I. Simon’s review published on Letterboxd:
If this further proves anything, it’s that initial reactions sometimes should be taken entirely with a grain of salt, *especially* when it comes to Marvel films.
Unfortunately far more flawed (and seemingly far more studio-mandated) than I initially thought. I still standby what I said initially about what this film trying to do in terms of being a satire on what the MCU overall has become (which is a great idea in itself), but many of the great ideas brought up here are copped out on and/or get completely undercut, something I didn’t fully notice on prior viewings. I really like the idea of the film’s attempt to be a satire on drone warfare (re: the scene where Peter almost blows up a classmate), but a certain thing that happens in the third act (which was clearly added in sometime later during production) completely undercuts it. And for a film that wants to criticize Tony Stark and the MCU’s attachment/bias towards him, it won’t allow Peter to let go of him completely. It’s things like this that are very apparent here and in other MCU installments (though there are exceptions) that really bug me about the franchise in general.
I won’t deny that I used to think many diehard fans of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy who dislike the MCU’s take on the character were probably just biased, but after revisiting those films for the first time in so long and revisiting this, I now completely get where they’re coming from. While I still like Homecoming and I don’t think that Far From Home is too bad either, I am almost confident in saying that the MCU Spider-Man films may very well be two of the more cynically produced comic book films in recent memory, and that’s saying something.
Overall, it’s enjoyable enough, but largely insubstantial, and it honestly might be one of the more disappointing MCU installments given the potential at hand. Just further proves that Martin Scorsese‘s theme park comparison is mostly apt.
