Last week, my sister and I went to the theatre to watch Spider-Man: Far From Home. A few weeks before that, I went to watch it with my other sister and our friend. That is how much I loved it. I might even dare say that it was better than Endgame. (The ending of Endgame was not my favorite. As well as the whole time-travel thing…)
Just how much did I love this movie? Let me count the ways…
NOTE: This review may contain spoilers! So if you really want to go in surprised, don’t read number five. If you honestly couldn’t care a less about spoilers, go ahead and keep reading.
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Happy and Aunt May
This one was somewhat surprising, but not really. Peter’s Aunt May and Happy Hogan (Happy Hogan of all people!) dating over the summer while Peter’s away on a summer vacation with classmates was absolutely hilarious! With Happy being known as a surly, no-nonsense kinda guy who you always imagined to remain happily single, him dating Aunt May, an up-beat, kind, generous, and fun-loving person, made for a certainly special relationship.
One that I think helped Happy open up a bit more and become a bit gentler and more confident.
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Character Arc
Let me just say a few words about Peter Parker’s character arc. While watching the film for the second time, I noticed something; Peter’s arc follows the rules written in K.M. Weiland’s book Creating Character Arcs. Which pretty much means, they did a stupendous job! My sister is convinced that one of the screenwriters/scriptwriters has a copy of her book. That would be cool if they did.
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Costumes
In this movie, Spider-Man has not one, not two, but four different suits! First is his iron-spider suit, then his suit from the first film, then a black one made for him as he goes incognito in Europe, and then the one he makes himself at the end of the film. (Oh, and lets not forget that short scene where he was wearing his very first spider-suit. The one with the goggles and hoodie.)
I really enjoyed seeing all of the different kinds of suits, and I think I like the last one the best. That is, until it got beat up. You know how that goes in Marvel films….
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Interesting Side Characters
Spider-Man: Far From Home did a really good job in adding in the side characters, as well as a side plot, without deviating from the main plot and making things messy. The whole thing was executed fairly well, and the action with the other students didn’t bog down or mess up the overall plotline.
Also, MJ was pretty cool. She’s got to be my favorite side character, partly because she and I have a similar personality. So it was great to see a movie with someone who is like me (and not the sweet, flirty, extroverted girlfriend. They get old after a while…)
Ned and Betty’s little romance also lent the film a bit of humor without over-doing it.
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Stunning Visuals and Bad Guy
All of the illusion-like visuals were amazing! I was very impressed with how Mysterio created the sort of Divergent-like fights with Spider-Man, visual-wise. (The parts where the main character was taking her test to see which faction she belonged to and all that. Not the actual fight scenes in the film.) Him turning out to be the bad guy wasn’t a surprise (I was just waiting for it to happen), but it made him all the more potent, especially since he used illusion tech and Peter’s sixth sense was on the fritz. It made fight scenes that much more potent and satisfying to watch. Really, Quentin Beck, a.k.a. Mysterio, was a great bad guy in his twisted quest to make people like him by creating threats that he can defeat.
The end fight was really the best. And the most heart-pounding. I won’t say anything more, especially after spoiling who the bad-guy really is.
Overall, I really enjoyed Spider-Man: Far From Home, and I am putting it up there among my favorite Marvel movies with Dr. Strange and Thor: Ragnorok. Now we have to wait and see if Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness will live up to the first installment.
I rate it: 4 ½ out of 5 stars
