I have chosen to discuss Spider-Man: Far From Home, directed by Jon Watts and was first released in theatres on July 2nd 2019. Spider-Man: Far From Home starts off with Peter trying to take a step back from all the super hero business after the passing of his mentor and father figure Tony Stark. He jets off to Europe on a school trip with Ned, MJ and the rest of the gang, but its quickly interrupted by Nick Fury who wants to recruit him for a mission. They are under attack by a series of elemental creatures which are appearing across the continents and causing chaos, he soon partners up with Quentin Beck/ Mysterio to defeat them.
This particular movie can fit into a few genres such as action, science fiction, super hero. Far from Home fits in perfectly with the action genre as it follows along with all its basic characteristics, like having lots of physical stunts, chase scenes, battles/fights destructive disasters, escapes and non-stop motion. Also with using close-up, insert shots, high key lighting and having a dominant male/female action hero, within this film that person would be Peter Parker. A key scene to support this is the Italy water monster fight scene, where in the transcript it says “Peter Parker jumps across poles in the water and launches himself up onto the bridge by leaping off a paddle.” This scene is quite intense and requires many physical stunts and CGI editing. It also suits the characteristics of science fiction genre due to the expert film production design, the use of advanced/ futuristic technology, shadowy dark villains, impossible quests, distant planets/ dimensions. With technical codes it follows and suits them well, the use of low key lighting, wide angle shots to show locations, CGI, a scene that I feel fully shows this is when Peter is first properly introduced to Quentin Beck, Beck says to Peter “There are multiple realities, Peter. This is Earth, Dimension 616, I’m from Earth 833.” This conversation continues and they are looking at an interactive hologram board, which is obviously very futuristic. The last main genre I’d say the movie obviously fits into is super hero genre, this entire movie and the cinematic universe it is from is based off of the marvel comics. Peter Parker is the typical superhero having a secret identity, alter ego with special skills and a sad back story and a moral code. Super hero films usually have glossy production values, expensive CGI, lots of special effects and sets, makeup and costuming. Many scenes through-out the movie can support this. One that came to mind was the beginning of the fight scene in Italy when Peter says to Ned “Because I’m on vacation, Ned! Everyone’s gonna see my face, just get them outta here.” As peter has a limited amount of people who know his real identify like usual for superheroes he’s scared people find him out.
Far From Home I would say does indeed follow a classic hollywood narrative in the way that the storyline is conventional and linear structure. A narrative theorist whose narrative structure this movie would fit into is Vogler and his heroes journey theory. Vogler’s 12 stages is very influential and used in quite a lot of Hollywood movies, the 12 stages are 1, ordinary world, 2 call to adventure, 3 refusal of the call, 4 meeting with the mentor, 5 crossing the threshold, 6 tests, allies and enemies, 7 approach to the inmost cave, 8 supreme ordeal, 9 reward (seizing the sword), 10 the road back, 11 resurrection and finally 12 return with the elixir. In Far From Home the events happening in these stages I would say are 1 back normality after the blip attending school, 2 deciding to go to Europe with school and classmates, 3 refusing nick fury’s ask for help against an unknown evil, 4meeting in Italy with the team, 5 the first fight in Italy where he goes from peter parker to spider-man, 6 the continuous battles with the different elementals, 7 in Prague when MJ finds out he’s spider-man and they realise Mysterio isn’t who they thought he was, 8 gets stuck in Mysterios illusions,gets hit by a train and stuck in the Netherlands, 9 surviving the ordeal, 10 gets picked up by Happy, they have a heart to heart and he comes to his senses overcoming the loss of Tony and creating his own suit, 11 the final battle in London, 12 finally getting with MJ and travelling back to New York. Another theorist to briefly mention would be Levi Strauss and his binary oppositions, as this story follows along with the good vs bad storyline.
