Spider-Man: Far From Home - Film Review

Synopsis

Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) returns to high school and takes a break from being the "friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." While in Europe, he is recruited by Nick Fury and a man named Quentin Beck, AKA Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), to fight creatures that threaten to destroy the Earth. But, Peter soon realizes that the real threat has been under his nose the whole time.

Review

There is a good balance between the teen romance and the superhero genres in this movie. I would argue that it's actually more of a teen romance (in terms of ratio). I like the addition of the teen romance element. I think it helps to ground the film. This film is very funny, due to its tight and sharp script. I think it to be one of the funnier movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are great action sequences and great visuals, as per usual with Marvel films, but there seemed to be more of an emphasis because of the illusions. In fact, there is an illusion sequence in the film that is really well done. Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio is a very welcome addition to the cast. Peter was given more pathos in this film (mainly because of Endgame), and I feel like Tom Holland did a good job representing that. I like that they gave some dimensionality to Zendaya's character, MJ, rather than the one-note personalities of Peter's other classmates. There is a character turn about 45 minutes into the movie that was not hinted at at all during the trailers. I applaud Disney on being able to fool the audience (at least those who don't read the comics). In terms of the movie's goal in dealing with the fallout from Avengers: Endgame, it kind of helps with some of the fallout from Endgame, but is not the epilogue that it was marketed to be. It really only focuses on the relationship between Peter and the (SPOILER) now-deceased Tony. I really believe that FFH is an improvement on Spider-Man: Homecoming and I think it shows great promise for the future of the MCU (especially after those credit scenes, OH MY GOD!).