Movie Review: Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Summary: Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man must step up to take on new threats in a world that has changed forever.

Spoilers for Endgame. So, if you haven’t seen that, then why are you even here??

Pros:

Cast and Characters.

• Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man. Peter is dealing with a lot in this film, he of course is still a superhero with spider-like abilities, but he just wants to be a teenager and deal with teenager things. In Homecoming, he wanted to have more responsibility but now that things have changed, and he wants some of that responsibility to just go away but all the adults are telling him to “grow up! Step up!” and he just wants to go on vacation and be with the girl he likes. I think that’s a very relatable plot for Peter to have because any person would think that way, especially after the trauma he just experienced. He deals with a lot emotionally in this film and I take my hat off to Tom Holland who just kills it as both Peter and Spider-Man. I think he manages to handle Peter’s awkwardness and earnestness well. Whenever he’s flubbing over how to talk with MJ is cute, when he’s talking to Happy or even Beck, the little bits of emotion he goes through is handled really. Tom Holland is great in the role, Peter is very emotional due to Tony’s death and I really feel for him. He’s so great and likable, plus that one scene at the end when he catches something, the look on his face was so good that I just could not even handle it.

• Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. He is the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D who has returned from The Snap or they call it “The Blip” and he’s trying to get Peter to work for him. I don’t think he quite understands how to handle Peter as he’s a teenager compared to handling Tony, Steve, Thor etc. He’s not very understanding, and he very much thinks that Peter is just too preoccupied with stupid high school problems. He needs to be a mentor but it’s not quite working out. Fury is interesting in this movie once you find out the things you find out and when you watch it again, you may just pick up on it the second time around. Sam Jackson is always great, he’s always great as Fury and I enjoy seeing him flounder just a bit because Fury is used to knowing everything, always being involved and he’s not quite getting that here.

• Zendaya as Michelle / MJ. She is Peter Parker’s classmate, friend, and love interest. MJ is a bit odd in that she’s not quirky, at least not in the way we’re used to seeing people be quirky. She is very brutally honest, she’s awkward and comes off a little dark in terms of her interests. I love her deadpanned delivery and humor because it’s great and it’s different from what normally see from Peter’s love interests. I love Zendaya and I think she is great, and I think she has great chemistry with Tom Holland and I love that she is both cool and awkward. It really fits for this new character they created for her. I also love that she gets to keep her curls.

• Jon Favreau as Harold “Happy” Hogan. The head of security for Stark Industries and former driver and bodyguard of Tony Stark who looks after Parker. Things are a bit hard for him too as Tony was his best friend, but he has found companionship in Aunt May, whether it’s an actual dating relationship or not, lol and he has become a mentor for Peter. He’s probably the only one in that “Avengers” world that Peter can still trust who was close to Tony. Happy’s always just been there for me, he’s been Tony’s friend, but I never thought he had that active of a role, but he gets a bit to do here. Jon Favreau is likable, and I also like his adult awkwardness when it comes to “flirting”, not to mention the great chemistry he has with Tom Holland.

• Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds. Parker’s best friend and first confidant. Ned is Peter’s “man in the chair” and in this movie, he’s in his corner as to what Peter wants to do, but he also wants him to stop worrying so much about MJ and just have fun in Europe. Ned also gets a little cute side plot in the film and while it is random, it’s cute and it works out the way it needs to. I know that Ned is based off Miles Morales’ friend in the comics, but I like that they created him for Peter because he’s someone Peter can bounce ideas off who isn’t an adult and someone he can trust wholeheartedly. Ned is a great friend and I think the friendly chemistry between Jacob Batalon and Tom Holland works so well.

• Jake Gyllenhaal as Quentin Beck / Mysterio. He is a hero from Earth-833 in the Multiverse. He gets recruited by Nick Fury to help Spider-Man stop the new threat that has emerged. Beck has this cool demeanor and he in ways takes Peter under his wing, being that he is a more seasoned hero. They end up creating this relationship that is almost a mentor-mentee relationship which I think is interesting considering what happened with Tony in Endgame. I like how that is portrayed in the film. I won’t go into more detail because it will spoil things, but I have always liked Jake Gyllenhaal and I think he does a great job in the role, he gets to have some interesting developments to do in this film. He is really compelling in the role which is quite interesting.

Really Funny and Charming. Spider-Man is always funny and charming, well if he’s written well he is, same with Peter. Tom Holland of course does a great job doing the awkwardness of Peter and the confidence that he has but also lacks. Peter is going through a lot in this film, but he just ultimately wants to be a teenager with teenage problems. He doesn’t want to deal with the whole responsibility of being a superhero so those moments where he’s just like “I just want to be on my trip with my friends and talk to the girl I like” and that’s his mantra but things of course don’t work out the way he wants them too. Zendaya also has great funny moments for MJ. In the first movie, I liked her a lot, but she wasn’t that involved, so in this one, they show her way more, she’s just a bit socially awkward and loves to point out things that other people might not want to point out. That’s her thing lol. Also, moments between Happy and Aunt May and things with Ned and his side plot. Honestly, you’ll probably laugh quite a bit in the film and I think you’ll smile a lot as well.

