‘Spider-Man’ sequel smart, funny
Following what could be the biggest movie of all time, “Spider-Man: Far From Home” continues Marvel’s winning streak with a clever adventure as Spider-Man takes a tour of Europe. Chaos, of course, ensues.
Picking up from the emotional ending of “Avengers: Endgame,” Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is — spoiler for the second highest-grossing film of all time — still grieving for his late father figure, Tony Stark. Luckily for Peter, his science class has a European trip coming up. A break from crime-fighting, and a chance to get some alone time with MJ, are just what the troubled teenager needs.
Before the trip begins though, Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan informs Peter that Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury wants to talk to him. Deciding that he has earned a vacation — he did help save the world in the last two “Avengers” movies — Peter ignores Fury’s calls and heads to Europe.
In Venice, Peter sees a giant water monster attacking the city, and a new superhero named Mysterio, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, shows up to help Spider-Man kill the thing. Coincidentally, this was what Fury was trying to call Peter about. Four of these monsters are on the planet, and Fury says Spider-Man is the only superhero available to help the new hero.
I am one of the few people who didn’t love this film’s predecessor, “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” While I thought Holland and Michael Keaton were great, I thought almost none of the comedy in that film worked. In particular, I hated Spider-Man’s best friend/comic relief, Ned.
This movie is an all-around improvement over the last live-action “Spider-Man” movie. I still don’t find Ned funny, and his love story side plot with another student gets annoying fast, but most of the jokes involving Peter, MJ, Fury and Hogan do land.
This is a movie that is actually difficult to really talk about without spoiling the many twists and surprises within it. There is one twist in this movie that is supposed to be a big shocker. Having watched the “Spider-Man” cartoon when I was growing up, I knew before watching the movie that this twist was coming. Considering that most of the people in the almost soldout theater gasped at this twist, I won’t spoil it. I guess I know “Spider-Man” more than the average viewer, though. As I knew where it was going, I was kind of annoyed with the movie for taking so long to get to this moment, but it seemed to work for everybody else in the movie. Also, every “Spider-Man” fan knows that Peter and MJ end up a couple. A lot of this movie is Peter competing with another student for MJ’s attention. These scenes are funny, but they feel obligatory.
I have been critical of how Marvel shoots its big action scenes. In many of their movies — “Iron Man,” “Doctor Strange” “The Guardians of the Galaxy” — the fight scenes are the worst parts of the movie. This is not the case with “Far From Home.” Again, I can’t say why without giant spoilers, and other movies have done similar fights to these, but these fights are very clever and fun in a way that few Marvel fights have been in the past. While watching “Marvel” movies over the past year, I have frequently heard audience members start clapping when something cool happens. “Far From Home” finally got me to do the same in one scene. This scene — the best scene — is the mid-credits scene. I’ve grown tired of the post-credit scenes, but “Spider-Man” movies are the ones doing them the best. From Captain America trolling the audience in “Homecoming” to the hilarious meme at the end of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” “Spider-Man” post-credit scenes are killing it.
Of the three “MCU” movies to come out this year, I liked this one more than “Captain Marvel” or “Endgame.”