What's included in the four minutes or so of new footage added to Spider-Man: Far from
Home?
Join us as we break down what's new for the re-release, why it might have been excluded
from the original cut of the film, and whether you ought to make another trip to the theater
for it.
As Peter and Ned are leaving school after finishing up their classes for the year, Peter
rattles off a list of things he has to get done before the students leave on their European
trip.
First on his list: pick up his passport from the post office.
When Peter gets there, he finds himself at the end of a ridiculously long line, which
isn't moving at all.
Anxious to move on to the rest of his tasks, Peter unleashes a small spider-shaped drone
from his backpack, which sneaks behind the counter and opens up another passport pickup
line, which had been closed so that the postal worker behind the glass could eat lunch.
It's not really necessary to understand the rest of the film, but it's a clever little
bit of foreshadowing.
He needs a passport to travel abroad, and his use of a drone is a small-scale version
how Quentin Beck will later use drones for his master plan.
As part of his plan to woo MJ in Europe, Peter wants to buy her a glass Black Dahlia necklace
in Venice, after which he'll give it to her at the top of the Eiffel Tower.
The only problem is, he doesn't actually have enough money to get the necklace, so he says
goodbye to a few prized possessions in pursuit of some quick cash.
Peter heads to a pawn shop, carrying a box of superhero action figures.
"Those are collectible action figures, and they're worth more than your car!"
Although the camera only lingers on the box for a second, making it difficult to tell
exactly which characters it contains, there is one that Peter decides at the last second
not to pawn.
Plucking what appears to be a mostly yellow figure from the box, Peter tells the pawn
shop owner that he's decided to keep "the robot" after all.
This could be a nod to Peter's deep attachment to Tony Stark, a man who essentially dressed
as a robot.
Or it could be someone we've never seen before.
If Sony and Marvel have really parted ways for future Spidey films, it's questionable
whether any of the seed planting in Far from Home will ever come to fruition.
This one likewise isn't necessary to the plot, but it is a nice tip of the symbolic hat to
the fact that Far from Home marks the end of Phase 3 of the MCU and a changing of the
superhero guard.
Next, Peter stops at at his local bodega, where he purchases the dual headphone adapter
that is so crucial to his romantic goals.
After Peter makes a valiant but terrible attempt to communicate what he's looking for in Spanish,
the bodega owner corrects him and sells him the adapter, telling Peter he needs to work
on his "Spanglish."
Of course, Peter's plan for the dual headphone adapter to use it to watch movies on the plane
with MJ goes tragically sideways, and he winds up sitting next to his teacher Mr. Harrington
instead, while MJ and Peter's rival Brad watch movies using the dual adapter that Brad also
happened to have with him.
The bodega scene was probably cut for a reason, but it does drive home just how much effort
he put into getting all the pieces of his plan to win over MJ right.
Finally, just before leaving the country, Peter takes down a local organized crime syndicate
operating out of an Italian restaurant.
Wearing the Iron Spider suit that Tony gave him in Avengers: Infinity War, Peter handily
dispatches a roomful of baddies while delivering a barrage of quips about one-star Yelp reviews
and stingy tips.
The police compliment Peter on his new suit, realizing it's obviously Stark tech.
"You gonna be the next Iron Man now?"
"Well, no, I don't have time.
I'm too busy doing your job."
"Ohhhh!"
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!"
It's one of many reminders we get in Far from Home that Peter is still grieving the loss
of Tony, a mental state that Beck takes full advantage of.
It's a fun Spidey action sequence, but given that there's no shortage of action and Tony
Stark reminders in Far from Home, it's easy to understand why it didn't make the final
cut.
After Mysterio assumes he has killed Spider-Man, he turns his sights to the other loose threads
in his plan Ned, MJ, and Betty.
He decides to stage a massive attack in London, in which Mysterio will save the city from
an "Avengers-level threat," but not before there are extensive civilian casualties, Peter's
friends included.
Beck gathers a group of his accomplices together in a parking garage and reminds them to make
sure to take plenty of video and upload it to the internet, since all the civilians who
would normally be posting to social media will be dead.
After all, if Mysterio is going to be the next Iron Man, he's going to have to go viral.
He then takes a call from Nick Fury, who informs him of an Elemental threat in London, which,
of course, Beck planned.
The scene ends with Beck ending the call and repeating his earlier line: "Never apologize
for being the smartest person in the room."
While this scene definitely drives home just how far Beck is willing to go for the sake
of his plan, it pushes him a little too far into cartoonish, mustache-twirling territory,
with his casual talk of dead innocents and a catchphrase at the end.
While the scenes added to the Spider-Man: Far from Home re-release mostly consist of
fun Spidey stuff, none of it really enhances the plot or the characters in any meaningful
way.
It's all pretty superfluous, and in the case of the Mysterio scene, may actually work to
the film's detriment.
The Peter-centric scenes are entertaining, and the restaurant fight is a great opportunity
to see the Iron Spider suit in action one last time.
Whether it's worth a return to the theater depends on how much you liked Far from Home
to begin with, since it's basically the same movie.
If you kind of wanted to see it again anyway, or if you haven't managed to see it for the
first time, it's a good excuse to finally go.
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