Spider-Man Far From Home Review

If you read my review of Spider-Man Homecoming, you know exactly how delightful I found our latest iteration of Spider-Man. Tom Holland remains our best live-action Spider-Man, and capitalizing on Peter Parker’s relationship with Tony Stark as a foundation for a story about trying to live up to your role model’s expectations was brilliant. But could our new, Marvel-ous Spider-Man stick the landing the second time around?

…I mean, mostly.

Starting with the good, Tom Holland is still crushing it. No notes, Mr. Holland, you’re just the live action Spider-Man we always deserved. That, and the idea to make the sequel a European vacation/international spy-thriller starring our favorite web-head offered a lot of room for entertainment and drama. More than that, the idea of Spider-Man, a hero who has defended reality from Thanos having a hard time going back to being a regular Joe was also a good call. Some events divide your life into before and after, and it was smart to plan a movie around that conflict rather than trying to reset the status quo.

BUT… unlike Homecoming, which luxuriated in being tangential to the big action in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this film got caught in Feige’s web. As the first film back after Endgame, the fallout of “The Blip” was a much-needed explanation, but never really fit the stakes of this film, which is more about how Spider-Man needs to step up now that some of Earth’s mightiest heroes are off the table. Add to that “global” level crisis that Spider-Man is up against, Nick Fury and Maria Hill’s secrets from the stinger, and the plot being wrapped up in EVEN MORE dangerous Stark Industries technology, the moving pieces start to distract from the heart of the film: someone trying to choose between being a kid and a hero.

Without revealing too much, I will say that the central antagonist does test Spider-Man in a satisfying way and provides a nice commentary on the MCU’s formula for movies as a whole, but despite upping the stakes, Far from Home never flew quite as high as Homecoming for me. But here’s hoping that Spider-Man’s next outing is a little more Parker-centric.

4 Night Monkeys out of 5.