No Spoilers, sort of (there are some big ones from Avengers: Endgame, for the seven Earthlings who haven't seen that movie yet)
Director: Jon Watts
The Marvel Cinematic Universe just keeps the hits coming, much to the delight of fans like me and the deep chagrin of those who see superhero movies as a blight on the cinematic landscape. Far from Home only solidifies Disney and Marvel's death grip on the blockbuster scene, as it offers yet another blast of a fantasy/action film that points the massive MCU towards its future after the landscape-altering mammoth movie Avengers: Endgame from two months prior. And while it certainly relies on several previous MCU films to convey its fullest effects, it is also a genuinely fun film on its many smaller, more intimate levels.
Picking up roughly eight months after half of the galaxy's living beings have been returned from the "Death Snap" of Thanos, as chronicled in Endgame, Peter Parker and several of his classmates are finishing up their five-year-delayed junior year of high school with a trip to Europe. Unbeknownst to nearly any of his friends, Peter is also dealing with the weight of the loss of his mentor, Tony "Iron Man" Stark. As he is dealing with the pull between the looming responsibilities that Stark bestowed upon him and his desire to live a normal teenager's life, a strange new threat arises in the form of massive elemental creatures attacking various cities around the globe. Attempting to deal with this threat is a newcomer to the superhero game - Quentin Beck, a man who explains that he is from an alternate, parallel universe which was destroyed by the same elemental monsters which threaten to do the same to Peter's earth.
Far from Home was wonderfully entertaining. Maintaining the vibe and buoyancy of the first film, Homecoming, this is definitely one of the most touching, down-to-earth films in the MCU. It's much more in tune with the small-scale charm of Ant-Man than the rollicking, ensemble-cast smash-ups of Avengers: Age of Ultron or even the Guardians of the Galaxy films. I find Tom Holland to be the best Peter Parker yet, no disrespect to Toby McGuire or Andrew Garfield, who did well in their turns as the web-slinger. But Holland brings all of the sweetness, awkwardness, and acrobatics to the role that one could ask. It also helps that the film once again offers a fantastic supporting cast. From Samuel L. Jackson to Jake Gyllenhaal, to the many lesser-known but highly capable talents like Jacob Batalon as best friend Nick or Zandaya as clever love interest MJ, there's not one character who feels out of place or doesn't bring some good laughs.
The story itself is another strong one - maybe one of the better ones in the MCU, in terms of taking some fun turns and offering a few new directions for the Parker character. If one is familiar with the comic books (I was a massive Spider-Man fan when I was younger) or recent cartoons, then certain revelations in the plot will be far less surprising. But even for someone like me, who could mostly see them coming, it is impressive to see how the writers pulled it off. The visual effects, like all MCU movies, are top-notch. More importantly, they are actually used to great effect in two particular sequences, the details of which I will refrain from offering, just to keep from spoiling anything.
The one criticism I can level at Far from Home is essentially the same one that we can level at every MCU movie, to varying degrees, since the films started building their "shared universe" in earnest, way back in Iron Man 2 in 2010. One cannot fully enjoy this movie without having seen several of the earlier movies in the MCU. If you haven't, then several characters, important and minor, will feel bafflingly enigmatic. If you don't know the full story of Happy Hogan from the Iron Man films or Nick Fury and Maria Hill from a good half-dozen MCU movies, then you'll certainly have a "late to the party" feeling. And no really good movie should do that to its viewers. Devoted fans like me love the inter-connectedness of the MCU, but it ultimately kills the chances that they will ever be able to do a truly stand-alone movie again.
This movie will definitely please fans of the MCU, just as it will please fans of Spider-Man who aren't as dedicated to the 23-films-and-counting sprawl of the MCU. Much more casual fans will likely be entertained by the spectacle and the humor of the movie, but they should expect to be confused by characters and plot threads that have been developed in earlier movies.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe just keeps the hits coming, much to the delight of fans like me and the deep chagrin of those who see superhero movies as a blight on the cinematic landscape. Far from Home only solidifies Disney and Marvel's death grip on the blockbuster scene, as it offers yet another blast of a fantasy/action film that points the massive MCU towards its future after the landscape-altering mammoth movie Avengers: Endgame from two months prior. And while it certainly relies on several previous MCU films to convey its fullest effects, it is also a genuinely fun film on its many smaller, more intimate levels.
Picking up roughly eight months after half of the galaxy's living beings have been returned from the "Death Snap" of Thanos, as chronicled in Endgame, Peter Parker and several of his classmates are finishing up their five-year-delayed junior year of high school with a trip to Europe. Unbeknownst to nearly any of his friends, Peter is also dealing with the weight of the loss of his mentor, Tony "Iron Man" Stark. As he is dealing with the pull between the looming responsibilities that Stark bestowed upon him and his desire to live a normal teenager's life, a strange new threat arises in the form of massive elemental creatures attacking various cities around the globe. Attempting to deal with this threat is a newcomer to the superhero game - Quentin Beck, a man who explains that he is from an alternate, parallel universe which was destroyed by the same elemental monsters which threaten to do the same to Peter's earth.
Far from Home was wonderfully entertaining. Maintaining the vibe and buoyancy of the first film, Homecoming, this is definitely one of the most touching, down-to-earth films in the MCU. It's much more in tune with the small-scale charm of Ant-Man than the rollicking, ensemble-cast smash-ups of Avengers: Age of Ultron or even the Guardians of the Galaxy films. I find Tom Holland to be the best Peter Parker yet, no disrespect to Toby McGuire or Andrew Garfield, who did well in their turns as the web-slinger. But Holland brings all of the sweetness, awkwardness, and acrobatics to the role that one could ask. It also helps that the film once again offers a fantastic supporting cast. From Samuel L. Jackson to Jake Gyllenhaal, to the many lesser-known but highly capable talents like Jacob Batalon as best friend Nick or Zandaya as clever love interest MJ, there's not one character who feels out of place or doesn't bring some good laughs.
The story itself is another strong one - maybe one of the better ones in the MCU, in terms of taking some fun turns and offering a few new directions for the Parker character. If one is familiar with the comic books (I was a massive Spider-Man fan when I was younger) or recent cartoons, then certain revelations in the plot will be far less surprising. But even for someone like me, who could mostly see them coming, it is impressive to see how the writers pulled it off. The visual effects, like all MCU movies, are top-notch. More importantly, they are actually used to great effect in two particular sequences, the details of which I will refrain from offering, just to keep from spoiling anything.
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| Nick Fury's presence highlights the double-edged sword of a shared film universe: you can bring back great characters and tell longer and more complex stories, but it stunts each individual movie's ability to be its own story. |
This movie will definitely please fans of the MCU, just as it will please fans of Spider-Man who aren't as dedicated to the 23-films-and-counting sprawl of the MCU. Much more casual fans will likely be entertained by the spectacle and the humor of the movie, but they should expect to be confused by characters and plot threads that have been developed in earlier movies.
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