Far From Home is far above its competition [Heavy Spoilers!]

I have great things to say about Spider-Man: Far From Home; Marvel’s first Cinematic Universe film following the bombastic conclusion to their Infinity Stone saga.

When the first teaser trailer came out, I was skeptical. It dropped before Endgame and felt like the worst example of draining tension out of character deaths.

Then the trailer after Endgame made me confident by suggesting the movie would address repercussions of Tony Stark’s death.

Far From Home is steeped in Tony Stark, using the grief Spider-Man feels literally seeing his face in memorials everywhere to bridge us into the future. I was worried about the studio’s ability to hold my interest following its magnum opus, but that won’t be a problem if all upcoming MCU films are as fun and smart as this.

Unlike most of the MCU films I review, the stuff I love about Far From Home leans heavily into spoilers, so I’m going to hide specifics under a read more.

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, just know I highly recommend it.

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Featured Image courtesy of IMDb

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It’s hard to feel dejected about Disney monopolizing cinema when they did such a good job rebooting Spider-Man that I want an MCU treatment of The Fantastic Four.

Everyone in Far From Home has amazing chemistry. Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and MJ (Zendaya) are wonderful on and off screen. Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) has a paranoid energy that plays perfectly on his five year disappearance from what earthlings call “The Blip.” Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), as well as Ned (Jacob Batalon) and his summer-fling girlfriend Betty (Angourie Rice), add to a compelling ensemble.

And that’s not to say anything of Jake Gyllenhaal.

Gyllenhaal plays a Mysterio as compelling as the confidant of Holland as he is playing the “surprise” turncoat villain with ambitions to overcome superheroes with illusions.

Mysterio being the ultimate villain isn’t a surprise for anyone who knows comic canon or watched think-pieces on YouTube.

But my god if it isn’t awesome watching him slowly reveal a narcissistic madness.

One of the best things about Far From Home is the way it ties in past events more cleverly than most Marvel flicks.

The film starts with a high school news production “paying tribute” to Endgame‘s fallen that catches up the audience while giving me cringe-inducing flashbacks to Middle School video production.

That’s a real thing I worked on once.

Mysterio’s backstory ties directly back to Iron Man’s actions in Civil War and the original Iron Man.

And the end credit scenes are amazing, despite my hesitation at the praise heaped upon them over Twitter.

The mid-credit scene hosts the return of J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson while using Mysterio’s last-minute trickery to set up Spider-Man as a perceived villain.

Then the end-credit scene is less focused on the universe at large, but brings in the Skrull from Captain Marvel to turn the preceding few hours on their head.

It’s revealed that the Nick Fury we’ve been following is actually Ben Mendelsohn’s shapeshifting alien Talos — a reveal that backfills plot holes and odd comments (such as Fury telling Parker not to “invoke Carol Danvers’ name”).

Plus it leads to a brief scene with the real Fury on a space station that suggests we’re focusing more on the intergalactic Marvel Universe going forward.

The great character dynamics and fantastic world building rampant throughout Far From Home make it one of my favorite Marvel movies to date. Possibly even top 5.

It helps that the movie effortlessly fluctuates between hilarious and action-packed moments while hosting some of the best creative visuals since Dr. Strange during mind-bending illusion sequences.

In case it wasn’t obvious, I really enjoyed this movie.

My Dad and I had a blast going to see it this morning, and it’s hard to believe that I’m actually excited to see more Marvel movies soon… But I am!

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