held-nosed and full of dread. I was looking forward to it—and indeed much of the movie proves fun, in the way all these slick and amiable features are. But it is a little annoying how the film smirks and winks as if it’s in on the fatigue, offering an illusion of cool when at heart it’s as slavishly on-message as everything else.
Plenty of big stars have shown up to play roles in various Avengers movies, but something about Gyllenhaal’s specific presence brings a dark meta tinge to the whole thing—this fallen Prince of Persia here to warn us about the dangers of franchise worship. Sort of, anyway. His cause is lost in the end, announcing a new phase of MCU hegemony, one so high on its omnipotence—so emboldened by it—that it assumes, maybe correctly, that its domination is total. This is the world we live in now.
All that flexing doesn’t always sync up well with Peter’s milder social and romantic concerns. Holland is as charming as ever, bright and sincere. But what, really, does one person’s story mean when existence is so constantly threatened?tries to make a case for the littler things, deftly employing Holland and Zendaya’s fumbling chemistry and giving side characters goofy, winning business to play.