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| Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Far from Home. Image courtesy Columbia Pictures. |
Spider-Man:
Far from Home's
biggest success is simply not dropping the ball following one of the
biggest movies of all time. It's breezy and funny, pretty well
written with an inspired villain for the young webslinger to tangle
against. Yet it still feels slightly hollow in comparison to the
gravitas of the film preceding it in the Marvel franchise and the
excellent Spider-Man movie that came out just six months prior. Good
is a fine thing for any movie to be – many movies aspire to meet
that expectation – but Far
from Home would
rather be good than aspire for greatness.
Months
after the events of Avengers:
End Game,
Far
from Home
shows what has happened to the world following the Hulk's un-snapping
(called the blip in this movie). Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is forced
to start the school year over again with his best friend Ned (Jacob
Batalon), his crush MJ (Zendaya), Ned's new girlfriend Betty
(Angourie Rice), the hunky Brad Davis (Remy Hii), and the
disgustingly wealthy Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori). As they travel
to Europe on a class trip, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) recruits
Peter to fight alongside the peculiar Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) to
stop the final Elemental monster from destroying the world. As Peter
battles an unknown villain, he grapples with his feelings for MJ, the
budding romance between Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and Happy Hogan (Jon
Favreau), and his doubts that he is qualified to replace Iron Man.
In terms of character development
giving Spider-Man an epic case of self doubt makes sense. Despite
battling Thanos and traveling through space, Spider-Man hasn't really
proven himself against a large-scale villain. He's still just a kid
from New York, more accustomed to fighting muggers and thieves and
the parents of his crushes instead of world-destroying monsters. Add
in the pressure of replacing Iron Man (and to a degree Captain
America) and it produces a kid who really just wants to be on
vacation and be honest with his crush. Spider-Man's battle is as much
against the villains as it is against himself as he searches for his
true self, and it's a narrative the film does well to mine to
differentiate this Peter Parker from previous iterations.
Truth
though is a hard thing to find in Far
from Home.
The film dedicates ample time to exploring the subject both in
Peter's dive into his inner truth and the loss of a true reality for
people to grab onto. Nothing in this movie is as it seems, and it
becomes more and more difficult to parse out the real from the
manufactured. As one character references as the film ends, the
people will believe what they want them to believe because they
control the narrative. Endless points about the modern state of media
and the inability to believe the narrators can be tossed right in
here, but for the film it's a pretty clever way of building suspense
and giving Spider-Man a new sort of villain to fight. This also
contrasts nicely to Spider-Man's inherent decency. His first instinct
is to believe in sincerity; a villain that takes advantage of that is
one capable of rocking Spider-Man's worldview.
The
film's psychology is far more interesting than the action sequences.
Far
from Home
doesn't get a lot of traction from the fight scenes with the
Elementals, as the choreography is mundane and shot with little craft
or care. The villain is a part of the issue on this – the villain
isn't much of a fighter – which leaves few if any opportunities for
Spider-Man to brawl. This should be the character's specialty, as the
webs are designed to bring the fight to him and not as a projectile
to launch like Thor's lightning or even Captain America's shield. The
film went for big on its action sequences, but exchanging
practicality for grandiosity does the character a disservice. The
movie would be far more satisfying if Spider-Man could just punch a
guy every now and then.
Admittedly
the film's greatest failing is one that can't be helped – being
released six months after Spider-Man:
Into the Spider-Verse.
Far
from Home
just can't compare to the brilliance of Into
the Spider-Verse,
and it feels a bit lacking as a film because audiences have already
seen a better, more interesting portrayal of this character. The
comparison isn't completely off base – Far
from Home
references and gently mocks the premise for Into
the Spider-Verse, which
isn't a favorable look for the former film. Far
from Home
is a little underwhelming, which fits a franchise about trying to
live up to expectations.
There's
still a lot to like about Far
from Home.
Portraying MJ as a smart, morbid, awkward teen is a smart reinvention
for the character fitting both the actress and the tone of the film.
The breezy tone is a nice shift following End
Game,
a nice treat after the three-hour marathon of the last Avengers
movie. Far
from Home
is the walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth; it's not quite a
home run, but it's more than enough to win the game.
Review: Four out of Five Stars
Click here to see the trailer.
Rating: PG-13
Run time: 129 minutes
Genre: Action
tl;dr
What
Worked: Humor,
Jake Gyllenhaal, Zendaya
What
Fell Short: Action
Sequences, Length
What
To Watch As Well:
Spider-Man:
Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming
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