Far From Home is Spectacular, Spider-Man

It’s only been a few years since a miracle happened, and yet I am still in awe of the fact that two major competitors are coming together to make movies magic such as this. The original Spider-Man trilogy was a massive disappointment, leading to a franchise reboot which, after two films, under-performed, leading Sony open to negotiations with Disney/Marvel. Those negotiations lead to a surprise guest appearance of a new, and much beloved Spider-Man appearing in 2016’s Civil War. Played by Tom Holland, this younger Spider-Man was nerdy, funny, and eager to use his power to do the right thing. My Sifu often said that Toby McGuire was a great Peter Parker, while Andrew Garfield was a great Spider-Man. But both lacked something. Tom Holland, meanwhile, manages to be both a great Peter Parker and Spider-Man. I agree with this assessment but was worried, after the ending of End Game, that we would soon lose this brilliant take on the character to make way for Miles Morales.

Personally, I don’t want to see this Spider-Man end any time soon. Tom Holland is young enough to keep this going for quite some time. I know that also depends on Sony and Disney maintaining their deal, and with the recent success of the Venom film, it’s likely that Sony will want a bigger slice of the Spider-Man pie. I imagine Disney will be amenable since Far From Home not only sets up Peter Parker as having a much larger role in the MCU than even I could have hoped for but managed to rake in quite a haul since it’s release on Tuesday. The future of Spider-Man looks bright, and I couldn’t be happier.

The film takes place eight months after Endgame. People are trying to reclaim their lives after being dusted, then blipped back into existence five years later. We learn Aunt May and several of Peter’s friends were all dusted, and are now back. May has been secretly seeing Tony Stark’s sidekick, Happy Hogan, while she deals with her experiences, and Happy tries to mourn the loss of his best friend. Peter, meanwhile, is trying to live up to the expectations being thrust upon him by the world to be the new Iron Man. A call he is not ready to answer.

Peter and his friends have the opportunity to enjoy an academic tour of Europe, which he believes will give him the chance to set the suit aside for a time, and just be a kid, tell Michelle Jones (MJ) that he likes her, and have the time of his life before returning to adult responsibilities. Sadly, it’s not long before Nick Fury shows up to drag him back into action. He introduces him to a new superhero who claims to have come from another dimension, Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio. Peter tries to reject the call, but between being given a pair of glasses that grants Peter access to Stark Tech, and Fury hijacking his vacation, Peter finds he has no choice but to get involved. Though, Shield is at least gracious enough to give him a new suit so he can try to hide the fact that Spider-Man is in Europe. Though Peter is still trying to hide his identity from his classmates, events keep making that harder and harder, as he vanishes, a monster attacks, and Spider-Man appears.

He then decides to turn over the Stark glasses to what he assumes is his new friend, Mysterio, hoping that doing so would grant him the power to be the new Iron Man, so Peter could enjoy being a kid who just does the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man gig on the side. The audience then learns that not all is what it seems with Mr. Beck. I’m not going to get deep into spoilers here, as they do a lot of cool stuff with this reveal that is a great call back to previous MCU films. It’s a lot of fun.

Eventually, Peter decides to just tell MJ his feelings, only for her to confront him with the suspicion that she has concerning his identity. He tries to deny it, only for her to reveal she found a piece of machinery that had webbing all over it. They accidentally trigger the device and expose Mysterio’s holograms. Peter immediately realizes he has made an egregious error and admits to his secrets before making a mad dash to confront Mysterio.

He makes his way to the SHIELD location and tries to warn Fury, only to be assaulted by an onslaught of illusions which confuse, and befuddle him, causing him to lose to Mysterio badly. He is later rescued by Happy Hogan who helps him Reve tee himself and build a new suit based on the original design by legendary comic artist Steve Ditko, who co-created Spider-Man, and like his partner, Stan Lee, passed away in 2018. It seems this film sought to try and honor him at last, even if past films forgot about him entirely.

Armed with his new black and red uniform, Peter charges into the next battle, against a massive hologram generated by the army of drones Mysterio stole using the Stark Glasses he conned Peter Parker out of. The battle is amazing. One of the best Spider-Man fights yet but ends with (I believe) Mysterio faking his own death.

Peter is able to reconcile with Michelle Jones, Ned and all his other friends and heads home only to discover a news broadcast by Jay Jonah Jameson played lovingly by none other than JK Simmon! Seriously, no one else can play this part. He has it down so tight, there’s no one else. Seeing him back, for me, was the highlight of this film. But he makes some pretty serious accusations against Spidey, and then outs Peter Parker as Spider-Man, leaving the film on a massive cliffhanger.

At the end of this film, I was excited for what comes next. Clearly, this review is late, and now we have news from SDCC that has me deeply troubled, and fearing that the movies are now following the direction of the comics and that the same bad decisions which have put the comic side of the business in jeopardy are happening here, because no one wants to learn their lessons. Of course, the films could still be good, I suppose, but if the preachy, cringe-inducing Captain Marvel is an indication, we have cause for concern. The question is now, is the future of Marvel Peter Parker: Spider-Man? Or cringe-inducing Captain Marvel? Only time will tell.