Movie Reviews: Review and Synopsis Hollywood Movie: Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Spider-Man: Far From Home is a 2019 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, co-produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and the 23rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Jon Watts, written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, J. B. Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Martin Starr, Marisa Tomei, and Jake Gyllenhaal. In the film, Parker is recruited by Nick Fury (Jackson) and Mysterio (Gyllenhaal) to face the Elementals while he is on a school trip to Europe.

Discussions for a sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming began in October 2016, and the project was confirmed later that year. Holland, Watts, and the writers were all set to return by the end of 2017. In 2018, Jackson and Gyllenhaal joined the cast as Fury and Mysterio, respectively. Holland revealed the sequel's title ahead of filming, which began that July and took place in England, the Czech Republic, Italy, and the New York metropolitan area. Production wrapped in October 2018. The marketing campaign was the most expensive for a film ever and attempted to avoid revealing spoilers for Avengers: Endgame before its April 2019 release.

Spider-Man: Far From Home premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre on June 26, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 2, as the last film in Phase Three of the MCU. The film received praise for its humor and visual effects. It grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide, making it the first Spider-Man film to pass the billion-dollar mark, Sony Pictures' highest-grossing film ever, the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2019, and the 24th-highest-grossing film of all time. A sequel, Spider-Man: No Way Home, is scheduled for release on December 17, 2021.

Synopsis Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

In Ixtenco, Mexico, Nick Fury, and Maria Hill investigate an unnatural storm and encounter the Earth Elemental. Quentin Beck, a super-powered individual, arrives to defeat the creature. Beck subsequently defeats the Elemental and is recruited by Fury and Hill. In New York City, the Midtown School of Science and Technology completes its year, which was restarted to accommodate the students who previously disintegrated five years earlier as a result of Thanos' actions. 

They had reappeared un-aged, thanks to the actions of the Avengers. The school organizes a two-week summer field trip to Europe, where Peter Parker—who is still mourning the death of his mentor Tony Stark—plans to reveal to classmate MJ his attraction to her. Happy Hogan informs Parker that Fury intends to contact him, but Parker ignores Fury's phone call.

Parker and his classmates travel to Venice, Italy, where the Water Elemental attacks. Parker helps protect his classmates, while Beck arrives and defeats the creature. Fury meets with Parker and gives him Stark's glasses, which were meant for his successor. 

The glasses enable him to communicate with and take command of the artificial intelligence E.D.I.T.H., which has access to Stark Industries' databases and commands a large orbital weapons supply. Beck claims to hail from an alternate reality within the Multiverse, where the four Elementals killed his family and destroyed his civilization. With only the Fire Elemental left to destroy, Beck predicts it will attack Prague. Parker declines Fury's invitation to join the fight and returns to his class trip.

Fury secretly changes the class's itinerary to divert the students to Prague. There, Parker is forced to help Beck fight the Fire Elemental to again protect his friends. Beck manages to destroy the creature with Parker's help. Fury and Hill invite Parker and Beck to Berlin to discuss the formation of a new superhero team, but Parker decides that Beck should go alone and transfers control of E.D.I.T.H. to him. 

Once Parker leaves, Beck celebrates alongside ex-Stark Industries employees, with whom he had been working to masquerade as a superhero. Beck, who was fired from his position as Stark's holographic-illusions specialist for his unstable nature, used advanced projectors to simulate his powers and the Elementals, and now hopes to use E.D.I.T.H.'s orbital weaponized drones to increase the scale of his illusions and fraudulently establish himself as an Avenger-level hero.

After MJ tells Parker she knows he is Spider-Man, they discover that a piece of debris she retrieved during the battle with the Fire Elemental is a projector that shows the Air Elemental, leading them to realize Beck's deception. Parker travels to Berlin to warn Fury, only to be tricked by Beck with an illusory Fury into revealing the names of his friends who know about Beck's plan. 

Left for dead by Beck, Parker contacts Hogan, who flies him to London, where his classmates are. Beck uses E.D.I.T.H. to orchestrate a fusion of all the Elementals, as a cover to kill Parker's friends. Parker can disrupt the illusions, so Beck attacks him with drones. Parker regains control of E.D.I.T.H. and defeats Beck, who is hit by a misfired gunshot from one of the drones; before he dies, Beck tells one of his associates to retrieve data from the drones. After returning to New York City, Parker begins a relationship with MJ.

