snap’, four creatures from another dimension known as the Elementals have arrived on Earth and have caused mass destruction wherever they go. Luckily for them, they have gained a new ally in Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal), an illusion-based superhero who is also from the Elementals’ dimension and is promptly given the nickname ‘Mysterio’ by the media. Thus, as Peter now finds himself struggling once again to balance his responsibilities as Spider-Man with his desire for a stress-free vacation, he must also grapple with the biggest question of them all; can he live up to the expectations that have been set upon him and become ‘the next Iron Man’?

In the past, I’ve noted that Marvel Studios does a great job when it comes to the kind of films that they do right after the big ensemble pieces that are the Avengers films. The original Ant-Man followed the grand spectacle of Avengers: Age of Ultron with a refreshingly small-scaled affair (no pun intended) while Ant-Man and the Wasp allowed for some well-earned levity after the devastating finale of Avengers: Infinity War. The same situation applies to Far From Home, but in this case, its effectiveness as the immediate follow-up to Avengers: Endgame stems from the fact that the events of Endgame’s finale directly affect this film’s plot. Simply put, the death of Tony Stark is felt throughout, right down to the fact that tributes to him can be seen in practically every European country that Peter visits. Without spoiling anything from the plot, this film is all about Tony’s legacy and how Peter must now work to maintain it, and as one can only expect from an MCU film, this is where the franchise’s phenomenal sense of emotional poignancy comes into play because of how closely tied the MCU’s version of Peter has been to Tony. Another key aspect of this film is its European setting since Far From Home is the first main Spider-Man film (not counting Spidey’s trip to Germany in Civil War since that’s a Captain America film) that’s not primarily set in New York, and because of this, the new locales offer some fantastic imagery that’s even more amazing when viewed in IMAX. All this helps to bolster everything else that you’ve come to expect from an MCU film; I would elaborate on what that stuff is further but, let’s be frank, I’ve already done that in my previous MCU film reviews.  

Like Homecoming, Far From Home primarily revolves around its younger cast members to great effect. Of course, it’s all headlined by Tom Holland, who continues to be a wonderful iteration of Spider-Man. Not only does Holland perfectly embody the combination of Spider-Man’s wisecracking persona with Peter Parker’s endearing awkwardness, but he also brilliantly handles all the emotional turmoil that Peter’s been going through since Tony Stark’s death. He also continues to have excellent camaraderie with Jacob Batalon as Peter’s best friend Ned, who gets his own little subplot via a budding romance with their classmate Betty Brant (Angourie Rice), as well as some wonderful chemistry with Zendaya as the MCU’s ‘MJ’. As alluded to in the plot synopsis, the film begins to develop a relationship between the two that, in turn, does allow Zendaya to have a larger role this time around. After that, there’s the always reliable supporting characters like Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Marisa Tomei as Aunt May, and Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders as Fury and Maria Hill. Finally, there’s quite arguably the most anticipated addition to the cast, Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio, and sure enough, he is fantastic in the role thanks in large part to the excellent camaraderie that he forms with Holland. Now for those who are aware of Mysterio’s traditional role in the comics… yes, this film goes exactly the way you think it does when it comes to his overall characterization. Still, the way in which it translates this to tie him into the MCU’s lore is a brilliant method of subverting expectations.

Marvel Studios has been on a roll as of late when it comes to producing sequels that are superior to their already excellent predecessors. That was the case with films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Ant-Man and the Wasp, just to name a few. And sure enough, that trend continues with Spider-Man: Far From Home, which has quite possibly become my new favorite Spider-Man film. Now don’t get me wrong, Spider-Man: Homecoming was a terrific outing for the web-slinger that perfectly encapsulated the character arc of the MCU’s rendition of the character; a young kid who wants to join the Avengers but quickly has to grapple with the reality that he’s still just a kid in a much larger universe. But then you have Far From Home, which takes everything great from Homecoming and amplifies it even further with better action sequences, better visuals, and a tightly-written script which sees Peter Parker now having to face the burden of proving exactly why Tony Stark made him an Avenger. In other words, while I’m sure that I’ve said this plenty of times before when it comes to the MCU, this truly is one of those films that is a pitch-perfect representation of everything great about this franchise. Thus, it ends up being a perfect epilogue to Marvel Studios’ ‘Infinity Saga’, which is quite arguably the most impressive run that any franchise has had in the history of film. And considering all the exciting films and TV shows that Marvel Studios announced at Comic-Con this past weekend, it’s undeniably clear that they’re not even remotely done yet.    

