“Spider-Man: Far From Home” is the latest instalment of the
MCU; and more importantly, the first movie after the events of the massive “Avengers:
Endgame”. So, this would not have been an easy movie to make – the movie does
need to address those events as well as the aftermath, but cannot spend too
much time on it so as to feel bogged down and heavy on the emotions. Especially
with a character like Peter Parker/Spider-Man, who is, especially in this
iteration of this character, an earnest kid with a lot of growing up to do. So,
does “Far From Home” manage to walk what would seem to be a tight-rope walk
between levity and heavy emotion? Thankfully, yes – “Far From Home” is a coming
of age, high-school rom-com packaged in a superhero movie, and works as the
perfect palate cleanser after the emotionally charged “Endgame”.
It’s hard to go too much into the plot of “Far From Home” without
delving into spoilers – I will walk my own tight-rope walk of avoiding spoilers
of both “Endgame” (for those who’ve been living under a rock) and “Far From
Home”. Peter Parker (Tom Holland) hopes to take a break and escape from the
burden of expectations on him from people after the events of “Endgame”, as
well as constant calls from Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) by going on a school
trip to Europe – he also has a laid-out plan to woo his crush MJ (Zendaya). But
his holiday is quickly interrupted when some other-worldly creatures called “Elementals”
cause chaos and destruction, and Spider-Man is roped in to help Quentin Beck
(Jake Gyllenhaal), a hero from another dimension. For fans of the comic, who
are familiar with the characters in this film, the twists in this movie are fairly
obvious and nothing would count as ‘spoilers’ – but for someone like me who
wasn’t aware of this specific story arc, I will stop with the synopsis now.
“Far From Home” works very well because of its excellent
writing – the teen comedy bits are definitely the highlight of the movie, despite
the great set pieces and the grand scale. This is not because the action is
lacking or the stakes are not high enough, but because the movie knows where
its heart is and focuses on the awkwardness and charming innocence of Peter and
his friends. The movie is very funny, and the levity in the proceedings work
very well. This is especially evident in the moments where they address some of
the ramifications of the events of “Endgame”, now referred to as ‘the blip’. Another
example of brilliant writing is how they have contextualized some of the more
fantastical elements to have it work and make sense in this universe. The
writers also focus on the emotions well – I was especially impressed with how, with
not many scenes, they established a bond between Peter and Happy Hogan (John
Favreau).
That being said, let us not take away anything from the
action which is excellent – although some of it seems generic. Which works fine
in the context of the story. But there are some stunningly gorgeous, fairly ‘difficult
to put on screen in live action’ scenes which are animated and shot so
exquisitely, it is literally like a comic book coming to life – I did not
expect to see such amazing visuals so close to “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”.
For that alone, I would recommend watching it on the biggest screen you can
find.
The acting here is top-notch. Tom Holland is, for me, the
best Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Which is no mean feat in itself. Jake
Gyllenhaal is yet another example of Marvel’s genius in casting. All of the
supporting cast are great – Jacob Batalon, Zendaya, Marissa Tomei, Sam Jackson..
actually, just everyone is perfect.
On a related note, make sure you stay for all the
end-credits (there is a mid-credits scene and an end-credits scene). Not only
are they really important and pretty much pave the way for the future movies,
for me, it also put some acting choices in perspective. Won’t say more.
On the whole, “Spider-Man: Far From Home” is a fun and light
summer blockbuster that would work for all audiences. I didn’t know it going
in, but it’s the movie we needed after “Avengers: Endgame”.
