Spider-Man: Far From Home - Review

I'll say this right off the bat. I really don't think a Spider-Man movie will come along that I will enjoy more than the first two Sam Raimi films. The good news is however, the last two Spider-Man films that have come out have been truly excellent movies. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and now Spider-Man: Far From Home. Although I did enjoy my time with Spider-Man: Homecoming, I have not had this much fun watching Spider-Man (in live-action) on the big screen in a long time.

Before I saw this movie, some people at my work were discussing it and described it as a superhero film meets a John Hughes movie. Now, I have heard those comparisons before with the first Tom Holland Spider-Man film, so I went in expecting more of the same. However, I know that I am in the minority here, but whenever I go into an MCU movie, I am hoping to laugh, but I also hope that the comedy doesn't come at expense of the story. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is probably the worst culprit of this. Sure, it's necessary to have comedy in your movie, but when I can't take anything seriously in the movie because the characters are more worried about making jokes and being funny for the camera, I can't fully get invested in the story on screen. Spider-Man: Far From Home finds the absolute perfect balance between teen rom-com and superhero action movie. Peter Parker is a teenager with raging hormones, worrying about girls and struggling with the classic, "with great power comes great responsibility" mindset (don't worry, you don't hear those exact words in the movie). So it makes sense for the story to be a teenage romantic comedy as the backdrop for all the MCU superhero stuff.

That being said, just because you go the "comedy route" in your superhero movie, doesn't mean that the jokes will land. One of the most annoying things about any movie is when they constantly barrage you with jokes and none of them even get a chuckle. Add on top of that, it's really annoying being in a theatre watching a movie like this that isn't funny, but you can tell that the people around you are going crazy with laughter (Deadpool 2 anyone?) Spider-Man: Far From Home had me laughing out loud many many times and I had a smile on my face for a large portion of this movie. What helps with that is the amazing cast of characters. Tom Holland is such a likable Peter Parker and a badass Spider-Man. In my eyes, because I grew up with the original Sam Raimi films, Tobey Maguire is my favourite Spider-Man, but objectively speaking, Tom Holland is the perfect Spider-Man. His chemistry with his best friend Ned, his school-crush MJ, his distractingly good-looking Aunt May, and of course, Happy and Nick Fury are all real strong and warrant lots of laughs.

But perhaps the most interesting character in the movie is Quintin Beck aka Mysterio played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Now, when I saw him in the trailer, I was a little put off by him. I don't know what it was, but seeing a man as good-looking as him play this weird alien dude in Spider-Man, something just felt off. Things didn't change when the movie began and we were introduced to him. We see him making a speech about how he is from another dimension and how he needs to save the world from these elemental beings and all I am thinking is, "Jake, what are you doing here?" I should also mention that I did not read the Spider-Man comic books growing up and my knowledge on the Mysterio character only stems from the Spider-Man 2 video game. However, then I remembered that Jon Watts, the director of Spider-Man: Homecoming, was also directing this movie and I remembered the little twist he gave to the Vulture Spider-Man: Homecoming. Once I had that in my mind, and the movie kept chugging along, I started to understand more and more why they cast Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio. So while he wasn't someone who stole the show from the beginning, he definitely is now one of my favourite characters in the MCU.

Balanced is almost the perfect word to describe this movie. Not only does this movie find the perfect balance between light-hearted comedy and superhero action but it also finds the perfect balance between a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie and a Spider-Man movie. The only thing that is not balanced in this movie is the amount of good parts to bad parts. This movie was awesome and it makes me so happy to keep seeing Spider-Man films that entertain me and make me excited for more Spidey adventures.