Rating: 5/5!

Post-Christmas Short Review Triple Feature: 2017 Edition

In 2012, it was Les Misérables and Django Unchained. In 2013, it was The Wolf of Wall Street and American Hustle. In 2014, it was Into the Woods and The Imitation Game. In 2015, there was The Hateful Eight and The Big Short. And last year, 2016, we had Fences and La La Land. Yes, folks, it is that time of year again as I recently embarked on my annual Post-Christmas double feature run with my good friend and fellow film critic Matthew Goudreau of The Young Folks. This is something that we’ve been doing for the past few years now as a way of seeing some of the year’s biggest award contenders. As such, as I’ve done every year, I’ll be doing a quick pair of short reviews for these two films instead of two standard reviews so that I can have more time to start preparing for my annual ‘Top 12 Favorite Films of the Year’ list. But for these past few years, what originally began as a ‘Double Feature’ post soon turned into a ‘Triple Feature’ post because Matt and I often do this around the time of New Year’s Eve. And almost every year on that day, my family and I have a tradition of going to see a film as a nice way of closing out the year. Thus, today on Rhode Island Movie Corner, I’m officially kicking off my 2018 slate of posts* (not counting the second half of my ‘Worst of 2017’ list that was published a few days ago) by delving into the last three new releases that I saw in 2017, beginning with the two films that Matt and I saw on the day before New Year’s Eve.

THE SHAPE OF WATER

First up, we have the latest film from director Guillermo Del Toro. Over the past few years, Del Toro has made quite a name for himself in the film industry particularly thanks to his work in the fantasy genre. This includes the likes of the original Hellboy from 2004, its 2008 sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and 2006’s Pan’s Labyrinth, which ended up winning three Oscars at that year’s ceremony. And now Del Toro returns to the fantasy genre with another big awards contender, The Shape of Water, which tells the story of a mute woman named Elisa who forms a special bond with a humanoid-looking amphibious creature that’s being held captive at the government facility that she works at. In the process, however, she and the creature find themselves pursued by the vicious colonel who had captured the creature in the first place. All in all, the film is a charming fantasy flick that features some excellent cinematography and visual effects. This is especially worth noting considering the fact that this film was made on a modest budget of under $20 million. The film is also bolstered by a collection of strong performances from its ensemble cast. Sally Hawkins is incredibly charismatic as the mute Elisa while Michael Shannon is delightfully sinister as the main antagonist, Colonel Strickland. Richard Jenkins is also a major standout as Elisa’s closeted artist neighbor Giles as is Michael Stuhlbarg as a Russian scientist who, like Elisa, is more sympathetic to the creature in comparison to Strickland. And, of course, there’s Del Toro regular Doug Jones once again doing a phenomenal job under heavy makeup as the incredibly sympathetic ‘Asset’. With all this in mind, Guillermo Del Toro has very much hit it out of the park with this visually beautiful tale of a Beauty and her Beast.

Rating: 4.5/5

ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD

This is a film that has certainly attracted quite a lot of media attention these past few months. As many of you know, director Ridley Scott’s newest film, which delves into the true story of the infamous kidnapping of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty’s grandson John Paul Getty III, originally starred Kevin Spacey in the role of J. Paul Getty. That all changed, however, when Spacey became just the latest figure in the film industry to be hit with the ‘Weinstein effect’ and be accused of several incidents of sexual assault. Thus, in what was easily one of the most unprecedented moves ever seen in the entire industry, Scott straight-up recast the role and reshot major sequences of the film just one month prior to its release. And so, Christopher Plummer now stars in the role of J. Paul Getty; though, really, this change doesn’t have that much of an effect over the final film (aside from it being a different spin on the character) as Getty’s role in the film is minor at best. Still, Plummer does do an excellent job in the role of the cold and distant billionaire. Equally terrific in the film is Michelle Williams as Gail Harris, Getty’s former daughter-in-law who becomes extremely devoted to the process of finding her kidnapped son. These strong performances are easily the best part of the film, and for the most part, they make up for its biggest shortcoming, its sluggish pacing. Simply put, there are several instances where you can feel the brunt of the film’s near two and a half hour runtime, especially during the second act. That’s not to say, though, that the film doesn’t have its moments; and of course, at the end of the day, Ridley Scott deserves a heck of a lot of credit for managing to completely rework a sizable chunk of the film in such a short amount of time. While it’s by no means the best film that he’s ever done, All the Money in the World is still worth checking out if mainly for the phenomenal performances from Williams and Plummer.  

