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| Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) |
One thing I'll say early on, since it is important to clarify, is that if you're going into this movie expecting anything tonally similar to what happened in Endgame, you will be disappointed. This movie deals with a lot of the fallout from the events of Infinity War and Endgame, true, but it focuses a lot more on how it personally affected Peter than anything else, as this is first and foremost a sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming. It just happens to take place in a world that is post-Endgame. In fact, I like what we see of the world after 'The Blip', as it's become known as. The movie acknowledges that half of the world suddenly returning after five years isn't going to be 100% sunshine and rainbows. Of course, there's not too much of a focus on it, and I wouldn't want there to be, but what we see is enough. I also like how it takes the events and puts more of a light-hearted spin on them. The fact that the movie acknowledges there's going to be a funny side of 'The Blip' is just accurate.
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| Tom Holland as Peter Parker |
This is a funny movie in general, really. It's the same world as Spider-Man: Homecoming, and it has a very similar sense of humour. It's pretty consistent with it's jokes, to the point where they don't seem to mind if the odd joke doesn't land, they just move on. That being said, there's a little more variety to the jokes being told here, and that comes from the movie taking place in Europe as opposed to Queens. I like the backdrops that the movie uses, it makes it feel more unique. Seeing an action setpiece in, say, Prague or Venice is a hell of a lot more interesting than a fight scene set in another American city. The fight scenes are also really well choreographed. They're incredibly entertaining, and the Elementals are used really well in this regard. They're very unique villains, especially considering what we've had before, and the way they're used services Peter's story nicely. It's also great seeing Mysterio in action, and the CGI used throughout is stunning. Some sequences are drop-dead gorgeous, although, for the sake of not revealing spoilers, I can't say which ones, but you'll know when you see them.
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| Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio |
I mentioned Mysterio in the upper paragraph, so now's as good a time as any to talk about him: I like how he was used. Jake Gyllenhaal did an excellent job with this character; he has the charisma and charm that you'd want a character like this to have. He plays the uncle figure well, and has great chemistry with Tom Holland, who is once again fantastic in the role of Spider-Man. I really hope Spider-Man becomes a key figure in the MCU moving forward. Maybe not to the extent that Iron Man was in the past, but I really would like to see more of Tom Holland in this role. He also had excellent chemistry with Zendaya, and her inclusion in this movie proves she and this world's version of MJ can handle themselves in more of a starring role compared to the brief appearances in Homecoming. They took that character and applied MJ to it in a very natural way, and I love the relationship between this MJ and this Peter Parker. There are going to be the purists who say this 'isn't how it is in the comics' but I don't care. This is a different interpretation, and I'll take this MJ over Kirsten Dunst's MJ any day of the week. Jacob Batalon once again kills it as the comic relief, Jon Favreau turns in arguably his best performance as Happy to date, and Cobie Smulders and Samuel L. Jackson are always welcome as Maria HIll and Nick Fury.
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| Zendaya as MJ |
So, I'll admit, I'm sitting there in the theatre watching the movie, and enjoying myself, but I wasn't really considering it in the upper echelon of Marvel's best. The first half of the movie is just a little bit slow in that regard. It's not bad, but there's a lot more down-time, maybe a bit too much. As much as I liked Mr. Harrington in the first movie, giving him a bigger focus here, even if it isn't too big a focus, wasn't a good idea. The jokes involving his character just weren't landing that much, though adding in J.B. Smoove to the dynamic was an excellent touch. The first half also had maybe one too many 'isn't this awkward' jokes. In any case, I was having a good time, but it wasn't really comparing well to other Marvel films, especially off the back of Endgame. Then, about halfway through, there's a bit of a shift, and the movie suddenly becomes amazing. I'm serious, the second half of this film is honestly perfect. The jokes are well paced with the more dramatic stuff, they tackle more of the emotion, some of those sequences with the exquisite CGI come in, the action is at it's peak, it's all firing on full cylinders. I can't exactly reveal why, but trust me, it's amazing. I don't normally talk about the post-credits scenes, since they typically don't really factor into how I judge a Marvel film, but the two post-credits scenes in this movie are easily among the best in the MCU, and neither of them are purely there for comedy's sake.
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| Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill |
So, yeah, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) began as just a pretty good superhero movie, and by the end became something beautiful. I'd suggest checking it out in cinemas before you get spoiled; you'll want to go into this one knowing as little as possible, trust me. 9/10.
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