Spider-Man Far From Home (2019) SPOILER Review

Peter Parker returns as he is getting back to his old life after being brought back to life by what's referred to as "The Blip." He and his schoolmates are going on a trip to Europe and he plans to declare his affection to MJ (Zendaya). But all his plans for a nice and romantic trip take a turn when he meets Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) who claims to be from an alternate universe and is fighting threats that take the form of all the elements: earth, fire, water, and air. Peter joins Beck, who is given the name Mysterio by news stations, along with Nick Fury and Maria Hill, to stop the Elementals from wreaking havoc.

While I thought Spider-Man Homecoming was fun, I thought it was lacking a bit in terms of depth. So I was very glad to see that Far From Home added more to Peter's character arc as he's trying to move on from the death of Tony Stark who left him a pair of glasses that contains an AI named E.D.I.T.H. He's also trying to deal with the pressure of being called the potential new leader of the Avengers based on news speculation. Oh and his aunt is dating Happy Hogan and his friend Ned is dating Betty Brandt, but luckily it doesn't get in the way. Again, Tom Holland shines as he goes from a small hero in the neighborhood to going up against "Avengers level threats."

After almost replacing Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal finally makes his mark in a Spider-Man movie by playing Quentin Beck/Mysterio. At first, you may be thinking he's a hero, trying to fight all these huge Elementals and giving Peter some pep talk when Nick Fury is very strict on him. However, sure enough, he is a real villain as it is revealed that he holds a grudge against Tony Stark. You see the technology that Tony demonstrates at the beginning of Civil War that's referred to as Binary Augmented Retro-Framing or B.A.R.F. was actually designed by Beck and he got so offended at Stark for giving his tech such an acronym and only using it for therapeutic purposes. He's formed a team of former employees of Stark, including William Ginter Riva who you may remember from this scene in Iron Man.

It was a cool piece of continuity. But I was so surprised when I learned that William is played by Peter Billingsley a.k.a. Ralphie from A Christmas Story. I guess all that soap poisoning got to him. Anyway, Beck and his team have been using his technology to create these threats and some made-up stories so he can pretend to be a hero. After he tricks Peter into giving him his E.D.I.T.H. glasses, we get this scene where he and team celebrate and Beck is dumping a lot of exposition in the form of a toast. While it is a flimsy cover, I kinda like how the scene relishes it so I can't complain that much. As for Gyllenhaal, he was another solid villain, acting very over the top like in Nightcrawler. One highlight in the film was Peter attempting to stop Mysterio but he's sent through this trippy-and I mean trippy spiral that tricks his mind on what's real and what's an illusion. The visuals are so surreal and even a bit terrifying because it includes an Iron Man zombie. Well, that's gonna haunt me for some time.

That whole mind warp really put Peter through the wringer so he meets up with Happy Hogan and says how much he misses Tony and Happy even shares how much Tony meant to him.

"Tony was my best firend, and he was a mess. He second-guessed everything he did. He was all over the place. The one thing that he did that he didn't second-guess was picking you."

This touching moment is a good extension of the emotional weight from Endgame. Peter regains confidence as he puts together a new suit to stop Mysterio who creates an Elemental that combines all the elements together. The whole climax is huge and really exciting. The first two-thirds were pretty standard as we see Peter, his teachers and classmates get into some antics and getting to know Mysterio, but the last act delivers some epic action, kinda like Endgame. Peter also manages to fully use his Spidey Sense or Peter Tingle as it's referred in this movie. Sorry, but Spidey Sense sounds better. He thwarts Mysterio in an attempt to kill Peter that results in his death.

So things are going great for Peter. He has defeated the bad guy, he's got the girl of his dreams, so what could go wrong? Well, in what is perhaps one of the most shocking mid-credit scenes, Peter and MJ see a breaking news report where Mysterio created falsified footage to frame Spider-Man for his death. This footage was said to be brought to the public by the Daily Bugle, and guess who pops up? J. Jonah Jameson, played by none other than JK Simmons! This was a great surprise. You want to talk about perfect casting? Simmons brought this character to life spectacularly, so much so that's he has reprised the role in animated Spider-Man shows and even in The Simpsons and Robot Chicken. Anyway, I love how they updated the character by giving him his own news show that's kinda like Alex Jones' show Infowars. If Jameson had a show, I would definitely watch it for his persona and to mock his big ideas. Mysterio even reveals Spider-Man's secret identity. So the world knows who Spider-Man is, but in a cruel twist, they think he's a murderer. As Peter and his Aunt put it: "What the F..." All I'm hoping for is Sony/Marvel working on a third Spidey movie because that's quite a bombshell to drop on us. I didn't even see the words "Spider-Man will return" at the end. Please, Marvel! Please, Sony! Follow through with this!

As for the after-credits scene, it's revealed that Nick Fury and Maria Hill have been Skrulls! Yes, Talos and his wife, Soren, have assumed the identity of the two while the real Fury is on board a Skrull ship.

We see Fury relaxing against a tropical island backdrop and at that point, I heard someone in the audience make an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. reference: "Tahiti. It's a magical place." So you and I may be asking how long has this masquerade been going on? I guess it started sometime when Fury "disappeared" in Winter Soldier. If you watch Age of Ultron again, you can see "Fury" having a sandwich that's diagonally cut. In Captain Marvel, he said that he can't eat toast that's cut diagonally. So that explains a bunch, and also why Talos/Fury seems to choose bad allies. I am very curious to see where this after credit scene leads to. Perhaps we'll get a Secret Invasion storyline after all?

All in all, Spider-Man Far From Home was partially epic, partially emotional, but it's an improvement over Homecoming. You get to see Peter go against greater challenges if you're patient enough to get through the usual Marvel levity, passable antics, and romantic subplots. But I can definitely say I was satisfied and want more from this. Seriously, they better make a followup to this movie because you can't end on a shocking note like that and just leave it. I even talked to some audience members on what the follow-up would be called. Spider-Man Homerun or Spider-Man Runaway from Home or Spider-Man Bring Him Home comes to mind.

RATING: MODEST APPROVAL (B+)