Cinema Trips 'Spider-Man: Far From Home'

Spider-Man: Far From Home is the second stand alone Spider-Man film that exists within the continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film stars Tom Holland (The Impossible, The Lost City of Z, In the Heart of the Sea), Jacob Batalon (Every Day, Banana Split, Blood Fest), Jon Favreau (Chef, John Carter, Friends), and Zendaya (The Greatest Showman, Smallfoot, The OA) as part of the returning cast as Peter Parker, Ned, Happy and M.J. respectively. Joining the cast is also Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, The Red Violin, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace), and Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Nightcrawler, Brokeback Mountain) playing the established Nick Fury and newcomer to the universe Mysterio. Director John Watts (Clown, Cop Car), and writers Chris McKenna (Igor, The Lego Batman Movie, Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle), and Erik Sommers (The Lego Batman Movie, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) return behind the camera. The film runs for 129 minutes.

The narrative picks up an undisclosed amount of time following the events of Endgame, where the snap is now commonly referred to as the blip. As it was made clear by the trailers, Peter is going on a European trip with the rest of his class and hopes to tell M.J. how he feels about her. Along the way, Nick Fury hijacks the trip as a result of the various elementals that are attacking parts of the world as a result of having been transported here from another Earth, the same Earth where Mysterio came from. The narrative travels at a breakneck pace, blitzing through events in a race to get to the end. Despite this, the film manages to explore themes of expectations versus what one wants for themselves, balancing the life that you want with the life that you are expected to live as placed upon you by others, and finding out what your priorities are at such a transitional stage in your life, especially after losing a close father figure. With regards to these aspects of exploration, I would say that the film was quite successful in that regard. What is great is the fact that this film actually addresses a lot of the effects that were brought to the forefront as a result of the blip when it comes to friends, family, education, and relationships, making for some humorous segments.

The characters, as was the case in Spider-Man: Homecoming, are equally great when they are interacting with each other. The duo I enjoyed seeing on screen the most is Peter and Mysterio, as their chemistry was fantastic and there was a certain earnestness to the characters and the relationship that they possessed with each other. Ned is great whenever he is on screen, and Zendaya plays that one edgy friend you have really well. In addition, the romance between Happy and Aunt May is just as great here. In fact, all the actors that are in the film made for a great viewing experience, as it felt like all of the actors were having fun being there and working together, and that natural energy radiates out of the screen when you are watching the film.

Visually the film was pleasing to look at, and what is an added benefit is the fact that the camera was still through a majority of the action set pieces, so I was actually able to keep track of what was actually happening on screen. The film is bright and filled with colour, as is the case with almost all of the Marvel films; however, I felt that Far From Home was a lot more aesthetically pleasing even by Marvel standards for the most part. As this is a CGI-heavy film, there is always the risk that the fidelity and consistency of the CGI is not going to have a high base standard, even at the best of times. While there were moments where you could clearly see the green screen in the background, at no point did it distract me completely to the point that I was taken out of the film. The music, in turn, was fine when watching the film, however, aside from the modernised version of the classic theme, the soundtrack as a whole was not all too memorable in my opinion.

In closing, this is a Marvel film that I do recommend, as I did have a very good time watching it in the cinema, and if you do watch it, I highly, highly urge you to watch the post credit scenes, as one of them is absolutely fantastic, while the other sets up the future of the MCU and alludes to the possible direction they might be heading towards.