"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019, PG-13)


I’ve always been all about Spider-Man, ever since I was a kid, and I’m on record as utterly adoring the MCU/Sony co-production version of the character. I’m also an incredibly-easy Spider-Man fan who pretty much invariably enjoys Mysterio, so this new Spider-Man movie was already gonna be a likely slam dunk for me. But ugghh, I love it so much! Totally biased review ahead (premise spoilers, which include spoilers for the end of Avengers: Endgame.)

After the resolution of the Snap in Avengers: Endgame, Peter is trying to get back to his life. In his case, that means repeating the 10th grade with his friends who got Snapped away and the former middle-schoolers who aged five years while half the world was stuck in the Soul Stone. It means planning what to do re: his burgeoning feelings for MJ, many of which center around his class’s upcoming “science trip” to Europe. And of course, he’s also busy being Spider-Man, a mantle that’s a lot harder to carry now that everyone is asking who’s going to the be “the next Iron Man,” not to mention one that threatens to derail his hopeful-romance plans when Nick Fury decides to coopt Peter’s class trip for the sake of an international mission. The mission? Joining forces with one Quentin Beck (who, he explains, is a hero from a parallel Earth) to fight the Elementals, legendary monsters who can manipulate the four elements.

That’s kind of an involved synopsis, and to be fair, there’s a lot going on in this movie. I wouldn’t say it all hangs together in the most logical way at all times – there are tangents and garden-path moments, and it can be more than a little overstuffed. But honestly, I don’t care because I kind of just love it all. The sum of the movie’s parts is awesome, and even if the whole can get a little messy, it’s still pretty great.

Let’s see – what all do I love? There are the details of the “post-‘blip’” world (the moment when everyone lost in the Snap suddenly returned five years later.) There’s the fun high-school-comedy elements from the first movie transplanted to a European class trip, featuring endearingly-awkward teen romance. There’s the expansion of MJ’s character, who I thoroughly enjoyed in the first film but who has much more of an opportunity to be here. There’s Jake Gyllenhaal’s excellent performance as Mysterio, coupled with a really neat MCU interpretation of the character and some wicked/trippy illusion scenes. There are some stellar, genuine jaw-drop moments in the post-credit scenes.

But as always, it’s really about the Spider-Man of it all, and Tom Holland once again proves how wonderful he is as Peter/Spidey. This is a Peter who’s been through hell and back since his first film, and eight months after the end of Endgame, the loss of his mentor Tony is still raw. While there are plenty of scenes of him being a delightful kid who happens to be a superhero – concocting dubious plans about how to woo girls, “ghosting” Nick Fury, flying through the air and showing off impressive web work – there are also scenes of him struggling with his grief over his friend/father figure and feeling overwhelmed at the added responsibility and expectations now placed on his shoulders. Holland is terrific from start to finish, and his Spider-Man both makes me cheer for his heroism and makes me prepared to fight anyone who tries to hurt him while he’s down.

Warnings

Comic book violence, drinking references, light suggestiveness, and thematic elements.

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