Last night we went to see Spider-Man: Far From Home, the July 2, 2019 release in the Spider-Man franchise, which stars Tom Holland, Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya and Jake Gyllenhaal. I love Spider-Man and yes, I liked this movie. I have tried to write this review without too many spoilers. It is pretty hard to write without any, especially in this instance. Read on.
THE STORY
Spider-Man: Far From Home follows what happened in Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame. It finds our friend Spider-Man or Peter Parker back at school as in New York City with his friends. The group is preparing for a class trip to Europe while that which is left of the Marvel organization Sheild is facing threats from natural disaster themed villains called the Elementals. Once Peter arrives in Venice, Italy, he is pretty much forced to help save the world and works alongside an impressive new superhero character named Mysterio. Peter would really rather be being the ordinary friendly neighborhood Spider-Man of days gone by and spend his time being a normal teenager, telling his crush MJ that he has feelings for her but things do not go according to plan and he winds up in a web of trouble.
Here's the trailer:
And here's another one:
Spider-Man: Far From Home is definitely heavy heavy on teen humor. I did love much of it though at moments it could seem a bit much.
There is also lots of teen angst with a number of relationships both of the family and female and male variety.
It also has a travel angle. When Peter Parker and his class mates arrive in Venice, Italy it is familiar to me because I had the chance to spend days in that city. At least, I should say it was familiar before the fighting began.
I was curious about what others made of the movie and here's a wee round up.
Forbes Magazine's Mark Hughes gives Spider-Man: Far From Home at first a business-like review with lots of comparisons and he quoted Rotten Tomatoes statistics by saying that "Spidey's latest trip to the multiplex is tied with Endgame and behind only Black Panther, making it the second-best reviewed Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film alongside Endgame. Of all live-action superhero movies from every studio, Far From Home is in a three-way tie with The Dark Knight and Endgame for second place behind Black Panther." Hughes eventually says that "Tom Holland is easily the best actor to play Peter Parker." I do enjoy Holland's version of the web slinger. How about you? Forbes sums up with, this movie "is everything a Spidey sequel needed to be and more. Bold, beautiful, and brilliant, it is a worthy final chapter to the Infinity Saga." They nailed it. Would I see it again? I will.
It is Spider-Man, after all.
Christy Lemire at Roger Ebert's website is a bit tougher with her review. She gives some credit by saying that it was hard to follow up Spider-Man Homecoming and that this movie gave a valiant effort to do so. She says Far From Home "works best as a high school comedy" and yes, I agree though for Spider-Man, I am willing to accept this as an important part of the movie particularly since Spider-Man is a 16-year old teenager who does not really want to be a superhero. He just wants to be a normal teenager and the entire movie finds him fighting these two roles. Lemire closes by saying, "Perhaps his (Spider-Man's) true superpower is the fact that he seems more like a relatable, fully fleshed-out human being than any other character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe." Yes, I agree here, too and the movie definitely sets us up for more Spider-Man movies to come so we will have a more opportunities to explore Peter Parker's personality. Lemire gives the movie 2.5 of 3 thumbs up.
Ruth on FlixChatter sums up the characters quite nicely. She says, "Tom Holland absolutely rocks as both Spider-man and his alter ego Peter Parker." I agree. He does both very well. She calls Marisa Tomei wonderful as Aunt May, enjoyed having Jon Favreau back as Happy to look after Spider-Man and even adores Zendaya as MJ. She calls Spider-Man: Far From Home her favorite Spider-Man movie but, as much as I enjoyed this movie, I think that I would have to have a Spider-Man movieathon to pick a favorite.
Heads Up
In terms of what to be concerned about, this movie has a bit more action violence than the previous Spider-Man did. There's lots of action, massive destruction and at one point, Spider-Man is seen quite battered and bruised. This movie also has some strong language, flirting, discussions of liking someone and dating, some hand-holding and a few brief kisses.
Common Sense says there is a lot to take away from the themes in this movie and lists "responsibility, leadership, courage, confidence, perseverance and rising up to face your destiny." As a matter of fact, Common Sense believes that the movie stands out for character strengths this despite the fact that Spider-Man makes numerous bad choices in this movie. Common Sense Media gives the movie 4 out of 5 stars. They give the movie four out of five stars and recommend it for children eleven years and up.
The Canadian Movie Rating for this movie is PG (Parental Guidance) for violence, language that may offend and some scary scenes.
Summary
See you
at the movies!
Brenda
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Buy this Spider-Man movie poster on Amazon.
