Reviewed by Victor Rebikoff.
Director: Jon Watts, Marvel Studios & Sony Pictures Releasing, M 129 Minutes.
In director Jon Watts’ sequel to his 2017 release of ‘Spiderman Homecoming’ Tom Holland reprises his role as the web-slinging Spiderman following the extraordinary extra-terrestrial devastations seen in ‘Avengers Endgame’ that ended the life of his mentor Ironman.
In his second stand-alone outing, student Peter Parker is still getting over the loss of Ironman, who he saw as a father figure, and is badly seeking a break from his superhero responsibilities by going on a school group tour of Europe.
Besides accompanying best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) on the school science trip, Peter is intent on pursuing his love interest MJ (former singer Zendaya), just as Avengers boss Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) calls him over an impending crisis.
It turns out that a consequence of the cosmic disruptions manifested in ‘Avengers Endgame’ is the appearance of creatures called the Elementals which coincidentally are being confronted by Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal –‘Stronger’), a superhero supposedly from another dimension.
Reluctantly, Peter puts on his Spiderman suit to partner with his superhero counterpart in subjugating the first of four creatures that use the elements in inflicting destruction on the city unaware of Mysterio’s real motives in his redeeming actions.
Despite being pressured by both Fury and Stark’s close friend Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) for Parker to continue working with Mysterio in eliminating the elemental creatures, Peter’s preference is to enjoy the major touristy landmarks, particularly with MJ.
But life was not meant to be easy for superheroes as Spiderman springs into action to save his friends by combatting the elemental creatures to stop further destruction and surprisingly without any support from Mysterio – in fact quite the opposite.
In some respects Watts’ Spiderman sequel can be seen as creating a bridge between the apocalyptic events in ‘Avengers Endgame’ and the way forward into the future for those remaining superheroes in Marvel’s cinematic universe.
Even though Holland’s performance in ‘Far from Home’ is enjoyable as in ‘Homecoming’, the entertainment is mainly derived from Gyllenhaal‘s inclusion and the action scenes arising from some stunning special effects.
It is also a matter of conjecture whether Holland is better than the popular Tobey Maguire in his portrayal of Spiderman in the ‘Spiderman’ trilogy (2002-07)
Vic’s Verdict: 3 ½ Stars
