I still
haven’t decided how I think Spider-Man:
Far from Home stacks up compared to Homecoming.
Both are terrifically-entertaining films with some really resonant scenes, but
I can’t tell if I think Far from Home
is a tiny bit better than or just a hair shy of its predecessor. What I do know
is that I’m still thinking about it weeks later (major spoilers for Far from Home, which in turn means major
spoilers for End Game. Consider
yourself warned.)
Going
into the film, knowing that Mysterio was in it, I expected the illusions to be
incredible-looking, and they are. When Mysterio unleashes his first real
assault on Peter, it’s 100% freaky and disorienting, and you feel for Peter as
he attacks foes/monsters that aren’t there and falls through what aren’t really
solid surfaces. That fully delivers.
In my review of Far from Home, I said I
liked how Mysterio’s story was adapted for the MCU, and I stand by that. At
this point, it’s a little “of course!” that we have yet another villain –
backed, in fact, by a whole squad of baddies with similar motivations – who got
into villainy due to resentment against Tony Stark, but I ultimately don’t mind
it. I love that Mysterio has a whole team of engineers, writers, and costume
designers behind him to help him craft this narrative whereby he can use these
illusions and his trumped-up backstory to position himself as a new hero of
Earth.
I also
like how meta the film gets about the outrageousness
of said backstory. Mysterio actually comments that ludicrous goings-on like a
hero emerging out of the multiverse to battle elemental monsters from a
parallel Earth is the sort of thing people just go with, because that’s the kind of crap that goes down these days. People
in the MCU, especially post-Snap, are prepared to believe anything, and as
Mysterio presents himself as something of a combination of Iron Man, Captain
America, Thor, and Doctor Strange, the masses eat it up.
Where I
think it gets really neat is the way the film uses Mysterio’s illusions and
cons to draw parallels to the “post-fact” world that some actual politicians
are trying to cultivate. In Mysterio’s mind, truth is irrelevant. He knows he
can get people to believe anything, and once he does, it won’t matter what the
facts say or what’s objective reality. His process of obfuscation creates a
sense of sifting sands to make even the truth seem suspect.
This is
most evident in the first credits scene, whereby J.K. frickin’ Simmons’s J. Jonah Jameson, reimagined in the MCU as
an Alex Jones-esque figure, plays footage Mysterio made before his death to 1)
blame the Elemental attack on Spider-Man and 2) out Peter’s secret identity.
Even though one of those statements is a total lie (with the recording
misleadingly cut to “prove” Spidey’s guilt) and the other is a weaponized
truth, the effect with both is the same. It doesn’t matter if Spider-Man is
somehow able to prove his innocence and/or SHIELD is able to help cover-up
Peter’s identity and claim that Mysterio was lying about it. In both cases, the
ideas are out there, and they can’t be stopped – no matter what they do, some
people will always believe it, or at least suspect it, and that’s enough to
erode whatever confidence they have in Spider-Man.
Of
course, it’ll be a few years before we get the next Spider-Man movie, and I doubt other MCU franchises will deal with
the fallout of this scene. So, when we next check in with Spidey, who knows
what’ll be going on with him? Either way, I hope they deal with this properly.
This scene basically lobbed a couple of live grenades into the Spider-Man franchise, and I need to see
what happens to Peter as a result.
Finally,
on a side note, how much of a reprehensible dick is Quentin Beck? Obviously, I
was prepared from the start for it to turn out he was lying (‘cause Mysterio,
duh,) and so when he feeds Peter the line about his dead family back on “his
Earth” – while Peter is still reeling
from watching Tony Stark die in front of him – I wanted to smack him so
hard. You don’t do Peter Parker like that. Playing on that poor kid’s trauma
and grief to make him empathize with you? Cold
as ice. He was a great, engaging villain, but I’m so glad he’s dead.
