Review: Spider-Man - Far From Home

This review will contain spoilers for Avengers: Endgame. If you’re one of the 17 people on the planet not to have seen it yet then you’ve only yourself to blame going forward.

After his blazing debut in Civil War three years ago, his own stellar MCU outing and breaking down millions with his final words in Infinity War, a lot was riding on Far From Home. Not only to see if Marvel could pull off another great Spider-Man film, but to deal with the ramifications of Endgame and close out the final chapter of Phase 3. But of course Marvel have been on a fucking hot-streaks since 2014 and Far From Home is another solid entry for the web-slinger and sets up a few interesting threads for the MCU to pick up in the future.

(Last chance for Endgame spoilers, you’ve been warned)

Set eight months after the Avengers defeated Thanos and brought back everyone who was ‘Snapped’ in an event known as The Blip’, the world is coming to terms with A) The trillions of lives that have suddenly entered it and B) The five year time gap between who left and those who stayed. Luckily all the named characters in Peter’s class including himself, Ned, MJ, Betty and Flash were all snapped so they’ve all stayed the same age though all are still freaked out by the little kids that have grown up and joined their classes since they left. To keep things calm, the school organises a two-week trip around Europe for Peter’s class which he sees an excellent opportunity to get a break from being a Superhero and get the chance to try and tell MJ that he likes her.

Of course things are never than easy and in Venice the class is attacked by a giant monster made of water who is defeated by a mysterious man wearing a fishbowl. Not long afterwards, Nick Fury takes Peter away from his classmates and introduces the man as Quentin Beck, a hero from a different dimension who explains that the water monster was one of a group called ‘Elementals’ who destroyed Beck’s home-world and killed his family, now here on Peter’s world he vows to not let them win again. Now Peter is stuck between wanting to forget the hero nonsense and enjoy time with MJ, wanting to not let Tony’s memory go to waste and risk people dying and figuring how just how much he can trust his new friend Beck.

There’s a good story here, think European Vacation by way of a comic-book movie, the comedic aspects worked to ground Peter in the reality of the MCU with his awkwardly endearing romance with MJ and dealing with important issues like his best friends girlfriend and getting stopped by airport security while the comic-book stuff kicks in the actions against the massive elemental monsters while also delving into some sci-fi backstabbing in the second half. It is lacking that kick that Homecoming brought with the Michael Keaton reveal but it’s still a very enjoyable plot and the surprise tie-in to previous MCU films does wonders to remind you how interconnected everything is AND sets up Beck’s technology to work in universe without feeling like it’s out of the blue.

Also the mid-credits scene has to rank as one of the best Marvel has done, not only for what it sets-up but for having one of the greatest cameo appearance in the MCU to date.

As expected the characters work is great, I would’ve liked to have seen more of Ned after his breakout turn in Homecoming but given Peter’s isolation it made sense for Ned to be more to the sidelines here, plus his relationship humour with Betty was that great blend of sickly sweet and just plain nauseous that it brought a lot of humour to the film. Likewise Flash seemed to have much less to do here but his Spider-Man obsession mixed with his bullying of Peter was a nice touch, apparently brought over from the comics but now with Flash being an instagram douchebag it had a nice social media element to the character.

Zendaya role as Michelle is expanded upon nicely here, where in Homecoming she was this oddball character who appeared out of nowhere and clearly didn’t give a shit, now that she’s officially the MCU’s MJ her and Peter get the chance to have some good scenes together. And maybe it’s just me and the fact that I’m a sucker for this shit but I thought the two of them worked well together, giving one of the better couplings of the franchise with something so endearingly awkward about their scenes together. Of course none of this took away from Michelle as her own character, as freaky and dark-minded as she was with a liking to unsolved murders and executions, but instead her crush on Peter softened her a little bit while not aping the Mary Jane character from the comics or the Raimi films.

Sam Jackson and Cobie Smulders return as Nick Fury and Maria Hill respectively, having both been snapped they’re dealing with a world where they no longer no all the secrets and having lost Stark and Rodgers they’re looking for the next big hero which is why they take to Beck. Neither of them have big roles in the film and once you find out what their real plan is during the post-credit scene it has you re-evaluate a few things but it’s nice to see part of SHIELD still active and Jackson is a lot of fun being constantly pissed off at Parker for brushing him off.