Emotional Weight. This movie is set right after Endgame, which means it’s five years into the future where the characters we know and love from Homecoming are still the same age, so we can assume that along with Peter, Ned, MJ, Betty, Flash and all of them got snapped. Which works out because we get to see our familiar people return, though it would have been interesting if Betty Brandt didn’t get Snapped so she could just be older, I always thought she was older than Peter anyway. But particularly from Peter and Happy who have both lost an instrumental person in their life from Tony Stark’s death and it’s still fresh for the audience, if you saw Endgame that you completely understand it. The movie doesn’t make us relive any of the Endgame deaths, but it does honor those characters. Plus, Peter partially feels that it’s his fault, if he was better and stronger and all of that.

The Story. The film picks up after Endgame and it’s in an interesting place. They refer to “The Snap” as “The Blip” as some people just “blipped” out of existence and then five years later they just returned, the same age they were five years ago, unchanged. They give us a quick update in a smart way, and some people are still shocked because some teens come back and their younger siblings are now physically older than them and it is a shocking situation but the movie doesn’t make a big deal out of it, which is good because we’ve already one movie that did that and we need a little lightness in our lives after that lol. But you know the whole “with great power comes great responsibility” in this Peter’s like “NO, I just want to be a kid!” and I like that this movie does that and it’s like the antithesis of Spider-Man: Homecoming where he wanted more responsibility.

Great Action Sequences. Ya’ll! All the action sequences in this movie are great. Some are more memorable and better than others, but I think they’re all choreographed well, with great visual effects and are super cool. I believe all the action starts to happen when they get to Europe and while it’s not necessarily nonstop action, whenever it’s shown on screen, it’s badass. Most memorable is the entire sequence at the end.

The Human/Teenage Stuff. One of the most charming things about Peter being portrayed as a teenager is that we get the teenage angst, drama and all that and it works. I know people often talk about the fact that they prefer when Peter is an adult compared to a teenager, but we have tons of adults in the MCU, it’s nice to follow a teenager because his problems are going to be different and everyone can probably relate to them because we’ve all been teenagers at some point in our lives. It really works for Spider-Mand and plus, it allows them to get more movies out of him and I’m down for that.

A Particular Scene. I can’t go into this without giving it away, so I won’t but there is a scene in Berlin that is SO GOOD that I literally was blown away. I mean BLOWN AWAY. Maybe not literally blown away but it was so good that I am still thinking about it now. Just the emotional turmoil from Peter, the effects and the dialogue. Man, it’s just so good. Great job movie. GREAT JOB!

Cons:

Some Visual Effects. Obviously, you expect great effects considering what MCU has done with The Hulk, Thanos and some other things, but of course when you have a character like Spider-Man who does a lot of agile stuff, it might be harder to make it look real. There are a few times where it’s clearly CGI and it wasn’t even like “oh that CGI is CGI but it’s pretty good” it’s more like “eww that’s CGI and it doesn’t look good” it happens a few times, where I kind of was taken out of the movie, particularly in my favorite scene where there’s like an illusion of a bunch of somethings (no spoilers see!) and it was pretty jarring. Then the elemental beings we get, those also don’t look that great a lot of times either. What happens is cool and I guess it’s explained buutt I don’t think I would think those were real if I was in this world.

Overall, I loved this movie. I think it’s my second favorite Spider-Man film (Spider-verse being first of course) and my favorite live action Spider-Man film which is high praise lol but I loved a lot of what this movie did. I think the characters, particularly Peter and MJ have grown a lot, which makes them more likable and I think Zendaya really shines in her role here. I think if anyone didn’t like her much in the first one, you’d find that might have changed here. Tom Holland is a great Peter Parker and really shows the emotional trauma and loss he feels, not to mention, his need for normalcy. I get it Peter, I do. He’s so good with emotional scenes that I just want to hug him lol. The other characters are good as well, Jake Gyllenhaal was a great addition to the Spider-verse (see what I did there? lol) and I hope we see more of him in the future… in any form he may take lol. Far from Home is also funny, but not like that “look it’s funny!” kind of humor that GOTG does but just more everyday humor and it’s cute plus it’s super charming. The emotional weight is really felt but a lot of that is because of Tom Holland even Jon Favreau. Plus, so much more. This movie was a great bit of light and hope in the wake of the sadness that came from Endgame. I don’t have many negatives, believe me I tried to think of them lol, but I think mainly the CGI was inconsistent and I was like “meh” on certain points but it’s not glaringly bad. ANYWAYS, if you haven’t seen Spider-Man: Far from Home yet, then get on it, it’s a great watch.

Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars.

Have you seen Spider-Man: Far from Home? What are your thoughts?

What is your favorite Spider-Man film?

Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for more reviews!