Just got back from Spider-Man.
I liked:
-The intro with the school news broadcast and how they succinctly wrap things up to remind you that it's 5 years in the future from the previous film. The tone of the first 5 minutes sets expectations well, since Spider-Man has always been a more jovial character. Lots of tongue-in-cheek stuff, too (Betty Brant says something about starting a 'new phase').
-JK Simmons, obviously. Even if it's just a cameo and they don't make him a full presence in the MCU, I'm happy to see him reprise the roll.
-When Peter is on the plane generating a new suit and he's manipulating the holograms and talking to the AI just like Tony, and Happy just smiles at him. It feels like a ton of foreshadowing and maybe one of the most significant scenes in terms of where the character is going, even though it was so brief.
-The explanations for how Mysterio pulled off his illusions work pretty well (in a comic book way, that is). Drones generating holograms to create massive monsters? Sure, why not. Plus, the trailers did a good job baiting us to think maybe he actually is a good-guy version of the character.
Indifferent:
-Mysterio mentions Earth-616 and talks about the multi-verse. We KNOW the primary Earth is 616, but Mysterio ended up being just a disgruntled former Stark employee. Are they actually going to do multi-verse stuff (which would be an easy, obvious way to get X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc into the MCU) and tie it into the Spider-Verse, or was that just some fan service?
-Fury was a Skrull the whole time? Well, a Skrull when he wasn't a hologram decoy?
-The massive hologram hallucination scene in the abandoned building felt a little too much like fighting Mysterio in old Spider-Man games. The explanation for the elemental monsters seems fine, but without Peter taking some psychedelics ala the Scarecrow, it felt like too much. It looked cool, though.
-Curious about why they say 'blipped' instead of 'snapped.'
I didn't like:
-the pacing. Peter goes from talking in his hotel room to Nick Fury to being ON A BOAT in his costume without any explanation. What happened to trying to lay low? There is some serious time-lapse between scenes and it feels kind of jarring to jump from scene to scene. MCU is usually better about this.
-He did a fine job with the role because he's a great actor, but Jake Gyllenhaal is too recognizable and I just see Donnie Darko every time I look at him.
-There was almost too much humor and slapstick. All the MCU films have it and Spider-Man in particular, but it was pretty non-stop, to the point of it being distracting.
ALSO
May says she reappeared in her apartment, the same place she snapped from. Are we to assume everyone returned to the same place they disappeared? Does this mean people who were on airplanes reappeared in the sky, but without a plane?