I love this movie.
The Infinity Saga may now be in the rearview mirror, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe will keep chugging along for the foreseeable future. These movies almost always make truckloads of cash. However, can this universe actually sustain itself with good stories and lovable characters? If Spider-Man: Far From Home is any indication, the answer is yes.
The movie is an excellent reminder that Kevin Feige knows what he’s doing.
The Cast Is Incredibly Relatable.
Tom Holland is very good at capturing the honorable-to-a-fault attitude of our protagonist.
As always, a great film starts with a great cast. Thankfully, Far From Home has a ton of fantastic performances.
Tom Holland may not have had a huge part in Avengers: Endgame, but he absolutely shines in this film as the most relatable Peter Parker yet. For one thing, he hasn’t quite accepted his destiny as an Avenger, which is perfectly understandable because he’s still just a kid. He wants to go on a trip, meet girls, and do things without worrying too much about saving the day all the time.
Unfortunately, duty often comes before desire, and Tom Holland portrays this conundrum in an excellent way.
On the other side of the coin, Jake Gyllenhaal delivers a great performance as Quentin Beck, who isn’t quite what he seems. When Peter and Quentin first meet, Gyllenhaal does a good job of portraying the friendly mentor/older brother who only wants to help Peter through the next crisis. However, he has a secret that upends the whole movie in an interesting way.
The other members of the cast do not slouch around either, but some get more material to play with than others. Zendaya and Jacob Batalon are a ton of fun to watch as MJ and Ned Leeds, partly because they complement Holland’s performance without seeming like token characters. On a much more awkward note, Marisa Tomei and Jon Favreau share a small romantic subplot as Aunt May and Happy Hogan, but they manage to make it memorable enough to stick out in the film. With that said, Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders are just kind of there as Nick Fury and Maria Hill. They have a lot to do and give hints about the future of the MCU, but there’s nothing that’s particularly special about their appearance.
The Plot Is Simple Yet Effective.
The movie alludes to a Multiverse and a future storyline, but will the producers take us there?
Spider-Man: Far From Home does a decent job of building off of the end of Endgame with a simple but honest story.
A little while after the defeat of Thanos, Peter, Ned, MJ, and their classmates are off on a school trip to Europe. In a few funny scenes, Ned develops a plan to be an American bachelor in Europe, but Peter wants to make a romantic move on MJ. The build-up to their eventual arrival in Europe is funny and deeply relatable to anyone who has been through school, but the world has other plans for our friendly neighborhood superhero.
Nick Fury, Maria Hill, and Quentin Beck have been tracking the freak appearance of a bunch of monsters that are dubbed the Elementals. At first, Peter thinks that Quentin can stop the monsters with ease, but the destructive power of each creature inevitably pushes Spider-Man into action. Our heroes always seem to be in the right place at the right time, but that’s just how this genre works, doesn’t it?
The story is simple, compelling, and loaded with bits of Marvel’s trademark humor, but it also mixes in some decent worldbuilding to explain the state of Earth in the aftermath of Thanos’ reign of terror. On the plus side, the movie tips its hat to the fans who wonder why the other Avengers never seem to intervene in a funny way. Tony Stark’s shadow looms large over the film as well, which is a nice touch because much of the world would look up to him after the story of Endgame got out.
On the other hand, the writers and producers still haven’t addressed one of the biggest issues with this franchise. More on that in the next section!
The One Problem.
Are we supposed to be like our heroes or can we be ourselves?
I know that Marvel wants to create family-friendly entertainment for everyone, but the writers have a bad habit of shying away from answering some of the biggest questions that are a focal point of any fictitious universe. One of them stuck out to me when Far From Home pointed out the effects of the Snap and the Blip, so I’ll just ask it here for the sake of discussion.
How does this franchise handle personal and societal beliefs like religion?
We all know that the franchise started off by portraying events that could easily be explained away or covered up, especially since the original team consisted of technologically-augmented humans like Captain America or someone like Thor. However, the Marvel Cinematic Universe evolved into a spectacle that would logically upend every ordinary human’s view of the world unless they worked for SHIELD, and the events of Infinity War and Endgame threw everything up in the air again.
Put yourselves in their shoes, dear readers.
You’re an ordinary person who lives in this world. Over time, you hear rumors of a man with a flaming skull and a woman who can shoot beams out of her hands, but you don’t think much of it. As the days pass, Tony Stark and Captain America arrive, and you hear about some guy who can supposedly harness lightning. Again, it’s just a few dudes in suits and an urban legend. That’s cool, right?
All of the sudden, New York City is virtually destroyed by an alien invasion. You quickly learn that extraterrestrial life exists, but you also find out that the guy who can harness lightning is actually Thor in the flesh.
Would that upend your belief system at all? Maybe not, so let’s pull out the big guns!
In 2018, half of your neighbors get dusted for no apparent reason, causing mass panic around the world. You soon hear that the apocalyptic event is tied to a battle in Africa between the Avengers and another group of hostile aliens, but no real answers are coming. Five years later, all of your friends are suddenly returned to you, but they have no memory of being dead or of any sort of afterlife.
Would that not upset the apple cart?
Look, I know that some people might wonder why I’m talking about this, but it’s important because these movies are supposed to be a part of a cohesive whole. One of Peter’s classmates is still wearing a hijab and there are rumors floating around about Kamala Khan, so the audience needs an explanation. Otherwise, people might get the impression that the writers are violating the lore for woke points.
Conclusion.
MJ is a better love interest than anything that Raimi could come up with. She’s sassy without being stupid.
Spider-Man: Far From Home is an almost perfect film. The cast does a good job, the story is a lot of fun, and the mixture of humor and drama is well done. While this movie may not answer every question, it is absolutely worth your time.
And of course, stay through the credits. If those scenes don’t make you excited about a third Spider-Man film, I don’t know what will.
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