Spider-Man: Far from Home

Summer has arrived and with a school trip planned across Europe, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) wants to leave his Spider-Man alter ego at home. However with the arrival of new superhero Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), there’s little chance of that.

… a post card of humorously scenic destinations.

After several standalone movies and other appearances in Marvel’s Avengers movies, Tom Holland’s high-school take on Spider-Man is now pretty much the most established version. More family friendly than Tobey Maguire’s, less angsty than Andrew Garfield’s, Holland’s iteration is deliberately a youthful one and packed full with gags. 

Continuing after the traumatic events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’, this latest Spider-Man movie dials up the humour even more. However, in doing so, ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ inadvertently becomes a much more comedic outing than an adventurous one. Whereas ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ deliberately put its hammer through its cheek to deliver fatigued audience’s a bawdy comedy, ‘Spider-Man Far From Home’ feels less consequential than the preceding ‘Spider-Man Homecoming’. 

Without a clearly-cut and nemesis as in Michael Keaton’s Vulture, Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio almost vanishes inside his own vague raison d’être. Add to this Peter’s on-going pursuit of Zendana’s Mary Jane and you find that character development has been firmly relegated to sub plot status. As a result, ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ quickly becomes a post card of humorously scenic destinations rather than ever arriving at a dramatic conclusion.

Leaving its very best for the post-credit scenes, ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ is nearly upended by its own appendices. Teasing several deliciously substantial prospects at the end, Spider-Man: Far From Home’ is is worth seeing for its post-Snap references, touching homages and tantalising cliff-hanger post credit sequence. That is unless Sony decide to surprise us all and fold Spidey into the next Venom sequel. 

Now, that would be a Spider tingle worth waiting for…