Rating: 3/5

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

And finally, we have the last new film release that I saw in 2017 on New Year’s Eve, The Greatest Showman. This lavish period musical is based on the true story of the origins of the iconic Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circus… which ironically closed for good this past May due to decreasing ticket sales. Despite this, however, I was still very much looking forward to this film given the fond memories that I have of going to see the circus when I was younger. With that said, though, I should probably start this review by addressing the big elephant in the room that is this film’s portrayal of the circus’ founder, P.T. Barnum. While the film portrays Barnum as an endearing ‘nobody’ who managed to defy all odds and make a name for himself in the world of entertainment thanks to his circus, several people have pointed out that he was a far more ruthless entrepreneur than the film lets on. But while I do recognize the fact that this film isn’t exactly historically accurate, I still found it to be quite enjoyable thanks to its excellent and well-choreographed musical numbers courtesy of La La Land songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Plus, the film also boasts a terrific ensemble cast highlighted by Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum, Michelle Williams (in her second major appearance in today’s post) as Barnum’s loving wife Charity, Zac Efron as a playwright who ends up becoming Barnum’s business partner, and Zendaya as one of the circus’ trapeze artists who falls in love with Efron’s character. In short, it is perfectly understandable if some may find this film’s messages of acceptance to be rather phony given the context of the true story that it’s based on. Still, if you’re just looking for a charming and original feel-good musical, then I have the feeling that you’ll enjoy The Greatest Showman regardless of how much it stretches the truth.

Rating: 5/5!

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) review

It could be argued that Spider-Man is Marvel Comics’ most popular character. His characterization as a regular high-school student from New York who finds himself immersed in the larger Marvel universe has made him an incredibly endearing character to audiences young and old. This has also translated well to the web-slinger's time on the big-screen, as Spider-Man films have grossed over $3 billion worldwide. Of course, it all started with the trilogy of films directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire in the lead role, which ran from 2002 to 2007. The first film was one of the three major releases, alongside Bryan Singer’s X-Men and 1998’s Blade, that helped revitalize the superhero film genre after the low point that it experienced in the late 90’s. It was then followed by an even better-received sequel in 2004… and then an extremely polarizing third installment in 2007. That would ultimately be the final installment of the series, as Raimi backed out of directing the impending fourth installment when he felt pressured by the studio into getting it done by 2011. Thus, just one year later, Sony decided to reboot the Spider-Man franchise, with Marc Webb taking over as director and Andrew Garfield cast as the new Spidey. However, the short amount of time that had gone by since the Raimi series ended, paired with the fondness that many had for those films, ended up having a majorly negative effect on the Amazing Spider-Man films. While the first Amazing film managed to hold off a decent amount of the skepticism that had been surrounding it, the second Amazing film ended up being even more polarizing than Raimi’s third film. It was also the lowest-grossing Spider-Man film to date, barely grossing over $700 million worldwide.

