(l to r) Numan Acar, Tom Holland and Jacky Gyllenhaal in Columbia Pictures' SPIDER-MAN: ™ FAR FROM HOME
30-second review: Spider-Man: Far From Home has the same quirkiness that made Homecoming so successful, but a predictable plot and poor pacing keep it from reaching its predecessor's heights. However, it also gives us the best interpretation of the “with great power comes great responsibility” theme.
Tom Holland cements his place as the best actor to portray Spider-Man in Far From Home. But, as a whole, the movie has trouble balancing Peter's character development with its quirky tone and less than exciting plot. Although, it is still a delight to watch and Jake Gyllenhaal gives a wonderfully bizarre performance.
Where to watch Spider-Man: Far From Home: Now playing in wide release.
Don't forget to pack your suit. Full review below ?
Spider-Man: Far From Home mostly succeeds in its near-impossible task of following up Avengers: Endgame — one of the best entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and a quasi-series finale for the “Infinity Saga.” However, it's clear that the impact of the events of Endgame are going to weigh heavily on the franchise as it moves forward — for better or worse.
Picking up almost immediately after The Avengers defeat Thanos — losing a few beloved characters on the way — Far From Home does quick work of establishing us in a new reality. Thanos' snap, known as the blip, has certainly had a massive effect on the planet, but to the happy-go-lucky teen ensemble, all is the same. Other than the fact that half of their classmates have aged five years while they remained the same age.
Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is looking forward to a class trip across Europe to take some time away from being Spider-Man and, more importantly, finally profess his true feelings for MJ (Zendaya). Of course, not everything goes quite to plan.
Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) seeks Peter our to help a new superhero named Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) battle monsters made of the four elements — earth, fire, water, and air. However, he's hesitant to help. Partially because he's on vacation, but also because the image of a memorialized Tony Stark haunts him everywhere he goes.
Homecoming succeeded when it didn't try to be a Spider-Man movie and was instead a high school coming-of-age. Far From Home, on the other hand, works so well as a Spider-Man movie — one where Peter directly deals with the “with great power comes great responsibility” adage — but is bogged down by the same quirkiness that made Homecoming so great — Jacob Batalon does great work as Peter's geeky best friend Ned, but isn't given enough to do to make the same impact he did in the last film.
It doesn't help either that the first half of the film is jarringly paced as it races towards one of the least surprising twists in an MCU film. However, once that's out of the way, the second half has tons of fun moments, including an Inception-like action scene that is as impressive as it is terrifying and perfectly weird Gyllenhaal performance that just leaves you wanting more.
And though the movie doesn't completely work, it solidifies Tom Holland as the best incarnation of Spider-Man. Holland's ability to translate emotion on screen — and more importantly the emotion of a 16-year-old — carries the movie past the finish line. Where the movie fails in development, he makes up for in performance. Without a doubt, he's a movie star.
Far From Home isn't everything I hoped it would be. It's a middle tier entry in the franchise at best, but it does serve as a bridge between the past and the future of the MCU. Trust me, you're gonna want to stick around for the mid and post-credits scenes. Those scenes alone tell us what the MCU needs to do to continue working — it needs to break its own mold and start taking risks.
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Hey! I'm Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I'm also a Tomatometer-approved critic.
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