‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ Movie Review: The Next Tony Stark in the MCU’s Phase 4

There is an argument to be made that MCU villains aren’t very memorable. This argument ended with the introduction of Killmonger in Black Panther and Thanos in the Avengers movies. Spider-Man: Far from Home, however, gives us another believable villain in Quentin Beck aka Mysterio.

Spider-Man: Far From Home pays homage to the legend of Tony Stark while trying to establish Peter Parker as a superhero and a worthy successor to Iron Man. If you’re yet to watch Spider-Man: Far from Home, there are spoilers ahead. Consider yourself warned.

The Long-Lasting Shadow of Tony Stark in the MCU

Ask fanboys who they think are the top 10 superheroes in Marvel and Spider-Man without a doubt on the top of that list. Yet, in the MCU this character has been reduced to nothing more than a Tony Stark project. But in reality, Spider-Man in his own right is perhaps one of the biggest and most popular superheroes ever. It is understandable that Tony Stark is Peter’s mentor. It is also understandable that Far From Home comes after the events of Avengers: Endgame so the sacrifice of Tony Stark has to be referenced. But what cannot be excused is having Peter’s whole story revolve around Tony.

Let’s talk about Quentin Beck for a minute. From the trailers, it seemed like Marvel was going the multiverse route and thus making Mysterio a hero rather than a villain. This proved to be a huge red herring, something Marvel is very fond of doing. Mysterio turns out to be an illusionist and conman with a hatred for his now-deceased boss, Tony Stark. Mysterio is assisted by a host of other disgruntled former employees of Tony Stark too. In the comics, Beck is a failed actor and special effects artist who turns to villainy when he can’t achieve his lofty Hollywood aspirations. But the MCU would rather have everything revolve around Mr. Tony Stark—a decision hardcore fans will find unacceptable. In Spider-Man: Homecoming, the villain himself, Vulture came to be as a result of Tony Stark taking his job. Are you seeing a trend here?

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Is there perhaps a world where we can have a standalone Spider-Man movie in the MCU where the name Tony Stark isn’t mentioned? What’s even more annoying is that Uncle Ben doesn’t seem to play any part in Peter’s maturity as an adult or into the hero lifestyle. The only reference to him is the traveling bag Peter uses to go on his field trip. Less we forget, this is the same Uncle Ben who made popular the phrase we’ve all come to associate with Spider-Man; “with great power comes great responsibility.” But in the MCU’s version of Spider-Man, Uncle Ben is not even good enough for a flashback or a memory. Rather, Peter is all about pleasing Mr. Stark, making him proud and this or that. Unacceptable.

Annoying Continuity Errors

I’m surely not the only one who felt like the MJ and Peter Parker romance was forced. In Spider-Man: Homecoming, MJ wasn’t even given a second thought. She was more or less a second-tier character to Peter and the whole movie. But in Far From Home, MJ has suddenly become the main love interest in Peter’s life. Where did this come from? Peter loves MJ, Peter wants to sit next to MJ in the opera. Peter buys MJ a necklace. Peter tells Ned to vacate his seat on the plane so he can be next to MJ. Peter almost accidentally kills one of his classmates to prevent him from showing MJ a raunchy image of him (Peter). This is a girl you barely noticed in the whole Homecoming but now we’re meant to believe you like her this much? I agree that a whole lot could happen in five years (after the snap) but such attraction should have been built up from the first movie. Not out of the blue.

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And then Aunt May? Peter has done everything possible to hide his identity from his aunt to protect her. In Homecoming, we saw her telling him how much she hates the whole superhero thing. She warns him to turn the other way whenever bad stuff is afoot. But in Far from Home, she’s attending charity events with him, and packing his spider suit in his bag for his school trip. What happened to the reserved and scared aunt May of Homecoming? 

The end credit scene of the movie shows Mysterio outing Peter Parker as Spider-Man, rendering all his efforts to conceal his identity moot. Earlier in the movie, MJ finds out about Peter being Spider-Man. The fact that we weren’t shown at least one movie where she has to hide his identity from others like Ned did should make viewers feel robbed. Also, can we talk about that scene where Peter is asked to strip down in front of a female agent? In the #MeToo world we live in, would this be considered acceptable if Peter were female?

Mysterio, Nick Fury, and Skrulls

Although I disagree with having Mysterio as a disgruntled former employee of Tony Stark, I love the way he was handled. We see his tech and how he elaborately creates illusions to fool people into thinking he’s the hero in this story. Remember B.A.R.F from Captain America: Civil War? We find out that The Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing is the brainchild of Quentin Beck. So why does Beck hate Tony so much? We learn the reason for this is because Tony nicknamed it B.A.R.F. and Beck wasn’t giving credit for its creation. In addition to this, Tony leaves his glasses to Peter instead of Beck himself. 

Sony Pictures/Disney

Let’s rewind back to the first Iron Man movie, where Obadiah Stane is trying to force an engineer to replicate Tony’s heart reactor. Turns out, Beck was fired by possibly Stane for his inability to recreate the reactor, and yet the engineer has a grudge against Tony.

News flash, at the end of the movie it turns out Nick Fury and Mariah Hill are Skrulls. Yeah, the same ones from Captain Marvel. What’s even worse is the Skrulls were ordered to disguise as Fury and Hill on the behest of Nick Fury himself. If that’s the case, then how did the Skrull Nick Fury know the secret code given to him by Happy Hogan? We know Skrulls can turn into anyone they choose but from what we’ve seen in Captain Marvel, they can’t inherit their knowledge or experiences. Why couldn’t Fury do the job himself? A question we never got an answer to.

‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ Overall Verdict

Far be it from me to shame this whole movie because that would be unfair, but we’ve seen enough of Spider-Man over the years to know he can very much hold his own against the most complex storylines. Peter Parker doesn’t need to have a Tony Stark canon to legitimize him as a proper superhero or character. 

Sony Pictures/Disney

With that said, Spider-Man: Far From Home does get a few things right. The action set pieces were spectacular. Mysterio’s illusions were more than believable. Surprise people, J. Jonah Jameson makes an appearance at the end of the movie. What’s even better is that J. K. Simmons reprises his role from Sam Raimi’s trilogy. It’s something to look forward to in the next Spider-Man movie perhaps. Another bright spot of the movie was showing the aftermath of the Thanos snap. We also get to see Peter Parker create a new suit and that was undoubtedly pretty cool, to say the least. 

Spider-Man: Far From Home had the potential to be something more, especially now that Tony Stark is dead. This was Peter’s turn to shine, to show his genius intellect, to prove he is more than just the ward of Iron Man. But the character still seems to cower under the shadow of Tony Stark. Lest we forget, Spider-Man has one of the better villain rosters in all of Marvel comic book history. Spider-Man has genius intellect and is iconic in his own right. But in the MCU, Spider-Man is just a boy who always seems to want to please Iron Man. The same Iron Man that wasn’t a household name until the first Iron Man movie was released in 2008. 

The normies would love this movie, the hardcore fans will accept it but be let down still. I would suggest you go see this movie regardless as it is the final movie of the MCU’s phase 3. And to be honest, if you can suspend your disbelief over the retconning of Tony Stark, you would have a good time watching Spider-Man: Far From Home.