WARNING
Minor spoilers for Avengers: Endgame if you haven't seen itEven before the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Sony and Marvel were in talks to produce future installments in the series. Thankfully, the film was such a hit that a sequel was announced to be released in the summer of 2019. Unfortunately, this ruined any secrecy surrounding Marvel’s plans for Spider-Man given his fate in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Still, they forged on ahead, bringing back Homecoming’s director Jon Watts, as well as much of the original cast members. One new addition to the cast was Jake Gyllenhaal, who was originally supposed to replace Tobey Maguire for Spider-Man 2. Maguire suffered an injury while working on Seabiscuit, but he recovered and returned to play the friendly neighborhood web crawler. Fast forward to 2019, 15 years later, and Gyllenhaal finally gets to be in a Spider-Man movie. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at Spider-Man: Far From Home.
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After the events of Avengers: Endgame, those who were blipped out of existence have come back, trying to live normally. People are also trying to cope with the loss of many of the heroes who were lost during those events. One of those is Peter Parker (Tom Holland), who’s going on a class trip to Europe for the summer vacation. He has two major goals for the trip: confess his feelings to MJ (Zendaya) and avoid any superhero work. Unfortunately, that all changes when a giant water monster attacks Venice and a mysterious figure arrives to fight it. Peter is soon contacted by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who introduces him to this figure, Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal). Turns out the creature is one of many Elementals, and it’s up to Mysterio (Beck) and Spider-Man to stop them. Will they be able to stop the Elementals, and who is Mysterio?
Given how good Tom Holland has been in the last few movies, it’s safe to say he’s the best Spider-Man. In Spider-Man: Far From Home, he’s really grown into his own and once again does a great job. Jake Gyllenhaal is easily the highlight of the film, stealing just about every scene he’s in with his immense charisma. While they have limited screen time, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Samuel L. Jackson, and Cobie Smulders also have their moments. Zendaya, who was a somewhat minor character before, is greatly expanded upon, and she has great chemistry with Holland. Though their romance seems somewhat out of nowhere given how it wasn’t hinted at before, it still works really well. What makes Spider-Man: Far From Home work is how it’s both a superhero movie and a high school movie. They really nail Spider-Man’s struggle between superheroics and having a normal life.
Like any good superhero movie, the action sequences are fun to watch, especially in the film’s climax. Without giving too much away, there are some twists here and there with callbacks to previous films in the MCU. These callbacks really show just how far this franchise has come and serves as nice tie-ins for those films. If I do have any complaints, I’d say that the humor is 50/50, mostly working, but not always. There are plenty of funny moments to be had, but some moments seem somewhat forced or out of place. Granted, they don’t ruin the overall tone, but every so often, a joke will happen when it isn’t warranted. Even still, this takes everything that made Homecoming work, and further expands upon it, resulting in an overall better movie. Overall, Spider-Man: Far From Home is another welcome addition to the MCU and its long history.