The harsh reception to Amazing Spider-Man 2 put a lot of pressure on Sony, who have owned Spider-Man’s film rights since the 80’s. Clearly, their plans at the time to develop their own ‘Cinematic Universe’ a la Marvel Studios were not going over well with critics and audiences. And so, in 2015, they decided to strike a deal with Marvel Studios who, due to Marvel’s initial handling of their characters’ film rights, were originally unable to use some of the company’s biggest heroes for the first few years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s existence. This new deal, which was made official in February 2015, would allow Sony to hold onto Spider-Man’s film rights while also giving Kevin Feige and his team at Marvel Studios creative control over future films, thereby allowing everyone’s favorite neighborhood web-slinger to finally appear in the MCU. However, this also meant that the series would see another bit of rebooting for the second time in five years. Tom Holland, breakout star of 2012’s The Impossible, took on the role of Peter Parker and officially made his MCU debut in last year’s Captain America: Civil War. And overall, his turn as Spidey in that film was well-received by critics and audiences, proving that he was more than ready to take on the lead role in his own film. And so, here we are now with Spider-Man: Homecoming. General newcomer Jon Watts takes on directorial duties for this collaboration between Sony and Marvel Studios. To reiterate, because Sony still owns Spider-Man’s film rights, this is a Sony release, unlike the other MCU films which are distributed by Disney. However, given the involvement of Kevin Feige and co., it’s also the newest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thus, with the involvement of the studio that has continued to deliver top-quality hits time and time again, I’m pleased to say that good ol’ ‘Underoos’ is indeed back and, more importantly, is better than ever in his latest on-screen adventure.

During the events of Captain America: Civil War, teenager Peter Parker AKA Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who gained spider-like abilities after being bitten by a genetically-altered spider, was recruited by billionaire Tony Stark AKA Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) to aid in the Avengers’ internal conflict in that film. Afterward, Tony gives Peter the new and improved suit that he had made for him but also tells him that he’s not yet a member of the Avengers. Thus, Peter returns home to Queens, where he lives with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), and his life as a ‘regular’ student at Midtown High while continuing to fight crime around town under the ‘supervision’ of Tony’s long-time bodyguard, Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau). But despite this, Peter is still left wishing for an opportunity to do more than just deal with minor incidents. He eventually manages to find a chance to prove himself when he starts to come across criminals that are using new and dangerous weapons that have been crafted from the Chitauri remains of the Battle of New York in the first Avengers. This soon leads to him coming into conflict with the man in charge of these recent criminal operations, Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), who uses a mechanical wingsuit to become ‘the Vulture’. However, the intensity of the situations that Peter soon finds himself in also gets him into trouble with Tony, who wanted him to maintain a more ‘grounded’ lifestyle. Thus, Peter now finds himself being pressured into proving that he’s capable of dealing with the kinds of threats that the Avengers face on a regular basis.

In the months leading up to its release, the filmmakers promoted Spider-Man: Homecoming as a high school film that was reminiscent of the classic 80’s films written and directed by John Hughes. And overall, the film does deliver on being just that, from its greater focus on the younger members of its cast to its various homages to films like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. But, of course, at the end of the day, this is still a ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ film, so it also has all the great things that you’d expect from the MCU at this point. The action sequences are excellent, which in turn are backed by solid visual effects, and there are plenty of humorous moments that never take away from the more emotional moments of the story. And because this film is centered on a superhero who’s still in high-school, the advice that his mentor gives him (‘Stay close to the ground’) applies nicely to the overall scope of the film. Instead of being one of the high-level Avengers films, this is just a nicely scaled solo film that sometimes verges into the larger-scaled escapades of other MCU films but never once diverges from its high-school setting. I mean, if I had any sort of issue with this film, it’d be that it admittedly feels a bit overlong. Now, to be fair, this film is only about two hours and ten minutes long, which is on par with most of the other ‘solo’ MCU films. Heck, this isn’t even the longest Spider-Man film to date; The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a little over two hours and twenty minutes long. Still, this film’s second half is made up mostly of its biggest action sequences, so it sometimes feels like the film never ends. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that there were any points where the film dragged or anything, but perhaps it could’ve benefitted from some better pacing.

