The tragic events of “Avengers: Endgame” has affected not just the audience, but in the movie’s perspective, Peter Parker, in “Spider-Man: Far From Home”. When comparing it to “Homecoming” two years ago, it kind of is a step down from that movie, but still director Jon Watts does deliver a really good package of fun and thrills in the MCU.
Spoiler alert! It ain’t going to touch “Into the Spider-Verse’s” delicate electricity.
Tom Holland reprises his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man after the loss of his mentor Tony Stark/Iron Man in “Avengers: Endgame”. It’s kind of fitting during the opening scene of the film with how they play Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” for a Tony Stark memorial montage at school.
His school starts to organize a two-week field trip to Europe for the summer and boy, does Peter deserve it after those emotional events.
Just when Peter is having his relaxation in the country of Europe doesn’t mean that he has freedom. Peter gets recruited by Nick Fury (obviously played by Samuel L. Jackson) and Mysterio (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) to face huge threats from another dimension.
Mysterio as seen from many TV spots and trailers plays as a good mentor and motivator to Spider-Man. Maybe he might be a mystery to Spider-Man after all, a truly painful mystery.
During vacation, Peter still gets triggered by the death of Tony Stark, which is a vital element this film pays attention to the best. Even Nick Fury gives him Tony Stark’s personal glasses he wore when dealing with technology.
Peter Parker doesn’t know if he is going to be the next Iron Man when connecting to his powers and attitude. Happy Hogan (obviously played by Jon Favreau) tells him in a conversation during one scene in the film that there will never be a Tony Stark.
Like I said before, “Far from Home” is a step down from that predecessor sometimes suffering from sequel-itis, but it still plays as a good enough stress-cooler to “Endgame”.
The causes would be that the humor can sort of be a hit or miss. It is sure that there are some funny moments here and there when Peter dresses up in black and his friends notice him as “Night Monkey” as well as the entitled “Blip” scenario where people come back 5 years older after getting disappeared by Thanos’ snap.
Some of the jokes mostly when the school staff is unaware of planning the Europe field trip can be absolutely cut out. Maybe at some points, but it does get old after a very long time.
Tony Revolori as Peter’s bully Flash Thompson once again is even more unfunny than “Homecoming” due to his deservedly small screen time in that installment. It is worse there. Help me.
Even though the relationship between MJ and Peter Parker (obviously played by Zendaya), there are some scenes involving them that could be cut out where it could be an entire sub-plot!
People are saying that “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron” are the MCU sequels that suffer the most sequel-itis?
I truly beg to differ.
“Spider-Man: Far from Home’s” main problem to me suffers pretty much the biggest case of sequel-itis in the MCU mostly with its humor within the first half of the film.
That doesn’t mean the rest of the film isn’t bad at all.
Tom Holland is always great as Peter Parker understanding what it truly means to be masculine as a superhero and going through more and more expertise obstacles. He still shows that he is the most confident Spider-Man ever. Even more than Tobey Maguire dancing to James Brown in “Spider-Man 3”.
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury is basically here to remind Peter Parker if he ignores his call or to recruit a special mission, which isn’t necessarily bad of course. He is still pretty funny nonetheless spitting out one-liners, which is usually Samuel’s favorite thing to do lately in films.
Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan again plays a sympathetic role in Peter Parker’s life very well. There are a couple touching scenes between him and Parker about Tony Stark’s death that fit appropriately in the film.
What might actually be the best aspect about this film is (one of my favorite actors) Jake Gyllenhaal playing Mysterio. Gyllenhaal definitely nails the supervillain aspects especially when mimicking Tony Stark and trying to replace him as the next best thing.
To be aware, I saw this in IMAX because the sequences when Peter Parker gets caught in a villainous Doctor Strange-style mind trip with Mysterio is mind-blowing to watch.
It is worth seeing it in IMAX alone.
Speaking of the visual effects, that is probably the only thing I can say the film does improve on. With scenes involving tsunami water falls and Mysterio battling (coincidence intended) the giant Water Elemental, Jon Watts makes us feel the film is more epic than “Homecoming” in full scale.
As some people would say, “Spider-Man: Far from Home” is another Spider-Man movie, but it is one that fits worthy and fresh despite itself suffering a disease of sequel-itis with its 129-runtime and humor.
Stay tuned during the credits especially the mid-credit scene. Your inner 2000’s childhood will scream in joy.
Grade: 7.5/10
