Krishna
Interesting movie but with surprising holes in it. I will try and tell you about the holes without giving away the punchline.
Spiderman is going out on vacation with a girl that he likes. Yes, this is MJ from the previous movie. This Spiderman seems to dig girls of minority descent. Interesting – in the cartoons, Peter Parker always had a steady girlfriend who was Caucasian (but who was also MJ)
When he goes on his Europe trip with his class, Peter Parker (with Tom Holland anchored for that role in all current movies) definitely does not want to take his suit as he does not want to do any superman stuff while on vacation.
Meanwhile, a new enemy called Elemental starts destroying the world. This super villain can control water (with a face in water) or other elements. Nick Fury comes to investigate but is attacked by another Elemental using Earth as the medium of attack but a superhero comes and helps them. He says he is Quentin Beck (played competently by Jake Gyllenhal) who slipped in from another Universe (in the multiverse theory). Nick is impressed.
Peter Parker finds that his aunt May has thoughtfully packed his suit with a note that she ‘remembered’. When he is with his class in Italy, the water Elemental again wreaks havoc there. Peter wants to help but he has left his suit in his hotel room. Thankfully Quentin comes to save the day and he gets the nickname Mysterio by adoring and impressed fans – Peter also being one of those impressed.
Peter has been ignoring Fury’s calls for a while now and an exasperated Fury tranquilizes Peter’s room mate and comic buddy Ned and finally meets Peter. He takes him to meet Quentin and they both request Peter to fight the elementals because the one using Fire is the one that destroyed Quentin’s home planet in the Alternate Universe and if the Blip (which was described in earlier Avengers) had not happened, Quentin would not have been able to escape to the current world. How they all happen to land in America even though they are hopping universes and time is a question that you should not ask.
Peter refuses as he does not feel he is part of Avengers or qualified to take on such a big task. (He still mourns Tony Stark’s demise). He refuses to go to Prague where the next elemental attack is to take place. He finds Fury’s power when their entire school team alters their plans and take the class to Prague next!
When Peter stumbles into Tony’s glasses (left to Peter as a bequest) and finds that a super AI assistant Edith controls it, he is thrilled. He is even more impressed that Tony has only had him control it. When he accidentally creates a fiasco by giving Edith a command that she interpreted as ‘send a missile to blow up the bus they were travelling in’, he hastily corrects himself and resolves that he is too clumsy to use Edith.
When Beck again destroys a Fire Elemental in Prague, Peter realizes that Beck is the most deserving of the Iron Man successor position and grants the right to use Edith and gives the glasses to Beck.
When Peter leaves, the plot twist is revealed. Beck is NOT a superhero but a disgruntled former employee for Stark. He has used the Elemental strategy using pure illusions but with drones to simulate the physical effect. Now he has the entire power of Edith behind him to pursue his evil plans!
MJ shows him a piece of hardware that she picked up during Fire Elemental show and he realizes that it is an image of Mysterio fighting Elemental (part of it). They realize that Beck is a fraud. And at the same moment, Beck realizes that a piece was lost and looking at the log of the events, realizes that Peter has the piece.
Peter Parker then confronts Beck and uses his superb Spidey sense to a devastating effect. Lots of actions and twists and turns and then good triumphs over evil.
The usual formula of a complex, modern Marvel movie. 7/10
– – Krishna (November 2019)