Spider-Man: Far From Home

Now that I've seen Spider-Man: Far From Home twice, as per the usual, I feel like I can fully talk about it. Thankfully, the viewings were only a few days apart, so I still have some hot takes left in me.

I want to warn you, there WILL be spoilers.

I loved this movie. I did like Homecoming more, but this one is still really good. It picks up on the threads left in the wake of Avengers: End Game.

One of the questions I had with fellow nerds was, what will the world be like for all those people that have come back from the Thanos snap. Thankfully this movie tackles that within the first ten minutes of this movie. Their handling of it made me not question it anymore and hopefully we don't have to hear any more about it.

Before I go any further, let me just shout this from the mountain tops. Tom Holland is far and away the best Peter Parker/Spider-Man that we've gotten. There is no questioning this. End of discussion.

He carries these movies and he is exactly like you would imagine a teenager with super powers would be. Awkward, clumsy and trying to figure out who he is. In this movie though, he is more tortured in that he is dealing with the death of his mentor/father figure in Tony Stark while also trying to navigate the life of a typical teenager. Layer that in with his crushing feeling of responsibility that leads him to think of others before himself and he is a guy that you always root for.

His "man in the chair", Ned is still great in this movie. He is the comedic sidekick that this movie needs to keep things light. He also gets a little bit to do. I also think that Zendaya should get more credit for the job she has done as MJ. Her awkwardness makes every scene, but also makes her a match for Peter and I love that. I say this because if you see her in other stuff, she is not like this, so that is a testament to the job she pulls off here.

I am all about the teen drama, so I loved watching all these characters bounce off each other. Seeing love triangles form and fall. Watching unexpected love blossom. All of this is a lot of fun without feeling trashy. While I am on the subject, I'm glad that they have kept everyone in high school and didn't feel the need to make them grown ups in subsequent films.

Can I also say how amazing it is that we live in a world where freakin' MYSTERIO is in a big budget Spider-Man? With a very great, modern take on his classic costume. He still has the fishbowl head. Jake Gyllenhal really commits to this guy and I can't think of anyone that is able to elevate what is traditionally a goofy character. We've had the Vulture, Scorpion (to a lesser degree), the Shocker and now Mysterio. They are slowly building their way to the Sinister Six and I hope that gets realized in about two movies from now.

Speaking of Mysterio, while I thought his motivation was a tad flimsy, I liked that they really leaned into it. For a while there, I was getting flashbacks to Iron Man 3. Like a good villain, he truly believes in what he is doing, even if it is a tad mustache-twirly. Also, credit to this movie to really pull from the past to show the people that joined in with Mysterio and why they are here.

All in all, this movie was a lot of fun. We get Sam Jackson back as Nick Fury and he is at his most Sam Jacksony-ish. You know what I mean. We get a lot more of Happy (Jon Faverau) and he definitely adds to the movie. He is not the absent dad like he was in the first one. Now he feels fondly for Peter, if he is also after Aunt May. There were a lot of good comedy beats. This movie may have dialed up the drama, but it also dialed up the comedy to keep in step.

Last but not least, we get an appearance from J.K. Simmons reprising his role as J. Jonah Jameson! This proves again that he is perfectly cast. I would love for him to appear more in the next movie. He is too perfect. We haven't had the public hating on Spider-Man like in the comics and I think by the end of this movie, they have set it up to be just that.

In the end, the trailers made this seem more epic than it was with these huge "monsters" that Peter faces. I'm glad at the end of it all, it is still him fighting a regular dude. Keeping Spider-Man more street level after the Avengers movies is a great idea.

This was a worthy successor to Spider-Man: Homecoming and I hope we at least get one more Spider-Man movie, if not more with this cast.

High recommendation from me to go see this film. Stay for after the credits. THAT I won't spoil for you.