The use of editing, camera techniques and lighting is extremely important throughout this movie in order to capture the super hero aesthetic. The lighting through the movie differs sometimes being very dramatic in order to help show the seriousness of certain scenes, and sometimes being light to show the happiness and light heartedness of a scene and high key lighting is also used. Many camera angles are used some of the main that spring to mind are up close, insert shots, whip pans which are able to catch the very fast paced scenes, wide shots and aerial shots are used in capturing locations and action shots and the last angle ill mention is the canted angle this was perfectly used in an illusion scene to show peters unstable mind while Beck is messing with in and changing his realities. Editing plays a massive role in this movie as to achieve the desired look to fight scenes, suits, locations etc a lot of CGI, animation and matte painting will have to be done. The editing pace is very important in this movie as there is many chases/ action scenes which play a key part in the narrative.
The voice and point of view within this film was third person narration, the story followed along the main protagonist Peter Parker. We see the majorityin this movie from Peter’s point of view, but occasionally we switch to Mysterio’s pov to see a broader perspective of his menacing plans that Peter is still unaware of.
Information within this film is communicated to the audience using a variety of mise en scene and semiotic techniques. In this film colour is used to help communicate the tone of the scene for example when the colour is vibrant it shows Peter/ Spider-mans youthful personality and when colours are dark it communicates the seriousness, depressing and sad scenes. Miseen scene is made up of several elements and some of these were very important in the movie as a whole. Settings and props were principle, some key props that played a massive part in telling the story were the E.D.I.T.H glasses and the black dehliah necklace, the necklace was a part in peters plan to get mj, and we follow it through the story until he is able to finally give her it. Costume and hair and makeup are heavily involved in getting across scenes, for examples the spidey suits, and the makeup in showing emotions like sadness, hurt etc. Facial expressions and body language were necessary in communicating the emotions of the characters while they were not speaking, for example in the plane scene with Happy and Peter, we can clearly see that Peter is physically and mentally drained due to his teary eyes and forlorn expression. The icons in this film would be the spider-man suits, the high-tech gadgets, webshooters, his character poses, his spider logo as these are all things recognisable in most super hero movies it makes the character who he is.
There is a lot of dramatic non-diagetic sounds used to portray the suspense and to help create the mood, for example the last scene of the battle with beck and peter a melancholy sound is played to show the feeling of sadness and the pensive atmosphere. Diagetic sounds play in a massive role in showing the fight scenes, the sounds of the drones, the other people speaking while they are on their way to the ophra all aids in building the atmosphere, setting the scene. The dialogue helps us form bonds with the characters as if allows us to understand them, who they are as people. It helps to further the plot by foreshadowing, like we knew beck wasn’t finished and he had something left to do. Although the dialogue is sneaky in the revealing of a character in this film as we don’t actually realise that Beck is actually a villain until much later on.
The most key symbols are the E.D.I.T.H glasses and his spidey suits, this is because they hold so much meaning and help in the narration of the central message of the film. The central message of the text is Peter trying to find his own identity being Spider-Man without Tony to guide him anymore. It focuses in on Peter’s emotions and struggles, he feels as though he doesn’t compare to Tony, he doesn’t know how to be a hero without him and by the end he realises he needs to stop comparing himself and he is able to save the world without him. The glasses and the spidey suits help tell this story as the glasses were left to him by Tony and although it takes him time to realise it symbols him effectively passing down the torch to Peter. The plane scene traveling to London was a symbolic turning point of Peter because this is when he finally realises he can do it, and makes his own suit, Happy gazes at him and it just shows that he’s proud of him and can see the Tony in him. The settings and locations are important to the story as they keep the story exciting and appealing to watch as they’re visiting all the typical tourist attractions. The time period and the society mirrors the present time well, everything is realistic apart from all the futuristic technology.
Inconclusion this story follows the classic Hollywood narrative and uses a range of techniques to achieve the super hero aesthetic it desires, it is very enjoyable to watch and action packed.
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