I held off on this as I didn’t want to go to cinema again so soon after Toy Story 4, but I was always going to watch this. I’d loved Homecoming and this is by the same director Jon Watts. It also serves as an epilogue of sorts to Endgame. Shockingly, this seems to be the last MCU entry for a while yet as the next one Black Widow is a year away. I’m amused by the parallel between the themes in this film and the fact that the people at Marvel Studios who probably feel that they need a bit of a break.
Peter Parker and his closest friends in high school were all conveniently victims of Thanos’ finger snap and so were brought back together. They have to repeat the school year but get to go on a summer trip to Europe. Nick Fury however is dealing with a new threat in the form of strange elemental monsters popping up all over the world and with the Avengers broken up, turns to Spider-Man for help. Peter however is still distraught over Tony Stark’s death, feels that he needs a break and is preoccupied with his feelings for MJ. He ignores Fury’s attempts to contact him and only reluctantly joins in the fights. He is also under pressure to be the next Iron Man, especially after he learns that Stark has given him full access to his security systems, including an orbital satellite packed with armed drones. Meanwhile a new hero whom the press dubs Mysterio explains that the monsters are escapees from his own home dimension and bonds with Peter while they team up against them.
The big twist isn’t much of a surprise for anyone who’s familiar with the history of the Mysterio character from the comics so I’m not bothered about treating it as a spoiler. It makes sense to update him from being a disgruntled special effects expert from the film industry to being a hologram expert from out of Stark’s own labs. I do note that MCU is leaning too hard on rogue technologies coming from Stark as the latest threat and of course you wonder why if Stark had access to this during Endgame, why didn’t he deploy them against Thanos? Still the fact that these are all illusions provides a great excuse for crafting cool new visuals to ogle at. Mysterio’s attempts to psychologically torture Peter using them isn’t terribly novel especially if you’re a video gamer but they work very well here. Europe serves as a scenic backdrop for all kinds of Spider-Man feats and stunts, so it’s all very thrilling and exciting as pure entertainment.
The film is pretty light in terms of themes, being essentially a teenage movie with action scenes tacked on. The kids’ interactions are predictable and shallow but still amusing and fun. The world’s reaction to the Blip and Tony Stark’s death feels a bit too trite and abbreviated but at least they do address those issues. Mysterio’s use of drones could be charitably interpreted as a reference to the likely future of warfare. His whole schtick about smoke and mirrors being more important than the objective truth is also a kind of commentary about fake news though the film doesn’t really go anywhere with it. One thing I am sorry to see is that Aunt May has no meaningful character development as her reaction to finding out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man is non-existent and is handled offscreen.
On balance, this is not one of the stronger MCU films but it’s not bad either. It’s a solid summer entertainment kind of movie and they needed a climbdown from the peak of Endgame anyway. One problem going forward is that the actors and Tom Holland in particular in no way look like high school students any longer. They really need to have them graduate soon.