Spider-Man: Far From Home – Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio is one of the greats

Spider-Man: Far From Home is another hit for Marvel Studios, and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio deserves some of the credit. Spoilers ahead.

Spider-Man: Far From Home has been killing it at the box office. The movie brought in a record $27 million at the box office on a Wednesday, a record that was held by Avengers: Endgame. This isn’t shocking when a movie has a character as amazing as Spider-Man, proving again that tcomic book movie fatigue isn’t setting in as much as people believe. It also helps that the movie was phenomenal. It honestly felt like watching a Spider-Man comic book. Not only was the action good, but the character relied on his intelligence and wit more than we’ve seen in previous Spider-Man films.

We also got to see an awkward Peter Parker who continues to balance the life of a high school student with being a superhero. But one of the biggest surprises was Jake Gyllenhaal, who reminded everyone why he’s been one of Hollywood’s best actors for years. And what he did here was truly something special.

(l to r) Numan Acar, Tom Holland and Jacky Gyllenhaal in Columbia Pictures’ SPIDER-MAN: ™ FAR FROM HOME

WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME!

Not every comic book movie has a breakout performance. Thanos, Killmonger, and Loki are the first characters that come to mind. You can now add Jake Gyllenhaal to that list. Even if you weren’t a comic book fan, you could tell something was off and sinister about Quentin Beck (I called it, by the way). He just seemed too good to be true. He was overly dramatic and just happened to appear right when the Avengers were unavailable. While this may have been obvious, it didn’t diminish the role he played or how he revealed his true intentions. The actual reveal was done perfectly.

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The performance Beck and his friends put on with the illusions at the bar was terrific. As Beck was telling his origin story, you viewers understand where his bitterness was coming from. Tony Stark making a mockery of his invention was wrong, and as overlooked employees, it makes sense that Beck and his co-workers would feel shortchanged. Beck was even going to kill innocent people without hesitation to keep his secret safe. He’s the kind of villain we haven’t seen in a while, one who’s just flat-out evil.

Gyllenhaal was just as dramatic as Mysterio is in the comics. His illusions and speech while fighting Spider-Mann add to of why he was so great. Mysterio is dangerous because he can make people see and feel whatever he wants. Instead of bad special effects and smoke like in the comics, he used cutting edge technology, which was a nice update. If not for Spider-Man trusting his… “Peter Tingle,” Mysterio would have killed the web-slinger and his friends.

In the end, Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance will go down as one of the biggest and best surprises in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s become a common theme that villains are now relatable. Mysterio gave us the rollercoaster of feeling bad for him, loving him, and then hating him. Gyllenhaal and the writers should be applauded for their interpretation of the caracter. Don’t be shocked if he’s so well received that he’s asked to come back in a future film. He may even (somehow) be part of the Sinister Six in the future. Stranger things have happened.