Spiderman: No way Home - An Analysis

Note: The article contains full spoilers of the film.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe had been accused for making audiences passive with escapist films. Scorsese even went as far as calling it a "theme park" and "not cinema".

"Spiderman: Far From Home" however seemed to take an opposite stance. Here, the hero battles a villain which uses drones and projectors to create illusions of monster attacks, causing "passive spectators to get sucked into his evil spectacle". It urges audiences to get to know the "tools" to engage the truth.

Pic 2 and 3: Columbia pictures logo cross fades into a sculpture. This draws parallelism between artforms and cinema as being a symbolic of an "escapist tool". A car passes by without engaging it, and the passengers later became the first ones "attacked" by the illusion of a monster.

Pic 4 and 5: The second time the monster illusions "attacked", Peter Parker's schoolmates were about to visit the painter DaVinci's museum but again, they couldn't engage with the art because it's closed.

Pic 6 and 7: The third time the illusions "attacked", Peter's friends didn't want to engage an Opera performance and goes on an escapist ride at the fun fair.

Pic 8 to 11: These continuous refusal to engage the "tools" and understand it eventually backfires. When the Villain creates the monster illusions, the film likened it to the performing arts - it was designed in a theatre auditorium complete with sets, special effects had to be cued, lines are fed to "actors" from the script and costumes prepped before "the show".

Pic 12 and 13: Eventually, what saved the day was Spiderman whom through his awareness (Spidey senses/Peter Tingle) was not deceived by the illusions. His friends too were saved once they entered and engaged the Crown Jewel Vault, a place of cultural significance.

Written on September 21st, 2021.