Stubs - Spider-Man: Far From Home

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) Starring: Tom Holland, Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, J. B. Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Martin Starr, Marisa Tomei, Jake Gyllenhaal Directed by Jon Watts Screenplay by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers Based on Spider-Man created by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko. Produced by Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal Run Time: 129 minutes. USA Color Superhero

Just when you thought Phase Three of the MCU came to a satisfying conclusion with Avengers: Endgame (2019), here comes the final film, Spider-Man: Far From Home, which ends it, this time for sure. For those of you that remember Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), this might not be the sequel you were expecting. The end of that film set up what you might have expected, a return by Vulture (Michael Keaton). But that’s not the story here.

Rather than Keaton, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) returns and we’re introduced to a new character to the films, Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal). In addition to Tom Holland returning as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, much of the other cast members also reprise their roles. This time, rather than the Academic Decathlon being the centerpiece, Parker’s High School class is on a two-week summer field trip to Europe.

Tom Holland plays Spider-Man for the fifth time in Far From Home.

The film is surprisingly better than I had hoped for. While no one can replace Tobey Maguire as my ideal Spider-Man, Holland is better the fifth time around and in the second film starring as Peter Parker. There is still the adolescent issues the story can get mired in, but they aren’t really all that much younger than Maguire and Kirsten Dunst were portraying in the first trilogy. In the next film, and you know it’s coming eventually, it would be nice to see them move on to college, even a local one, just to put some age on them and give them more adult issues to deal with.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Mysterio.

Jake Gyllenhaal is good in the role of Mysterio. Though this is a character portrayed in the comic books as a villain, he enters the story as a hero, from an alternative universe here to help fight mythological creatures call Elementals, you know basically Earth, Water, Wind and Fire as villains. But his intentions are not as pure as they might seem at first.

Not all of the additions are really worthwhile. J.B. Smoove’s role as Julius Deli is almost a waste. Except for what I’ll call Smoove touches (and I’ll let you decide if I like them or not), his character feels like an add-on that you don’t really need. Martin Starr returns as Roger Harrington, the Academic Decathlon adviser, and chaperone on the trip. When you can get past the idea that they would let him lead another field trip after the Washington D.C. misadventures in Homecoming, he does provide some comedic relief though there are definitely issues with some of the itinerary planning.

Zendaya returns as Peter's traditional love interest, MJ.

The rest of the returning cast, including Zendaya as MJ, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds and Marisa Tomei as Aunt May, are all good in their roles. Zendaya gets more screen time here than she did in Homecoming and that’s good for the film. Hopefully, she will be back in the next installment of the franchise.

The initial box-office for this film is even better than that for Endgame, but I don’t see this having the same staying power. This was not as hotly anticipated as its predecessor film, though it should have strong legs, I don’t envision this chasing Avatar for all-time money champ. This is a stronger film than I anticipated, though leave it to Marvel to pull another rabbit out of its hat just when it needs to. There is the action-comedy mix that you come to expect with the MCU and I would recommend this to anyone who might be sitting on the fence. If nothing else, after 22 films, what’s one more?