In a mid-credits scene, J. Jonah Jameson of TheDailyBugle.net broadcasts doctored footage of the London incident in which Beck frames Spider-Man for the drone attack and his death, exposing Spider-Man's secret identity to the world, much to Parker's shock. In a post-credits scene, Fury and Hill are revealed to be the Skrulls Talos and Soren in disguise, under orders from the real Fury while he is away commanding a Skrull spaceship.

Cast Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man:

Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury:

Zendaya as MJ: Parker's classmate and love interest.

Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill:

J. B. Smoove as Julius Dell:

Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds: Parker's best friend.

Martin Starr as Roger Harrington: 

Marisa Tomei as May Parker: 

Jake Gyllenhaal as Quentin Beck / Mysterio:

Movie Reviews: Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Spider-Man: Far From Home grossed $390.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $741.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.132 billion. On August 18, 2019, the film surpassed Skyfall (2012) to become Sony Pictures' highest-grossing film worldwide. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $339 million, accounting for production budgets, prints and advertising, talent participation, and other costs, with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from home media, placing it seventh on their list of 2019's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".

Far From Home was projected to gross around $350 million worldwide by the end of its first week of release, and about $500 million over its first 10 days. In China and Japan, where it was released a week before its U.S. debut, the film was expected to gross around a combined $90 million in its opening weekend. In China, where pre-sale tickets were less than Homecoming's, the film made $35.5 million on its first day, including $3.4 million from midnight previews (the fourth-best of all time for a superhero film in the country). 

It ended up slightly over-performing, debuting at $111 million including $98 million in China, the fourth-best-ever superhero opening in the country. Far From Home ended up grossing $580.1 million worldwide over its first 10 days of release, including $238 million from international territories in its opening weekend. In China, the film had a 10-day total of $167.4 million, and its other biggest debuts were South Korea ($33.8 million), the United Kingdom ($17.8 million), Mexico ($13.9 million), and Australia ($11.9 million).

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 91% approval rating based on 444 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The website's critics' consensus reads, "A breezily unpredictable blend of teen romance and superhero action, Spider-Man: Far From Home stylishly sets the stage for the next era of the MCU." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100 based on reviews from 55 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it a 90% overall positive score and a 76% "definite recommend".

Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised Holland's performance and wrote, "By the end, this Spider-Man really does find his tingle, yet coming after Into the Spider-Verse, with its swirling psychedelic imagery and identity games and trap doors of perception, Spider-Man: Far From Home touches all the bases of a conventional Marvel movie. It doesn't take you out of this world. But it's good enough to summon the kick—or maybe just the illusion—of consequence.

" Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Richard Roeper gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, calling it "zesty, sweet and satisfying" and praised the performances of the cast. Bernard Boo of PopMatters praised the film, commenting, "Spider-Man: Far From Home is technically the final film in Phase [Three] of the MCU, and it's hard to think of a better way to send off the most successful run of one of the highest-grossing franchises in history.

" Alonso Duralde of TheWrap said that the film feels like "a charming teen road-trip comedy that occasionally turns into a superhero movie", which he said was a compliment. He highlighted the cast, including the chemistry between Holland, Zendaya, and Batalon, and said that Gyllenhaal "nails his character's earnestness but also clearly enjoys a few moments that let him channel every exasperated-sigh, I-just-want-to-get-this-right male diva director he's ever known."

Writing for IndieWire, David Ehrlich gave the film a grade of "C" and, despite complimenting the cast, called the film an "unadventurous bit of superhero housekeeping that only exists to clean up the mess that Avengers: Endgame left behind". He criticized the character development of Spider-Man, feeling that he does not change throughout the film beyond becoming more confident. 

He described the action as "plastic", and felt that the film did not give enough attention to its teen elements. Ehrlich said it might be enough to satisfy fans but called it a "failure when compared to the remarkable artistry of Into the Spider-Verse or the raw pathos of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2. "John Anderson of The Wall Street Journal praised Holland and Zendaya's performances, but described the film as "a visually incoherent, effects-heavy superhero movie", and called the dialogue "dire".

source: Wikipedia