SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME - Out of the Multiverse

When I was a much younger film enthusiast, one of my fondest wishes was to see a big-screen adaptation of my beloved Spider-Man comics, complete with wacky powers and silly suits and go-for-broke pulp world-building, and now. . .we're on our 7th live-action web-head outing in 17 years.

And if they keep being as good as Far From Home, I say keep 'em coming.

Sony and MARVEL undoubtedly didn't intend Spider-Man: Far From Home's narrative of "a kid trying to go to Paris now that he's been to space" to have the meta-textual underpinning of "another semi-grounded Peter Parker comedy adventure having to follow in the footsteps of a medium-defining pop masterpiece that's arguably the best superhero movie ever made," but here we are. After being "blipped" back into existence during the events of Avengers: Endgame, Peter (Tom Holland) not only feels the normal weight of trying to be Spider-Man while juggling high school, but has also lost 5 years compared to half of everyone he knows and is by default one of the best-known superheroes in a world post. . . well, all the stuff that happened in Endgame.

Look, maybe see that movie before this one.

Anyway, you'd want a vacation, too - and Peter wants his without the responsibility of having to take calls from Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) about other crazy threats to the world. He just wants to hang out with MJ (Zendaya), but Spidey's never had the best track record for avoiding responsibility, and one of the areas where Far From Home improves on Spider-Man: Homecoming is really digging into the dramatic meat of those choices and consequences. When Peter's school club field trip gets interrupted by a giant water monster smashing up Venice, Peter is forced into action. Not only is Fury in Europe and wanting Peter to step up, but a new hero named Quentin Beck, a.k.a. Mysterio, has appeared, claiming to be from a parallel Earth and warning that this elemental threat is only beginning. Peter also has to contend with an augmented reality system left to him by Tony Stark, and how this may or may not fit into how he wants to go forward as Spider-Man in a post-"blip" world.

This is where more knowledgeable Spider-Man fans might have a story leg up on more casual viewers, but suffice it to say that things start to go pear-shaped as more "elementals" emerge, Peter's plan to confess his feelings to MJ don't go precisely as planned, and Spider-Man finds that even new suits don't necessarily make the juggling of personal and heroic responsibilities all that easy. Jake Gyellenhaal proves a real casting coup as Mysterio, with an easy command of an enjoyably complex character, and Zendaya brings a great dry morbid humor as well as an investigative curiosity to a role that has seen a lot of variations on page and screen over the years, and really puts her stamp on it.

But Holland proves to be the film's silver bullet, totally embodying the "gifted kid in way over his head" side of Peter Parker. While director John Watts shows a marked improvement in visualizing Spidey's acrobatic action scenes, it's the very human sides of these kids and adults who should be looking out for them where this film really sticks the landing. Writers Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna (who also worked on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, The Lego Batman Movie, and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle as well as this film's predecessor) find deft ways to weave in gonzo concepts and characters from the goofier Silver Age comics stories while making them feel right at home in a high school comedy setting.

Which is the other trick in this film's arsenal - MARVEL Studios is known for its humor, but Far From Home is especially funny. The humor always not only feels earned through character (Tony Revalori is a great clown as Flash Thompson while still having a quietly sad c-plot), it knows when to get out of its own way. There's an opening tribute that feels cannily overplayed, but the film's repeated use of those "In Memoriam" images coalesce into a real feeling of melancholy and uncertainty that the film makes great use of for its big third-act turn.

I still maintain that Into the Spider-Verse is the best Spider-Man film ever made, but Far From Home is the first time the live-action entries have captured some of the same magic that I felt in the Sam Raimi films. The MCU's Spider-Man has become something pretty spectacular.