電影《蜘蛛人：離家日》影評：[Film Review] Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019) 6.4/10

The timing seems apposite to weigh in Martin Scorsese’s recent headline-grabbing remark that 「Marvel’s superhero movies do not hold up to the standard of ‘true cinema’」, as this reviewer has just watched the second installment of Tom Holland’s standalone Spidey outing.

It is axiomatic that the products from Marvel studio and its ilks represent very different esthetics from what Scorsese’s 「true cinema」 entails, and the former is, beyond doubt, esthetically inferior. Merchandized and streamlined to pander to their key audience who is weaned on consumerism and the millennial nerd culture, bombarding and even brainwashing them with its numerous iterations of its cookie-cutters saving-the-world plot, Marvel’s movies (with occasional outliers like GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY franchise) are not keen on alterations in their bland world-building, it is especially frustrating since they own the cutting-edge technology and fiscal means to maximally individualize their output, and most of the time, they simply rest on their laurels of a massive money spinner and fabricate publicity-seeking ballyhoos.

In the case of FARM FROM HOME, after the ill-adventure of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN twofer, and a renewed interest whetted by initiating Spider-man into the over-crowded Marvel universe, like its predecessor HOMECOMING, the movie unyieldingly adheres to its high-school puppy love lightheartedness, only this time, a 23-year-old Tom Holland has to literally and self-consciously enunciate 「I’m only 16」 to flog that to death. The ludicrous summer field trip in Europe (without any scintilla related to its 「scientific」 purpose) only serves to a gallivanting journey of the most scenic (also tourist-packing) places in Venice, Prague and London, while the first thing on Peter Parker's agenda is to romantically confess his affection to his classmate MJ (Zendaya) and wish her feel the same (ouch! if it is too anachronistically banal), meantime he fecklessly delegates the responsibility of safeguarding our planet (in the form of the super-power AI system named Edith, bequeathed to him by the late Stark) to the dubious blow-in Quentin Beck aka. Mysterio (Gyllenhaal), who claims to be hailed from a paralleled earth in the multi-universe (too far-fetched to even alert a background vetting?), to save our planet from being ravaged by the monstrosity of Earth Elementals (routine CGI entities lack any kind of distinction), but turns out to have an ax to grind.

Therefore, the central theme is to fully accept one’s bestowed responsibility without dithering around, and for Spidey it is to assume the mantle from the Tony Stark (but for a high-schooler, the time seems premature), the movie never quite adjusts its tonal levity with the lugubrious sentiment that indwells Peter owing to his profound loss (truth to be told, the Park-Stark bond is a bit exaggerated to squeeze the emotional pull through and through) and its unimaginative escapades start to pall presently.

Of course, the genre's villain problem perpetuates here, it is somewhat dispirited to see Gyllenhaal is vouchsafed a nondescript egomaniacal role of a delusional antagonist considering that he lost the opportunity to play Spidey to Toby Maguire when he seems to be fittest (incidentally, where is Toby now?), it is somewhat perplexing about Mysterio’s motive (holding a grudge towards Spark seems rather feeble), what is his Holy Grail? for a lesser mortal hiding behind mere illusions, what is he thinking to meddle with this superpower-bloated universe? Although the self-reference of the fake-ness of its Fx-generated mayhem gins up a self-parodying knowingness.

By and large, Scorsese’s remark pointedly vents his disappointment in the surfeit of superhero movies and its largely uninspiring work ethos, but we should bear in mind, at any given year, film recipients of 「the best」 and 「the most popular」 titles barely match, all in all, it is the insalubrious symbiosis of the studio’s profit-prioritizing precepts and audience’s middle-of-the-road tastes that should worry us for our posterity’s artistic discernment.

referential entries: Jon Watts’ SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (2017, 7.0/10); Anthony and Joe Russo’s AVENGERS: END GAME (2019, 6.7/10).