Far From Home Jake Gyllenhaal is...Mysterio?

[Tony Stark]

I loved Mysterio! Absolutely LOVED this interpretation. He is right now my favorite Spidey villain in the films, and I don't say that lightly. There my be some objections to the origin of the character, but the way he acts, the way he is able to fight Spider-man is straight out of the comics. I loved the marketing for Mysterio because for those not familiar with him, are going to see exactly what makes him such a threat.

 

[Verbal21]

Yeah I’m sure that he’s the one creating the monsters. But illusions can’t cause damage so I’m not sure how they could be doing the things they’re doing unless there’s some sort of supernatural power going on here. I guess they could be robots but that would have to be some seriously sophisticated technology. Though maybe he did what Toomes did and hijacked some Chitauri tech.

It's an old quote but just goes to show how on top of their game the script writers were to make Mysterio's "powers" so believable in the MCU. I loved everything about him in this movie.

 

[MahvelBaby!]

They nailed it. I admit when the "reveal" first happens and that he starts doing his speech I wasn't sure I was on board...but good god by the end!?They nailed it.

 

[ironman29758]

They nailed the character to a tee. He felt like a natural addition of the MCU and worked as a threat of his own. It felt like they took the best elements of Mysterio (ultimate, His first few appearances, etc) and took it a to an eleven. Even the speech felt like natural Mysterio grandstanding in the best way possible.

 

[Schlosser85]

I like how randomly he ends up with the name “Mysterio”, and how proud he gets of it.

 

[Stringer]

I really enjoyed the character and any disappointment I had with the movie didn't have much to do with him.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

He is up there with Baron Zemo as one of the best MCU villains imo

I just am not seeing what others are, obviously. The production design aspect, yes, great realization of the character, and there are two sequences where I feel they did a confrontation between Spidey and Mysterio about as well as it could be done today... But I'm just not feeling him overall as a character. I felt personality wise he was flat, his motivations were just... Kinda there, and kinda derivative at this point both in the MCU as a whole but also in terms of MCU Spidey, and it's only the second film.

 

[JB-the-Hunter]

I just am not seeing what others are, obviously. The production design aspect, yes, great realization of the character, and there are two sequences where I feel they did a confrontation between Spidey and Mysterio about as well as it could be done today... But I'm just not feeling him overall as a character. I felt personality wise he was flat, his motivations were just... Kinda there, and kinda derivative at this point both in the MCU as a whole but also in terms of MCU Spidey, and it's only the second film.

What villain in the MCU actually has a truly unique motivation? Not even the best ones really do. Even considering that, his motivation isn't really that derivative. The cause of his motivation is similar to Killian in that he felt betrayed by Tony, but his actual motivation is nowhere to be seen in the MCU. He's someone that feels that his worth/contributions and his recognition aren't aligning and thinks that the only way to get the recognition he deserves is by "becoming" a superhero, which is very meta in the MCU. He essentially creates an amalgamation

HARD disagree on the personality aspect. His personality was almost better to me than his "powers". He comes off as a whiny, entitled, jerk film director. Complaining about everything and telling everyone what to do and Jake pulled it off beautifully.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

What villain in the MCU actually has a truly unique motivation? Not even the best ones really do. Even considering that, his motivation isn't really that derivative. The cause of his motivation is similar to Killian in that he felt betrayed by Tony, but his actual motivation is nowhere to be seen in the MCU. He's someone that feels that his worth/contributions and his recognition aren't aligning and thinks that the only way to get the recognition he deserves is by "becoming" a superhero, which is very meta in the MCU. He essentially creates an amalgamation

HARD disagree on the personality aspect. His personality was almost better to me than his "powers". He comes off as a whiny, entitled, jerk film director. Complaining about everything and telling everyone what to do and Jake pulled it off beautifully.

You already brought up Killian... But theres Whiplash, and then Hammer both in IM2. Ultron had a mad on against Stark too. And let's not forget that the previous MCU Spidey film had villain that... Felt ****ed over by Tony Stark and targeted his belongings and tech.

And as for the personality.... I didn't get ANYTHING from Jake in this part. It all felt flat and forced. It's all on paper but I didn't feel a single thing. He's just there and he says stuff but this is really, REALLY removed from Keaton's Vulture. Hell, they didn't even throw in some tasty ham with scenery chewing like Dafoe's Gobby. It was all flat, un-engaging and uninteresting to me with no new angle added beyond the illusion schtick, which is after all, baked into the character of Mysterio. I don't see what others currently are. He wasn't grand, or interesting or particularly entertaining to my eyes.

 

[Invader Joker]

His motivation in the comics is pretty lame too. They did the best with what they had and it was great.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

His motivation in the comics is pretty lame too. They did the best with what they had and it was great.