As noted before, this film focuses heavily on its younger stars, and all of them do excellent jobs in their respective roles. Of course, leading them all is Tom Holland who, as we already saw from Captain America: Civil War, is a great fit for the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Not only does he have Spidey’s trademark quips down perfectly, but he’s also given a great overall arc in which he finds that he must prove himself within the larger world of the MCU. In some ways, it’s a lot like the arc that Tony Stark went through in Iron Man 3, in which he realized that his suit didn’t define who he was. And in this film, the fact that Tony knows himself well enough to not want Peter to go down the same route that he went truly goes to show how effective the MCU has been in terms of developing its characters in a consistent manner with each new film. Meanwhile, Holland is backed by some memorable supporting characters, including Jacob Batalon as Peter’s best friend Ned, who ends up learning about Peter’s big secret. And thanks to Batalon and Holland’s terrific camaraderie with each other, Ned proves to be one of the great MCU sidekicks, up there with the likes of Luis from Ant-Man and Wong from Doctor Strange. Another standout is Zendaya, who plays one of Peter’s classmates, Michelle. Her role in the film is a minor one but she does get some great lines of dialogue thanks to her hilariously dry wit. Rounding out the main ‘youth’ cast is Laura Harrier as Peter’s main love interest Liz Allan, who has solid chemistry with Holland, and Tony Revolori as Flash Thompson. It’s a different Flash than the ones we’ve seen in the previous film incarnations of Spider-Man but he still serves his purpose as a constant pain in Peter’s side.

As for the film’s adult leads, there was some controversy surrounding the casting of Marisa Tomei as Aunt May due to Tomei being the youngest actress to date in the role. However, Tomei does prove to be a great fit as the MCU version of Peter’s loving aunt. She works well with Holland while also getting one of the best humorous bits in the entire film right at the very end. Meanwhile, Jon Favreau gets to work with what is easily his biggest role in an MCU film to date (outside of directing, of course) as Happy Hogan, characterized excellently here as Peter’s begrudged liaison between him and Tony Stark. On that note, I’m aware that a lot of people were worried that Robert Downey Jr. was going to hog the limelight in this film to the point where it’d practically be Iron Man 4. Trust me, though, when I say that this isn’t the case. Tony’s only in the film for about 10 minutes and is used perfectly, both in terms of being the goofy genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist that we all know and love as well as being an effective mentor for Peter. And, of course, there’s the main villain, Adrian Toomes AKA the Vulture. Is he another one of Marvel’s ‘mediocre’ villains? No, not at all… in fact, I’d dare say that since the start of Phase 3, Marvel Studios has improved quite a bit when it comes to their villains. Michael Keaton is excellent in the role and the character is set up solidly as a former salvage operator who got screwed over by Stark Industries after the events of the first Avengers. This effectively continues the series’ tradition of having Spider-Man’s adversaries be more ‘sympathetic’ than just pure evil. And then, if that wasn’t enough, there’s one big twist surrounding the character that makes him even more of a personal threat for Peter.

There was quite a lot of backlash surrounding this film prior to its release, from its ‘allegedly spoiler-y’ trailers (personally, I didn’t think that they gave away too much) to its admittedly subpar main poster (though, seriously, how does a poster impact the quality of the film that it’s for?). Thankfully, though, that didn’t stop Spider-Man: Homecoming from becoming yet another satisfying entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as a much-needed win for Sony after their last few attempts from this franchise fared poorly with audiences. Sure, this is still technically the second time in half a decade that Spider-Man has seen an on-screen reboot, but the filmmakers wisely avoid going down many of the same routes that the character’s previous incarnations went. Jon Watts’ direction is solid and the film finds a nice mix between the high-school antics that its young protagonist deals with on a regular basis and the grand-scale adventures within the larger MCU. And thanks to its terrific ensemble cast and the continuously great atmosphere that one can always expect from the MCU films, Spider-Man: Homecoming is a fun new spin on this beloved character. Now, with that said, I’ll admit that I’m still a little bummed about how the previous incarnation of Spider-Man, the Amazing Spider-Man series, was rather unceremoniously tossed aside after only two films. Yeah, I know I’m in the minority when it comes to liking those films, but why couldn’t they have just been given the opportunity to continue but through the way that they’re doing now and have Kevin Feige and his team come in to fix things up, allowing Andrew Garfield’s Spidey to be a part of the MCU? Still, I won’t lie… after his appearance in both Civil War and now this film, I’m fully onboard with Tom Holland’s portrayal of Spider-Man and, therefore, any future films featuring Marvel Studios’ version of the friendly neighborhood web-slinger.

Rating: 5/5!