The MCU really is my happy place. I can’t believe we’re so many movies in, and not only are they still good, I get even more excited for them today than I did back in Phase 1. Far From Home to some extent serves as a sort of epilogue to Endgame, putting that final period on Phase 3, and maybe giving us a glimpse towards the next era.
Spoilers for Endgame: Everyone who was dusted (or blipped is the term they use here) has been back for a few months. Peter Parker and his friends are back in high school, and he’s still mourning the death of his mentor Iron Man while Nick Fury is blowing up his phone for some unknown reason. In other words, Spidey needs a vacation, or maybe a class trip to Europe where he can hang out with his bestie Ned and maybe finally make a move on his love MJ. But of course, life is not that simple when you’re an Avenger. There’s some big elemental baddies hanging around, and some mysterious dude that looks like Jake Gyllenhaal, all of which looks like it’s gonna put a damper on the vacay.
We started off with some great tie ins to Endgame, glimpsing how some of the world has moved on or struggled to in the aftermath. Then we kinda hit a lull. Things were not quite adding up and something was missing. It felt very run of the mill superhero, lacking that epic ness and puzzling that Spidey would be the one called to take things on. AND THEN something changed. It suddenly got really good (and if you’ve seen it, you know exactly the moment) and it rode that wave out thru the end. I dare not say any more because this needs to be experienced in the moment.
Jake Gyllenhaal has been one of the loves of my life for a long time (minus a brief period where I got annoyed with his stage door behavior when I saw him off Broadway, but I’m over all that now). The boy is Donnie Darko for crying out loud, I am going to love him forever. Plus he’s also Bubble Boy (shut up, I love that movie). And now I love him as Mysterio, but again, I can’t say too much lest I unintentionally spoil things.
My boy wasn’t the only great person in the cast. I love Zendaya’s take on MJ (No joke, when I was scripting my Stardust reaction, I kept on saying Zendaya’s take on Meechee). She’s not a damsel in distress. She’s smart and capable and has a very uncharacteristically dark sense of humor that I would actually get along with. I also wanna shout out Martin Starr as the totally clueless and dorky teacher chaperone. Oh and of course stay thru the credits for more surprise appearances.
It’s almost not worth calling out Tom Holland because he’s already proven he’s a great Spidey, and that continues here. What I do wanna highlight though is that he had some great science nerd moments in this one. I feel like we hadn’t seen much of that from him, and it especially shows that he’ll be capable of one day filling Tony Stark’s iron shoes.
Ultimately the second half more than makes up for the slow start, so I call this a win. And now I’m gonna go for round four of Endgame
Spider-Man: Far From Home – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/