A day at the movies: Spider-Man: Far From Home

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Marvel's not slowing down anytime soon are they? They started the year off with a bang as "Captain Marvel" grossed $1 billion at the box office, and then "Avengers: Endgame" became the second highest grossing movie of all time. And now they are finally bringing phase 3 to an end with everyone's favorite wall crawler.

After the events of the final battle with Thanos, Peter Parker is starting to resume his life as both a student and superhero while still mourning the loss of Tony Stark. As such, he heads out on a field trip to Europe with some of his classmates who were also victims of Thanos. But when new villains known as the elementals start to wreak havoc, Spider-Man is recruited by Nick Fury to team up with a new hero named Mysterio in order to save the world. So does this sequel continue the story of Spider-Man in a meaningful way or will it make you want to stay far from it? Let's find out.

The Good

Ok what I love the most about this movie is the characters themselves. Tom Holland once again, kills it as the titular role of Spider-Man. Holland brilliantly shows a more sensitive side of Peter Parker as he's dealing with the fallout of Iron Mans sacrifice along with trying to ask out Michelle, but ultimately steps up to get the job done. Zendaya is also much better here as MJ than she was in "Homecoming". While she's just as snarky as ever, she's definitely more friendly in this movie and she is given more depth. While her and Peter liking each other is a huge leap from the last time we saw them together, the chemistry between them more than makes up for it.

But the biggest scene stealer in this movie is none other than Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio. Gyllenhaal brings the perfect amount of charisma and quirkiness to the role, and his interactions with Peter are definitely the biggest highlights of the film. There's not much more I can say about him without spoiling the movie but what I will say is that the visuals in the film are perfect for Mysterio's cinematic debut.

Finally, the action scenes in this movie are not only the best in a Marvel film to date, but they are by far the best action scenes in a Spider-Man film period. Yes, I even think that the action scenes in this film surpass the ones seen in "Into the Spider-Verse"! The best one is by far in the middle of the film which I will dare not spoil. But you will be blown away by it.

The Bad

I think the biggest issue I had with this movie was how it mostly handles the fallout of "Endgame". I mean come on, literally half of all life in the universe was wiped out then suddenly brought back five years later. You'd think that would be a great source for drama, especially the potential to see what the events of "Infinity War" and "Endgame" had on Peter's mental health as his death was one of the saddest moments in the former. But the fallout is instead treated mostly as a joke throughout the film and the world has just seemed to move on with life just fine. Granted I went along with it as the film went on, but it just seemed odd to me that something as major as that wasn't treated with the gravitas that you'd think it would.

Another issue I had was the character of Brad. Brad is a character who also has feelings for MJ and is hellbent on making her fall for him instead of Peter. Now I understand that the film wants you to dislike Brad but I feel that he was a little bit too obnoxious. And going into light spoilers here, but there is a scene in this movie where Peter is changing into his suit in front of a SHIELD agent, only for Brad to walk in take a picture of Peter undressed and try to show it to MJ. Granted the other characters call him out on it but it just really made the guy come off as a weirdo. Not helping matters is that his actor, Remy His,  is in his early 30's. Thus continuing the Spider-Man film franchises tradition of having 30 somethings play teenagers.

Conclusion

In spite of it's flaws "Far From Home" is a satisfying epilogue to the Infinity Saga of the MCU and a worthy follow up in the adventures of this iteration of Spider-Man. Add in some INCREDIBLE mid and post credit scenes, and it will really leave you excited for not only Spidey's future but the future of the MCU as a whole.

Rating: 8.5/10

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