See... Look at the rebuild of Vulture. There I would say they actually made something really good that worked. Here... Eh... I don't get what some are saying is there. Even Jake's line readings are a big ball of "meh" to me. And he is a really good actor. But whatever they all were going for in this with the character didn't register for me. Fans are saying he was "great" and all I can see was that... He was there. he was a thing in this film. The film told me he was the villain... But I just didn't end up caring about anything. Compared to what was going on with Toomes and his crew which not only worked and was entertaining BEFORE we got the big reveal in the car ride to the dance, but works even more AFTER on rewatches. Keaton and the writing of that all made it work, made it resonant and above all entertaining. For me, Jake was boring as the part and the part as written was boring.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Yeah unfortunately I also have to agree with Krypton INC. on this one. In the costume Jake's Mysterio was dope, but I was never really feeling his performance in this. I liked him, but compared to Keaton's Vulture I was just not getting a whole lot of personality or menace from him. I mean compare any of his scenes to the car scene in Homecoming for instance, and I don't think he even comes anywhere close to that level of feeling like a genuine threat. It's cool that they kept him pretty faithful to his comic-book origins and I understand why fans are mostly pleased by what they got, but for me personally he just wasn't all that great of a villain IMO.

 

[Schlosser85]

I thought Gyllenhaal was obviously really enjoying himself especially after the reveal, and I thought he and Keaton were really solid consecutive villains.

 

[spider-neil]

Gyllenhall is ridiculously wooden in the first act of the movie. But in retrospect, I think that is by design

Spoiler

because he is acting

 

[Spidey_62]

Gyllenhall is ridiculously wooden in the first act of the movie. But in retrospect, I think that is by design

Spoiler

because he is acting

Absolutely, he totally flips the switch.

 

[Michael Frost]

I just came here to say this - not only was his characterization/motivation very on par with the comics, his suit a perfect translation but they actually went the extra mile and made an illusion sequence that felt ripped right out of the comics. Bravo. I felt like a kid again.

Spoiler

I just felt like they lacked a proper "boss battle" at the end. I thought he was going on about his suit to his assistant lady because he was about to get on it to fight Spiderman properly but then the movie was already wrapping up. I really hope that he faked his death as per his usual shenanigans, it's too good a villain to waste...

 

[Closerframe]

I think Mysterio is overrated. The fight sequences were awesome, but as others pointed out, when he's out of his costume, he's a pretty boring villain.

 

[Schlosser85]

Gyllenhall is ridiculously wooden in the first act of the movie. But in retrospect, I think that is by design

Spoiler

because he is acting

Absolutely, he totally flips the switch.

You can see the exact moment where the amount of fun he’s having shoots up to eleven.

 

[Verbal21]

Gyllenhall is ridiculously wooden in the first act of the movie. But in retrospect, I think that is by design

Spoiler

because he is acting

Since I “knew” it had to be an act, I remember laughing and thinking how over the top cheesy his lines were. To have thy one guy feeding him line’s was absolutely genius

 

[Stringer]

For me Gyllenhaal is always best when he's allowed to get weirder in a role and just isn't nearly as interesting when he's in default solid actor mode. In this movie he's in default mode which makes him fine, just uninteresting.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

When Gyllenhaal was first casted I got pretty excited, because I was hoping we would see something similar to what he brought to his role in Nightcrawler, but sadly we didn't get that. I get that that the two are very different, but I still wish we got to see at least a little bit of that same creepiness and menace that we saw before. His Quentin Beck is basically just another generic, psychopathic a-hole, and while that portrayal may be true to his comic-book roots on the bigscreen it just didn't make him all that compelling of a villain IMO.

 

[spider-neil]

When Gyllenhaal was first casted I got pretty excited, because I was hoping we would see something similar to what he brought to his role in Nightcrawler,

We absolutely did. In fact, I was thinking 'Nightcrawler' the entire time he was monologuing.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

We absolutely did. In fact, I was thinking 'Nightcrawler' the entire time he was monologuing.

Eh I didn't really care for that scene to be honest. It's cool if you really enjoyed it, but it came off a little too hokey and over the top for me. I also didn't like some of the reveals in that scene and how it felt kind of forced that his origin was so heavily tied to

Spoiler

Tony Stark.

 

[Invader Joker]

Why would you expect something similar to Nightcrawler? That performance is dark and it takes a whole movie entirely centered around his character to develop. What he did here was perfect for Mysterio and perfectly fits the tone of the film and the overall goofines of the character.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Why would you expect something similar to Nightcrawler? That performance is dark and it takes a whole movie entirely centered around his character to develop. What he did here was perfect for Mysterio and perfectly fits the tone of the film and the overall goofines of the character.

Like I said I understand that they are vastly different films, and maybe it is somewhat my fault for expecting something else, but I don't know I just think Gyllenhaal could have done a lot more with the character IMO than what we got. He's a pretty charismatic dude with a huge amount of talent, and yet so much of his performance in this movie relied on either flat monologues or goofy comedy which I was just not a big fan of. Now, I'm not that familiar with his character from the comics, but if you say that they nailed the goffiness of the Mysterio from the comics than that's cool, but unfortunately it just didn't quite work for me.