j* Movie Reviews 2019

Spiderman: Far from Home (2019)

This is probably the most meta Marvel movie made.

I wasn't expecting much because I thought Spiderman:Homecoming (2017) was a particularly dull instalment in superhero... just same old, same old. But this, finally, does something quite new with the genre and plays around with the concept of superhero film in a delightfully meta way. Visually it feels like they saw how excited everyone was by Spiderverse (2018) and decided to try and bring some of that to live-action... although lets face it CGI is animation, and it *should* be truly visually mindblowing, always - anything less is a rip off. Some parts of this are. But what's cooler is the novel plot, and the self-referential and meta layers of where they take it, with what can be taken as a decent serve of political commentary along the way.

So there's a lot I like, but I can't describe it without specifics, so tap out here if you're a spoiler-phobe.

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This movie feels like it's two movies, the first relatively ordinary one, and the second more entertaining one. The best bits of the first half is the explanation of "the blip".... The nonsense that's gone down because of Thanos and the halfination, then the de-Thanosification and re-animation of the halfinated. I love that they just call this the blip. Apparently I might not have been paying enough attention but I swear I heard them describe how this worked for the halfinated and the survivors about three different ways, all of which seemed contradictory. Either way I liked that they had some fun with playing around with the ridiculousness of "the blip."

Then, lets talk about Jake Gylenhaal - who narrowly missed out on being Spiderman back in the Toby Maguire version. It's fun to see him here playing the Fishbowl weirdo and to watch that role descend into straight up baddy. His crazy-level ridiculous exposition speech is where the movie gets its second wind. It is epic the way he spends so much of the film wearing a motion-capture suit and acting as the director to the "destruction" that looks real in world, but that is actually just a 3D projection. This was such a cool twist on concept... that the destructive creatures weren't real, it was just imaginary and cinematic.

I loved that Fishbowl was scripting his own rise to superhero fame.... And that specifically nothing short of an "Avengers level threat" would do. Poetic. Then there is this great moment where he as director "calls for a line" for himself as actor, and delivers it with the usual over-the-top hero gusto. It's this great wafty-wankery about the demon beast channelling up the powers from the Earth core or something, and it was delicious when Nick Fury yelled "Now that's some bullshit!" on hearing it. There's also the long list of reasons that none of the other heroes are available to be cast in this particular showdown.

I also loved the science teachers dialogue around the weird stuff that happens. Whilst most superhero flicks claim to be sci-fi, so many of them actually lean fantasy pretty hard. And the science teachers, on the their school science nerd trip, are constantly flabbergasted about all the "witch" stuff that's going down in Europe. It's named up multiple times that these big demony Elemental things are "witches" and "witchcraft" and it's nice to see someone in-universe calling out the weirdness of this, and how accepting everyone is of this. Nothing scientific. The delicious irony here is that in this case it is actually sci-fi projection tech that is creating the witchy-poo effects.

There's a lot of kind of subtextual commentary here around the state of the world, and the more people are lined up and signed on for the next technological Marvel spectacle, but few of us are really keeping pace with the similar levelling up of warcraft. This makes some neat points about the increasing ease of remote drone strikes, and the fact that it's easy to tumble other systems whilst people are distracted. And it's closing comment on how easily all our movie-making magic can now be subverted into the production of faked video is touching.

Propaganda may have never has such great production budgets. We may see world-news, but as journalism tumbles, I feel far less sure that anything I see is real. It's part of a near defining feature of our modern malaise. The matrix that doesn't need to hold us because we're beholden to our pixelated eyes. Case in point, the (over?) analysis of the live-streamed NZ mosque shooting... which if it's a conspiracy wormhole you have not yet peeked at, goes pretty deep on the directorial and rendering criticism.

So many things to talk about. Lets go next to the wild and crazy scenes when Spidey has to fight within a super-responsive projected matrix... surreal, fantastic, mindblowing.... Pure spectacle. It has a lot of elements of "it was just a dream" going on, but it's really "just a constructed simulation." But the way they brought some of the vibe of "art" from Spiderverse into this more dimensional place is awesome, if a little discombobulating. Magic Eye meets James Bond credits. I dug it.

Lastly, sweet-as MJ. She's like Daria & Jane rolled into the one excellent character of deadpan and dark. Loved her. Made me just want live action Daria even more. And there's some ACDC in the soundtrack.

J* gives it 4 stars.