New ‘SpiderMan’ mixes humor with post‘Endgame’ drama.
‘SpiderMan: Far From Home’ sets perfect tone as half the human race returns, 5 years older
For 304 minutes over two “Avengers” movies, filmmakers have treated the plan to wipe out half of the human race with the utmost seriousness — including families turning to dust before heroes’ eyes, “missing” signs that evoke reallife mass disasters and (perhaps most difficult to watch) San Francisco’s trash pickup service suspended indefinitely. “SpiderMan: Far From Home,” the first post“Avengers: Endgame” movie, spins its narrative web in a more carefree direction. The Thanos snap that killed billions, then brought them back five years older, now has a cute name (“The Blip”). A brilliant opening sequence here includes slapstick How younger How affect The does will a new teen’s brother humor a one “SpiderMan,” mass love feel and is extinction life? when now less two your weighty which and years pickedon return opens issues. older? Tuesday, sary least return earthbound July to 2, Earth, is concerns, a neces or at for reached a series for that the stars. had The tone goes so far into a selfreferential comedic direction that it sometimes feels like a “Saturday Night Live” sketch of a Marvel film. But it’s mostly delightful — a fun movie that successfully hits the reset button for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We begin with Peter Parker (Tom Holland), after the events of “Endgame,”
trying to return to high school. Is he an Avenger or a kid trying to negotiate his first teen crush? He chooses the latter, hilariously trying to “ghost” superhero liaison Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), while planning his class trip to Europe and courtship plans for wouldbe girlfriend Mary Jane (Zendaya).
We return to a cinematic universe with much lower stakes. This year’s “Avengers: Endgame” began with Tony Stark in outer space, starving, accepting the fact that his mission to save humanity has failed. “SpiderMan” hero Peter Parker spends an equal amount of screen time fretting about whom he’ll sit next to on an eighthour plane ride. When new hero Mysterio ( Jake Gyllenhaal) shows up, battling a group of four giant Elementals, Peter’s love life continues to carry equal weight.
Director Jon Watts and his crew manage the challenging balancing act at almost every turn.
There’s a rushed “Iron Man 2” feeling at times, as if everyone could have used two more takes, and the story could have benefited from one more polish. (Like the second “Iron Man” movie, “Far From Home” was released on a breakneck 24month production schedule.) Gyllenhaal seems lost at times, acting more restrained than his character turns require.
But there are unexpected pleasures to be found throughout the film, including more surprises and risks than any standalone Marvel superhero film since “Iron Man 3.” That includes the tone, which surpasses even the Paul Ruddled “Ant Man” films in terms of leeway for funinthenameoffun. Jackson in particular gets license to lighten up, often sounding more like one of his Quentin Tarantino characters than the sober Fury.
“I’m just the friendly neighborhood SpiderMan,” Parker complains to Fury.
“Bitch, please,” Fury responds. “You’ve been to space.”
Holland gives another convincingly likable and vulnerable performance, and he’s surrounded by actors in small roles who offer more than one note.
Jon Favreau as Stark associate Happy Hogan, mostly delivering briefcases or bad news in the MCU over the past 10 years, gets to show his own comic vulnerabilities. Marisa Tomei, returning as Aunt May, continues her 35year run of making everything she appears in at least 10 percent more delightful. Welcome new actors include Martin Starr and J.B. Smoove as teachers who perfectly capture the enthusiastic dorkiness of the school trip chaperone.
The plot has its wonderful moments, including “Inception”like visual effects scenes (created by several companies, including San Francisco’s Industrial Light & Magic) that prove there are indeed new things to see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The filmmakers create room for subtleties in the production design, beginning with slightly outoffocus class projects on the wall, some sort of group tribute to the fallen Iron Man.
But the strength is in the dialogue by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, who specialize in the “smaller” MCU movies, cowriting “SpiderMan Homecoming” and the solid “AntMan and the Wasp.” From that perfect first scene, an awkward AV Club superhero tribute at Peter’s school, they entertain the audience — while somehow never failing to lose track of the soul of the characters.
“Far From Home” ends nearly perfectly, with big battles straddling small human moments. And the promise that an epic superhero series, which seemingly ended two months ago, still has a few more good stories to tell.