Spider-Man: Far From Home marks the end of Phase 3 of the MCU and it’s also a thoroughly satisfying second chapter to the web-slinger’s story in the MCU.
The movie takes place just a few months after the events of Avengers: Endgame with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker restored and resuming his normal high school life. He’s about to go on a summer vacation with his classmates to Europe and they tour the likes of Venice and Berlin before they encounter a series of unexplainable occurrences that involve fire and water known as the Elementals. Naturally, it’s time for Peter to once again break out the Spider suit.
Peter just wants to go on vacation and have a fun time, but Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury introduces him to an enigmatic individual known as Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) who assists Parker in bringing down these strange phenomena.
If all of that wasn’t enough, Peter is hoping to get the chance to talk to MJ (Zendaya) to tell her how he really feels.
Not only that, but there’s also a couple of other burgeoning romances blossoming between Peter’s best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon) falling for a fellow classmate (Angourie Rice from The Nice Guys).
Oh, and there may be something else going on between Peter’s Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and Tony Stark’s driver Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau). These romances might seem like plot overkill, but the dynamic is charming.
Tom Holland delivers another funny, warm, and charismatic performance as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man and he continues to have a lot of support from the likes of Jackson, Colbie Smulders, Zendaya, Favreau, and Gyllenhaal as Mysterio. They all seem to have a lot of fun with their roles.
This movie seems equally inspired by ’80s teen comedies as well as the Marvel comic books and it does offer a sense of exciting possibilities of where this series could go next.
Far From Homes proves to be a worthy standout in a mediocre summer.
Grade: A-
(Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, some language, and brief suggestive comments.)
