COMING fresh off of the gripping and emotional heels of Avengers: Endgame, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Far From Home managers to act as both a palate cleanser and major setup for Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Delivering some of the best Spider-Man scenes we have ever had on the big screen, only the usual suspects of the MCU manage to hold back this satisfying entry.
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Far From Home opens with an awkward Peter Parker still trying to figure out his path after the tragic events of Avengers: Endgame. (SPOILER ALERT…but come on) With Tony Stark out of the picture the world needs a new Iron Man, and Peter finds that responsibility thrust upon him. Far From Home very much acts as another coming of age story for the young superhero, albeit from a different perspective.
After begrudgingly chatting with Nick Fury, Peter travels through Europe on his class field trip meeting Mysterio and the Elementals along the way. The rest of the movie involves Peter summoning his courage, protecting his friends, and defeating the Elementals. Hooray. Yup, nothing else. It ends right there. After defeating the villains with no build up in any of the trailers. The ones with no actors attached to them. The incredibly generic (in this movie at least) earth, fire, wind, and water monsters. Nothing else to see here folks. (SPOILER ALERT) If you do not want one of the most obvious twists in the history of superhero movies spoiled for you (one that happens pretty early on in the film), you should stop reading here.
Okay, so if you made it past the spoiler alert you were at least a little suspicious of a guy named Mysterio; good for you. Anyway, Jake Gyllenhaal puts on a wonderful performance as the main antagonist, excellently playing off of a vulnerable Peter Parker. The father-son dynamic between Tom Holland and Gyllenhaal comes through perfectly, and not much more could be asked of the duo.
The supporting cast including Peter’s classmates, MJ (played by Zendaya), and Nick Fury (more on him later) delivers competent to great performances throughout the movie. The soundtrack is the standard MCU fare, nothing too outstanding or noteworthy. There are some exciting shots, but again, nothing too out there. Camera framing plays it safe and sweet.
While you may shrug those technical aspects off as what you have come to expect from the MCU, the CGI disappoints. Barring the final two major set pieces of the movie, the CGI was surprisingly ineffective. Especially in the first half of the movie with the Elementals, it was not up to the standard Marvel’s universe has set. Several shots of Spider-Man swinging into frame looked flimsy and weightless, with other similar scenes receiving the same treatment. Far From Home manages to pull the effects together for the final act (and what an amazing, gorgeous, psychedelic finale it is), but the first half could have used more of the budget.
Continuing this first vs second half trend, the former also delivered most of the unfortunately poor jokes. Many MCU movies use quips as a crutch since they lack situational comedy, but Far From Home packs plenty of legitimately funny moments on its own. So it is surprising director Jon Watts felt the need to cram in as many quips as he did. The end result feels overbearing, with too many ineffective lines competing for your attention.
The final complaint comes down to Mysterio’s origin. It works in the thematic context of the film, but Marvel has gone to this well so many times before. Mixing it up would have cemented Mysterio as one of the MCU’s greatest one-off villains, instead of an only “very good” one.
Of course you will also want to stay for the two (one mid and one post) after credit scenes. Out of all of the MCU post credit scenes, these probably had the largest direct impact on the film they were attached to. The mid credits scene presents a hilarious cameo along with huge set up for the future of Spider-Man and Phase Four. The post credits scene delivers further Phase Four set up (and possibly some for a Captain Marvel sequel?), while also retroactively fixing some performances from earlier in the film. Whether it was entirely intentional or not, Samuel L. Jackson’s portrayal of Nick Fury becomes drastically better after watching the post credits scene.
Overall, Spider-Man: Far From Home delights. Minor technical and quipping issues do not hold back the shine of Marvel’s most popular comicbook hero. With excellent chemistry between the leads, legitimately well done situational comedy, breathtaking third act set pieces, and a bizarrely accurate portrayal of modern high-school students, you cannot help but smile through to the end. Far From Home is easy to recommenced to MCU die-hards and casual moviegoers alike (more so than most recent Marvel films).
