Movie Review: ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home,’ Starring; Tom Holland, Zendaya

Be forewarned, I’m going to openly reference the closing events of Avengers: Endgame in this review, as this film tackles its repercussions quite heavily and leans toward building the future of the MCU and phase four. I can’t imagine you’re reading this review without having seen Endgame by now, but you have been warned. If you don’t want Marvel’s epic conclusion to its ten years of build up spoiled, turn away now.

From being dusted in Avengers: Infinity War, to headlining his own incredible Playstation 4 exclusive game, to an Academy Award winning animated feature and finally returning to life in the MCU’s epic Avengers: Endgame, it’s been quite the year for the character of Spider-Man on the big and small screens.

It’s no different with the final film in phase three of the MCU, Spider-Man: Far From Home, where Peter is grieving over the loss of his mentor and world renowned superhero Tony Stark. Yes, you’d think Endgame would be the be-all-end-all of everything, but this film fits in perfectly to its role in living in the aftermath and preparing for the future of both Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and the MCU overall. You see, Tony believed in Peter to be something greater and in just a few movies, that fatherly love shined bright enough for the viewer to believe him, and this film explores the pressures Peter faces in filling those shoes and dealing with his death.

On top of everything, Peter just wants a break from fighting crime and saving the world – and a school trip overseas just happens to be conveniently timed for him to get away from it all. Off to Europe he and his classmates go to explore the beautiful cities of Venice and London where he hopes to spend some quality time trying to woo his crush, MJ (Zendaya), who’s developed into a very quirky and charming character. Of course, a silly little love triangle is created when the film introduces Brad Davis (Remy Hii), who was five years younger before the snap in Infinity War, but grew while those who were dusted were…well, dust.

The film does a stellar job catching the viewer up on what happened post-snap in the opening minutes, as well, calling it “the blip” where suddenly everybody began coming back after the events of Endgame. This sets up a few laughs but more importantly answers some lingering questions viewers had regarding all the aftereffects of bringing everyone back.

Of course, going overseas doesn’t stop Peter from running into trouble, as he’d hoped it would. Only this time, trouble is in the shape of a giant water elemental reeking havoc on the city of Venice. Enter Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal), aka Mysterio as the film cleverly finds a way to name him, to assist Peter in stopping it from destroying the city. Beck is working with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), whom Peter is actively trying to avoid, and trying to prevent the same result on “this Earth” as what happened on “his Earth.” Yes, we’re talking about a multiverse, as he explains.

I’d be remiss to not mention that I felt the film did start off a bit rocky for me, jumping from all sorts of different catch-up material so to speak, before finally diving into the story the film wants to tell. Once Mysterio is introduced and his motives become clear, however, the film takes off and never looks back. The action pieces are top-notch and probably the best that I can recall ever seeing in a Spider-Man film. A couple of the sequences had me in total awe and will surely have even bigger Spider-Man fans drooling.

Holland continues to shine as Peter and I can only hope that he continues to fill the webslinger role for years to come. He’s twenty three years old and does everything right in portraying a believable sixteen year old with a lot on his plate. Fans are probably tired of hearing it, but the pressure of “with great power comes great responsibility” rests steady on his shoulders and Holland’s ability to showcase the stress that Peter is enduring in balancing everything around him is nothing short of incredible.

Spider-Man: Far From Home is everything I’d hoped it would be and more. Despite having a pretty good idea where the story was going to go months ahead of time, the way it unfolded onscreen was never less engaging. The film was elevated by Holland and Gyllenhaal’s performances and will go down as one of the best Spider-Man movies to date – at least in my opinion.

A

*Make sure to stay for both an incredible mid-credit surprise and set-up scene AND a lite post-credit gag.