WatchSeeLookView - Spider-Man: Far From Home

It was pretty much a given that I was going to watch this one, wasn’t it? Let’s face it, I’m clearly locked in with the whole Marvel film thing now. Seems unlikely to change any time soon. Oh, and as always, there may be some level of spoilery-ness about all this. Warning duly delivered.

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Dir. Jon Watts / Dur. 129 mins

The Good:- Picking up pretty much directly where Avengers Endgame left off, it’a a world mourning the loss of its heroes and struggling to come to terms with what’s now being called the Blip (the five years where half of all life disappeared). It’s clear from the off, though, that the tone here is going to be fairly light after the relentless nature of Endgame. Tom Holland and Zendaya are both on good form and have suitably awkward and nerdy chemistry as Peter and MJ and I’m also enjoying the current trend of expanded screen time for Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury. In fact, Tom Holland works really well as the traditional teenage Spider-Man; I really enjoyed the Sam Raimi Spider_man films but was never bowled over by Tobey Maguire as either Peter or Spidey. It brings the focus back in to the main characters after the universe-spanning events of Endgame and feels like the right change of pace. It zips along nicely, it’s good fun and had an extremely satisfying mid-credits tease of a big status quo change for Spider-Man (as well as the return of a familiar face playing a Spider-Man character not seen in the MCU to date).

The Bad:- Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio is a little on the lacklustre side; not bad as such but it feels a little like he’s phoning it in. The big reveal (while nicely tying in to previous to Marvel continuity) is nothing of the kind if you know anything at all about Spider-Man comics and, given that I’ve read some over the years, was exactly what I was waiting for so therefore a little disappointing. 
Not something that the film can do anything about but this is the first Marvel film without a Stan Lee cameo and I certainly felt its absence.

The Verdict:- It’s enjoyable, funny and has some strong set action pieces. A completely obvious twist and an underwhelming turn from Jake Gyllenhaal stop it from being lifted up to the top tier of Marvel films as well as the feeling that this is largely an epilogue to what has gone before. An enjoyable slice of Marvel fun but not one that’s likely to be at the top of anyone’s Marvel films list.