Things have really changed for Peter Parker, our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man (Tom Holland). He went to space, fought Thanos, vanished for five years, returned from the dead, fought Thanos again, and lost his mentor. But now, after all that, he’s back in high school, and he’s headed to Europe with his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), his crush MJ (Zendaya), his rival Flash (Tony Revolori) and the rest of the science club. All that’s on his to-do list is to tell MJ how he feels about her. Unfortunately, as always happens to Peter, Spidey-stuff keeps getting in the way of his best-laid plans.
Just like Homecoming, Far From Home gets Spider-Man right. He’s best as a high schooler, trying to balance his hero responsibilities with his studies and social life. He’s also best as a small-scale hero who’s thrown into Avengers-sized problems. Far From Home gives us lots of both, as Peter’s trip happens to coincide with a major attack on Venice by a water elemental. Naturally, Peter dives into the city defence with gusto and in doing so teams up with a fishbowl-wearing hero named Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) and an eyepatch-wearing ray of sunshine named Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Both need Spidey’s help to save the world.
Things are not as simple as they seem, of course, and even a casual Spider-Man fan will know basically where things are headed from the trailers alone. But in getting to the climax, the movie has almost too many twists and turns, because at times the script struggles to make sense of the on-screen events (and the post-credits “solution” seems like a cop-out even as it raises some interesting questions).
As a fanboy, I have no problem at all overlooking those minor flaws. Far From Home is just so damn entertaining and Tom Holland is a fantastic Spider-Man and a better Peter Parker. Still, as a critic, I hope the next live-action Spider-Man movie takes a few more cues from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which stands as the best Spider-Man movie ever because the action never stops AND the script never stops making sense. Despite being chock-full of Spidey goodness, Far From Home doesn’t bring everything together into a cohesive whole like Spider-Verse did, but Far From Home’s can-do attitude and wacky humour still make for a really fun movie that Spidey’s fans are going to love.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
We’ll be doing this one, hubby is a spider fan!
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An eye-patch wearing ray of sunshine 🙂 Fury did come off as more of a grouch than usual! Like jeez, cut the kid a break.
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Fury was a total grouch and worse, was oddly focused on Spider-Man to the exclusion of all other MCU heroes, which is one of the plot points that didn’t make any sense to me even after the credits ended.
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I can’t help but think of the Spider-verse when I see this. And… I don’t know. I may be Spiderman-ed out.
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No one could blame you for being Spiderman-ed out or superhero-ed out at this point. Spider-Verse is definitely a natural comparison because it basically just came out and also because of Mysterio’s multiverse references in Far From Home. Other than the Spidey licence, though, the two movies are much different, for starters because Miles Morales isn’t in the MCU (at least not yet, but since his uncle has made an appearance it’s probably only a matter of time).
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Really can’t wait to see this!
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I’m glad you enjoyed it! Looking forward to seeing it this week.
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Did you miss Stan Lee?
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Love this version of Spiderman. Tom Holland is best fit for it.
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Did the post-snap-ification world-building make sense?
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I’ve got this one on the table for the cinema meet up with some pals, so hopefully I’ll be seeing it soon!
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So true. It’s a fun but pretty flawed movie. Tom Holland makes up for so many of its problems, though.
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Did anyone stay after the credits
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Yup!
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