Spider-Man: Far From Home

In New York City, students at the Midtown School of Science and Technology cope with suddenly returning five years after blinking out of existence by taking a summer trip to Europe. Still reeling from the loss of his mentor, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) hopes to put his superhero career as Spider-Man on pause and tell his classmate M.J. (Zendaya) how he feels about her. But spymaster Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has other ideas, pressing Peter into service alongside Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal), who claims to be a hero from an alternate earth (whom the media dub “Mysterio”). Their purpose is to stop the Elementals, a group of element-based monsters wreaking havoc across the globe.

Another Columbia Pictures/Marvel Studios co-production, this sequel to 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming occupies an odd position. On the one hand, it is very much a follow-up to this year’s Avengers: Endgame and is virtually inaccessible as a stand-alone movie. On the other hand, its more comedic tone and focus on high school antics contrast sharply with the Avengers’ cosmos-altering epic grandeur. This makes for a bit of an identity crisis, yet Far From Home is still a solidly entertaining film.

Much of the film’s appeal boils down to sheer charisma. Holland is arguably the best portrayer of Peter Parker to date, nailing the character’s nervousness and nerdy exuberance while still demonstrating quick-thinking and bravery. His banter with equally nerdy best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) gives the film humor, but his awkward exchanges with M.J., who seems to be trolling him at every turn, really shine. Jackson’s work as Fury, a paranoid, no-nonsense, perpetually aggrieved tactician, is a welcome addition to any Marvel film while Gyllenhaal takes a character often mocked for having a dumb costume and imbues him with legitimate menace. Those familiar with Mysterio’s comic book origins will not be surprised by the character’s trajectory (which Far From Home tries its damndest to play off as a shocking twist), but what is surprising is the effortless duality that Gyllenhaal brings to the role. He was once considered as an injury replacement for Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, and Beck’s heroic feats give us a glimpse of how he may have fared. At the same time, Mysterio also evokes Gyllenhaal’s unsettling work in Nightcrawler (the thriller about the deeply unethical cameraman, not the teleporting X-Men character).

On the opposite side of the camera, John Watts’s direction delivers fluid, kinetic action sequences and he handles the film’s tonal shifts well. Michael Giacchino’s score is a mostly fitting complement, save for the film’s cringeworthy inclusion of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” over a cheesy fallen heroes montage.

Beyond that, the Elementals are fairly ridiculous-looking stand-ins for actual Spider-Man villains (i.e. Sandman and Hydro-Man), and while their appearance is given a logical in-movie explanation, they still call to mind less refined CGI monsters from fifteen years ago. The plot is also but the thinnest of excuses to bring characters together, but for a good chunk of the audience, that will likely not matter.

When all is said and done, Far From Home is both too vivacious to be forgettable and too light to be groundbreaking. It occupies an ever-broadening middle tier of Marvel movies, which makes it still well worth viewing for anyone with any interest in the source material.