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

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

Spider-Man: Far From Home

My overall impression of Spider-Man - Far From Home is that it has the most, epic action, of any Spider Man live action movie to date. Every battle seems big.

Maybe it's because all the villains are larger than life characters, rather than your typical neighbourhood street villains? In any case, if you want to see Spider-Man really out of his depth on every level for most of the movie, this is the one to watch.

Far From Home picks up eight months after Avengers: End Game. Peter Parker is still coming to terms with losing his friend and mentor, Tony Stark, however he's looking forward to an upcoming school trip to Europe, where he can take a break from being superhero for a week or two.

Unfortunately legendary beings, known as Elementals, are targeting the Earth. Spider-Man is recruited by Nick Fury to help a new super powered being, Mysterio, stop the Elementals before they destroy the planet.

Tom Holland continues to be my favorite live action Spider-Man though I really hope his naive awkwardness starts to evolve into a more confident character in future movies. Or at least, I'd like to see him be more like the Spider-Man in Civil War who, despite going up against some big name superheroes, didn't seem all that indecisive or intimidated.

Granted this movie is about Peter Parker trying to make sense of his role without Tony Stark to point him in the right direction, but I kind of miss the quippy, talkative Spider-Man that we were first introduced to.

Going in I wasn't sure about Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio. I knew Jake would be great in the role but it's obvious he was never going to stay the good guy depicted in the trailers (well not if you're familiar with the character in the comics anyway). Thankfully his turn to villain does not disappoint, and really makes the character's backstory even more interesting than what we're given initially.

Peter's returning classmates from Homecoming are all fine if a little underused this time around. Which was the most disappointing aspect of the film for me. Homecoming seemed to have a lot more story focused on Peter Parker and the people in his daily life, making that film more character story rich. Far From Home Peter spends a lot more time being the superhero, consequently he's interacting less with his friends. As such very few of them have much to do beyond making up the numbers for a school trip.

I really like Jon Favreau back as Happy Hogan, now with a lot more time for Peter, rather than brushing him off the way he did in Homecoming. It would be really interesting to see that team up continue in future films, and maybe they have a little more fun with Happy's interactions with Aunt May - which I would've loved to have seen more awkward but funny moments happen here.

Speaking of Aunt May. When they have an actor like Marisa Tomei, you really wish they would give her a lot more to do. Maybe next time.

Special effects wise this movie is on par with most Marvel movies. The majority looks great but there's always one or two scenes that look a little hokey but you can forgive. For me it was some of Peter Parker's Spider-Man leaps and jumps, made while not wearing the suit. Particularly a couple of his landings that just looked weird, like the physics were just wrong.

As I said at the start, overall there was a lot of really big action pieces in this film, to the point where I felt like I'd just watched an action movie rather than Spider-Man movie. Which is not to say Spider-Man films aren't supposed to be action packed, but I felt Homecoming gave us more memorable supporting character moments too.

As it is, this rates as the second best Spider-Man solo film for me after Homecoming. Not only is it a Spider-Man story, it also gives a glimpse of life after End Game and, if you stay for the mid and post credit scenes, you get a real teaser for what might lay ahead in the future MCU.

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