"I Don’t Think Tony Would’ve Done What He Did, If He Didn’t Know That You Were Going To Be Here After He Was Gone..."
With Avengers: Endgame managing to tie up a decade's worth of multi-layered storytelling with enormous success, with the recent re-release clearly a marketing tool to make sure Marvel's gargantuan epic finally knocks Avatar off the top spot for highest grossing film of all time, the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home this week is arguably one of the first MCU films to carry with it a heavy sense of superhero fatigue, particularly with Endgame still taking up cinema screens across the globe, and one which follows on from the high watermark of what audiences now come to expect from releases within its' respective cinematic universe. Acting as a sequel to both 2017's Homecoming and Endgame, Far From Home sees Jon Watts return to direct Tom Holland's portrayal of the friendly neighbourhood wall crawler for a film which although feels very familiar, is a sweet, thoroughly entertaining and highly comedic chapter in the Marvel universe, a move which sees young Peter Parker attempt to come to terms with the loss of Tony Stark/Iron Man by venturing upon a school trip in which his only goal is to build up the nerve to finally unleash his feelings on the zany MJ. Whilst a road trip without the sight of digitally designed mayhem would have been a bold choice indeed to follow on from Endgame, Far From Home of course features enough web-slinging and superhero goodness to make every MCU fan more than happy, and with such a likeable cast and sharp, clever dialogue, Watts' movie shows there is still an abundance of life in the old Marvel movie making machine yet.
With an opening act which attempts in a hilarious cliff notes format to present the aftershocks of the events of Endgame, where those not affected by the so called "blip" have of course moved up in years whilst the returned have stayed the same, Far From Home successfully manages to blend the "Spidey" sensibility of Peter Parker attempting to balance the responsibility of a superhero with the wishes of a teenager as seen before in the likes of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2, a movie which still remains top of most people's favourite wall crawling live-action feature, and thanks to a deliciously engaging script, Holland's performance is a tornado of teenage angst as he is constantly interrupted by Samuel L. Jackson's returning Nick Fury and co. in order to aid Jake Gyllenhaal's (Nocturnal Animals) Quentin Beck against the forces of "The Eternals", even when asking out Zendaya's (The Greatest Showman) MJ is the most important task in his life. As for Gyllenhaal, the multi-talented cinematic legend does begin somewhat awkward in a role of which an actor of his pedigree tends to avoid, particularly after the non-existent success of Prince of Persia, but as the movie's central, and somewhat expected for those familiar with the Quentin Beck/Mysterio character, twist finally arrives, the American is allowed to breathe, turning a somewhat ordinary antagonist into one of the more memorable MCU villains, one which taps into previous Gyllenhaal roles, particularly his full-on level of unhinged madness within the superb Nightcrawler. With a runtime slightly too long and a concluding act which is hard to distinguish between other MCU chapter conclusions, Far From Home is an excellent Spider-Man film and a very good MCU story which takes on the heavy task of following on from Endgame and passes with just enough success.
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