Jake Gyllenhaal – marking the third and final Zodiac main character to make it to the MCU – takes on Quentin Beck, known better as Mysterio. Not to slight against Gyllenhaal, who’s great in the role and I’ll get to why in a moment, but I think the first half of this film suffers slightly because most people – or I’m assuming most people – know that Mysterio is the villain so it’s just a case of waiting for the shoe to drop, it’s not bad and I liked that they gave Peter plenty of reasons to trust him, it just sullies the experience slightly waiting for the turn. But when it happens, it’s great, the backstory is a little familiar (especially to other MCU villains) but Gyllenhaal lets loose once he’s no longer hiding and makes Mysterio into this pretentious, overconfident dick and it’s a lot of fun to watch. Once he starts using his tech against Peter – just look at what he does to end their fight in Berlin – the film kicks things up a gear, any doubts anyone had about how they would be able to adapt Beck into the MCU reality can have their doubts quashed, cause they nail it.

And of course, Tom Holland makes his claim for the best Spider-Man to date with another incredible turn. Something they’ve never done before with the character – at least film wise – is play up how young Peter actually is, he’s a 16 year old kid, he’s died, he’s come back to life, he’s watched the closest thing he has to a father figure die in front of his eyes, dude’s entitled to a little R&R. You never think that Peter’s selfish for wanting to avoid noting to do with Fury or the Elementals, part of it is the fact that he does just want to relax but also he believes that Beck can handle it all and there really doesn’t need to be a Spider-Man, at least not in Europe. It’s his trusting nature that makes Peter stand out, other than Cap there’s really hasn’t been anyone who’s gone through as much shit as Peter and still holds true as a positive person, at the same time that positivity is marked with slight naivety and both work wonders with Parker as a young hero trying to do the right thing but having absolutely no idea what the right thing is. The scene where Peter breaks down in front of Happy on the plane is up there with the Under The Rubble scene from Homecoming as to why Holland has proved himself the perfect choice for Parker.

Also returning is Jon Watts to the directing chair and he’s proved to be a solid choice, only time will tell if he can pull off a Gunn and do the full MCU trilogy. Obviously action wise it’s a Marvel movie, it’s a lot of fun with the big Elemental battle in the second act being a standout for how well Spidey and Mysterio worked with each other to take on what was essentially a massive body of lava with the added worry and metal making the damn thing stronger, then after the Mysterio reveal, the finale in London against Stormzy bringing an absolutely insane amount of carnage. Funnily enough though, the Elementals weren’t the best action scene of the film, that honour goes the Berlin fight between Spidey and Beck when Beck turns his tech against Parker. It’s a fucking trip to watch what happens and I’m not going to spoil it all here, because what Peter goes up against and how Beck is able to correlate his imagery against the real world is very clever and definitely helps showcase one of the better Mind Over Might villains of the MCU.

Of course Watts also blends in a lot of humour, particularly with the strangers in a strange land element, be it Peter’s teachers not really knowing how to handle a class of teenagers abroad or the running joke of classmate Brad trying to woo MJ and getting really suspicious of how iffy Peter is looking and yet seems to be getting away with it. Following the heavy nature of Endgame this is some well-needed levity – the opening memoriam montage sets the stage damn near perfectly – and even amongst the mayhem there’s plenty to laugh about. I get the sense that Watts understands how to balance the teenaged Spider-Man against the teenager Peter Parker, Spider-Man has to deal with losing Tony Stark, trying to save the world and worry about the people he loves while Peter Parker makes masturbation jokes and doesn’t know the difference between rock bands. It’s that blend of both sides that not only sets Holland apart as the best Spider-Man actor, but gives Watts the credit to be one of the best Spider-Man directors.

Thinking about it, I think Homecoming gets a slight edge, something about it hit me in a better spot but that doesn’t mean Far From Home is a bad film, in fact it’s a pretty great one. Taking a post Endgame world and post Iron Man Parker and giving them both a chance to relax that never comes works brilliantly to round out the final moments of The Infinity Saga. Holland once again proves himself funny, emotional and awkwardly amazing as both Parker and Spider-Man and while Gyllenhaal’s Beck does take some time to come out swinging, when he does he sets himself up as one of the better Marvel villains and Watts adds levity, action and psychedelic trips to a world that needed something to calm themselves down.

8/10