SPIDER MAN FAR FROM HOME
Storyline
Just as Homecoming was a whip-smart John Hughes-inspired teen comedy that also happened to be a Spider-Man movie, Far From Homewould fly by without any interrupting superheroics. The impeccable Spidey-sense of humour from the previous film isn’t quite as well-honed here (a recurring gag about J.B. Smoove’s teacher believing in witchcraft never lands, while Ned and Peter’s golden double-act gets less screen time), but returning director Jon Watts clearly relishes the coming-of-age touchstones afforded by his teen hero, this time combining the Hughes influence with a Eurotrip-inspired vision of Europe (a brief jaunt to the Netherlands is improbably populated with windmills, tulips galore, and kindly sports hooligans).
But superheroics do, inevitably, interrupt when Nick Fury (Jackson) hijacks the school trip, recruiting Spidey to battle destructive elemental creatures alongside Jake Gyllenhaal’s newly arrived hero Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio — purporting to hail from the same alternate dimension as the monsters. Watts nailed the localised Queens setting of Homecoming, but clearly delights in the possibilities of taking the friendly Spider-Man out of his neighbourhood — Parker now contending with crumbling architecture, crowds of sightseers, and enemies unaffected by his webs. The director gets maximum mileage out of Spider-Man’s status as the most acrobatic Avenger, punctuating the action set-pieces with dizzying flips and thwips, most effectively in a slick showdown on London’s Tower Bridge.
After Homecoming saw Parker working under the tutelage of Tony Stark, the Iron Man-shaped void brings three new potential father-figures into his life. Mysterio, in a typically non-traditional MCU twist on the source material, is now his co-worker and confidante, offering companionship and empathy for Parker’s latest loss. And then there’s Fury, Jackson back on mischievously imperious form, both lamenting that Earth’s most available hero is a literal schoolkid and relishing the chance to brandish his considerable authority over him. And after spending much of Homecoming fielding Parker’s needy voicemails, Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan now bonds with the youngster through their shared grief and fear of Fury — all while striking up a secret relationship with Aunt May (Tomei). It’s testament to Watts that these character threads dovetail neatly without jostling for screentime, bringing even more emotional depth to the MCU’s Spidey-verse.
If the buddy relationship between Parker and Beck initially feels bland, Gyllenhaal later shakes up his vanilla heroism, the film switching up a gear just as it appears to be going through the motions. There’s no equivalent rug-pull to the Vulture reveal in Homecoming — anyone who took Spidey Comics 101 will see a major development coming — but Watts stages his upping-of-the-stakes moment with a jolt of energy that spurs a wickedly fun second half, boasting surprising ties to the minutiae of the MCU that reach right back to the franchise beginnings. Not only that, but Far From Home unexpectedly delivers the series’ most thrillingly mind-bending imagery since Doctor Strange had his third eye opened by The Ancient One.
PG-13 | | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi | 2 July 2019 (USA)
Director:
Jon Watts
SYNOPSIS
In the latest chapter of MCU`s Spider-Man series, our friendly neighborhood superhero decides to join his best friends Ned, MJ and the rest of the gang on a European vacation. However, Peter`s plans to leave heroics behind for a few weeks are quickly scrapped when he begrudgingly agrees to help Nick Fury uncover the mystery of several elemental creature attacks, creating havoc across the continent
Comments
Post a Comment