Spider-Man: Far From Home
I’m surprised at how many thoughts and opinions I wish to express over a film that I just found ‘pretty good’. I’ve seen a lot of hype around this film saying it is the best super hero film of the year (really? Did they see Avenger’s: Endgame?). I will say this is a thoroughly enjoyable, post major event film akin to last year’s Ant-man and Wasp, but by no means is it a fantastic movie. More of a coming off your sugar high from ‘Avengers:Endgame’ type of film. I will do my best not to give away too many spoilers, but I will warn in advance, there might be some minor ones.
Spider-man is unique in the film world as it is the only character that existed outside the MCU, before he was brought in (I am not counting Punisher or Howard the Duck for all the contradictory people out there). Most characters have seen stability amongst the actors who play them, but Spider-man has gone through several actors over the course of these many years. Most agree that Tom Holland was perfectly cast as the modern day web slinger.
So the question is ‘How does one top ‘Avenger’s: Endgame’? The answer is that you don’t. You make a smaller movie that is just fun and exciting. Not every film has to break records. The opening sequence cleverly goes about wrapping up the loose ends from ‘Endgame’ and explaining how life has gone on since everyone was brought back from the ‘Thanos snap’ (not to mention one of the funniest opening theme songs to any Marvel film). We are reminded that despite Peter Parker’s cosmic adventures he is still just a 16 year old high school kid who obsesses over things any 16 year old would. Most importantly, how does he get the girl he likes notice him? As with traditional Spider-man canon, Peter is trying to win the affections of Mary Jane Watson (completely miscast with a sullen Zendaya). He sees an opportunity to get closer to MJ on a European school trip as well as a long over due break from being Spider-Man.
I think most of this film’s charm is that it is primarily a teen romance movie that harkens hack to the John Hughes era. Despite being an Avenger who has faced Thanos, Peter still has the adolescent awkwardness of any high schooler trying to navigate his first school crush. Of course, this is a super-hero movie and and it isn’t long before Nick Fury (the beloved Samuel L Jackson) shows up to recruit Peter to help fight monstrous Elementals who have invaded our world from another dimension. Also from the same other dimension comes a hero who the Italians (the group’s trip starts in Italy) have labeled ‘Mysterio’. He seems to be powerful enough to take on the monsters, but with the dire warning that these Elementals are what destroyed his world.
Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhal, who ironically was originally cast as Spider-man before it was taken by Toby McGuire) was always a character that many fans thought would be impossible to adapt to the big screen, but I give Marvel credit as they captured his essence perfectly. Anyone familiar with this character in the books of Spider-man knows that all is not what it appears, so I will not further go into the story to preserve all the surprise twists and turns.
Marvel has done a great job at envisioning this version of Spider-man to the screen. My one complaint is that they over tech his suit to the point where he is almost Iron-man. Spider-man was never about cool tech (aside from his web shooters). I think all the next-gen tech distracts from the character, but that’s this man’s opinion. Given how much Tony Stark was referenced in this film (even to include Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan as a supporting character) and given how much Spider-man’s existence is based on Stark Industries support one expected to see Robert Downey Jr some where in this film. However, since RDJ’s contract is over, all we get is references to him.
After all is said and done, it is an exciting super-hero flick even if the teen romance angle seems to be a little frivolous albeit charming at times. There are a lot of fun throw backs to plot lines that dated back to the original Ironman movie and a lot of Easter eggs that hint where the future of the Marvel universe is headed. I think Tom Holland still has a few more years left before he ages out of the character, but I feel they have to work on the supporting characters a bit more. It will be interesting if they incorporate Miles Morales from last year’s animated (and superior) ‘Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse’ film. Given the introduction of the multi-verse in this film, it would only be a natural evolution to bring the Morales Spider-man to the live action MCU. I am going to be overly generous with my stars for this film as it was great fun, but I’m sticking with my original premise that it is only “pretty good”.
I give this film *** out of five.
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