REVIEW: Spider-Man: Far From Home Heads Overseas for Fun Adventure
Spider-Man may be the heart of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After the hard-hitting impact of Avengers: Endgame in April, Spider-Man: Far from Home finds Peter Parker wanting to be a normal teenager.He’s planned to spend his Summer traveling Europe with his classmates and hopefully gathering the courage to tell the girl he likes how he feels. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has other plans for our young hero. Nick enlists Peter to help him, Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and the MCU’s newest character, Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) to stop The Elementals. The Elementals are mythical characters that are set to destroy Earth. Reluctantly, Peter helps but, like most Marvel movies, this mission turns out to be more than what meets the eye.
Far from Home nicely balances the superhero action with a teenage love story. The superhero part is a little disjointed at certain points, but overall the story is funny, fast paced, and a touch emotional. Peter is dealing with many emotions since “The Blip” or, as fans like to call it, “The Snap”. Tom Holland does a fantastic job conveying each emotion and is at his greatest in this movie when he is showing off Peter’s awkward side and that occurs a lot. Scenes where Peter is interacting with MJ (Zendaya) are the most adorably awkward. Tom and Zendaya have amazing chemistry and play off each other extremely well. It is obvious when they are acting together their characters enjoy one another and it is obvious they enjoy each other in real-life, too.
Jon Watts and the rest of his team do a nice job of creating their own version of MJ. Unlike Spider-Man: Homecoming, MJ plays a major part in this movie and gives Zendaya her chance to make this character her own. I, for one, am excited to see where she and the rest of the Spider-Man team opt to take this character in the future.
Jake Gyllenhaal joins the cast as new hero, Mysterio and is quite enjoyable to watch. Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders, who return as Nick Fury and Maria Hill, are welcome returns, as well. Jacob Batalon’s Ned, like in Homecoming, brings the comedy, as do Happy (Jon Favreau) and Aunt May (Marisa Tomei).
If you have yet to see Avengers: Endgame I highly suggest seeing it before this movie. For those who have seen Endgame, go see Spider-Man: Far from Home. It is the bow that neatly wraps up Endgame. Make sure to stay through the credits, there is a mid-credit scene that is amazing, and an end credit scene.
Grade: A-