Roy Tang

First, the spoiler-free review, then more spoilery stuff afterwards.

• I watched Far From Home while I was… far from home.
• great movie, lots of fun, and the stakes are a lot higher than the Vulture just stealing some tech off Tony Stark
• basically a story of Peter Parker the high school student trying to juggle his Spider-Man problems with his high school life, which was one of the best eras of comic book Spider-Man
• the movie gives us a look at what the world looks like post-Endgame and how weird it is for everyone
• if you’ve seen the trailers, you know who the “villain” is and you have certain expectations coming in. I was worried this would be a problem but it worked out fine, it wasn’t a problem and was handled well
• There is a mid-credits scene, possibly one of the best I’ve ever seen, in terms of how it changes the entire tone of the movie. There is also a post-credits scene, the implications of which are still unclear and will leave the fanbase speculating for a while
• Magugustuhan ba ni Mama: Possibly! There’s a lot of “cute” Peter Parker high school moments she’d probably like, and the plot and action aren’t too hard to follow

Spoilery stuff follows:

• how could Midtown High afford to send their trivia team on a trip through Europe? Is this typical of American high schools?
• As mentioned above, anyone even remotely familiar with Spider-Man lore wouldn’t be surprised at the reveal that Mysterio is actually a villain. This is one of those times where there would have been some advantage to not knowing stuff ahead of time, as you get to enjoy the reveal. That being said, Mysterio’s villain monologue after getting the EDITH glasses may be one of the best I’ve ever seen. Since I already knew Mysterio was a bad guy, the only realy mystery was HOW he was doing these destructive elementals since they obviously weren’t the simple light-and-sound shows that comics Mysterio was known for. Tying the illusions to the BARF holograms and even re-using side characters from previous movies was an inspired choice.
• the rest of the movie’s plot was fairly predictable, but the MCU continues to subvert the expectations of Spider-Man fans since both Peter Parker and the supporting cast are completely different from the comicbook incarnations, powers notwithstanding. I assume they planned as far back as Homecoming that Tony would be dying in Endgame and Peter would be pressured to take the mantle, setting Tony up as his father figure instead of the mythical Uncle Ben. Zendaya’s MJ is completely different from the comics’ Mary Jane “Hey tiger” Watson; Flash is a nerd like Peter instead of a footballer; Ned isn’t even based on a Peter supporting character but on a Miles supporting character, and so on. This is basically a completely different version of Peter’s HS life and it’s great.
• that first Mysterio vs Spider-Man scene was great, evocative of the comic book version and even Arkham Asylum’s Scarecrow sequences
• the whole Peter/MJ/Brad Davis subplot gives the movie a bit of a “John Hughes” vibe and there are some cute moments and MJ really holds her own; I think this movie handles the whole “dual identity problems” aspect of Spider-man better than Homecoming did
• that webswinging sequence at the end of the movie was great, has the same feel as the PS4 game
• the midcredits scene completely changes the tone of the ending of course. But first, we must acknowledge the awesome return of the one true J. Jonah Jameson, JK Simmons! The unmasking is a problem, and how will they handle it? Will Peter and May have to go into hiding at an Avengers facility? Will the bad guys come after them? WIll Peter have to make a deal with Mephisto to protect his secret in exchange for getting the worst prom ever with MJ? Or will they go some other route like have one of the Skrulls pose as Peter and appear together with Spider-man? The great thing about MCU Spider-Man is that because the setup is completely different, they’re not beholden to the comic book plots (neither Homecoming nor Far From Home are based on actual comic stories AFAIK). This ending also mirrors Homecoming’s unmasking in front of Aunt May, so my guess is that they’ll handle this cliffhanger the same way - completely off screen and we just see the repurcussions in the next movie.
• the final postcredits scene will have fans speculating for a while, but it looks like Fury is busy setting up SWORD? Or could it be something else?

Great movie, and I’m looking forward to Marvel hopefully announcing their Phase 4 plans at SDCC later this month!