In a recent Daredevil comic (issue #5), Daredevil describes an encounter with Spider-Man, saying “He’s pure power and doesn’t even know it. The best of us.” It occurred to me that this gets to the heart of who Spider-Man is as a character, and maybe why he has such enduring appeal. He tends to underestimate himself, he usually ends up getting in over his head, and he comes out victorious.
Even though comic-book Spider-Man has been an adult for decades now, in some ways he forever remains the awkward teen who can’t quite believe that he’s an actual super-hero. It’s probably why the movie adaptations keep him in high school. That youthfulness, that tension between humility and responsibility, with a hefty dose of “holy cow, I’m actually Spider-Man!” is the essence of the character. And Tom Holland, more than previous actors, plays it to perfection.
Spider-Man has always been my favorite superhero, and in my (totally unbiased) opinion he also happens to be the most cinematic. His swinging, his web-slinging, and his super-spider-agility have an inherent kinetic energy that looks great on film, and which other heroes can never quite match. More than anyone else, Spider-Man just makes it look like fun.
If it seems like I’m talking a lot in generalizations here, with very few specifics about this particular movie, that’s because I am. As it turns out, Spider-Man: Far From Home is a difficult movie to say too much about without the risk of stepping into its minefield of spoilers.
In the larger context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this movie functions as a kind of epilogue to Avengers: Endgame. And the major events of Endgame do set the stage for Spider-Man. So if you haven’t seen Endgame yet, well, what the heck is wrong with you? Stop reading this and go watch it now.
The events of Infinity War and Endgame have left Peter Parker with a major case of superhero burnout. Fighting alongside the Avengers to avert crisis on a cosmic scale put him decidedly out of his league. And while he mostly managed to hold his own, his victory was not without profound and tragic loss.
This too is classic Spider-Man, and it usually leads to an image of a Spider-suit in a garbage can as Peter walks away from his superhero life. This time around his reaction is not so extreme – he just wants to hang up his suit and be a normal teenager for a while. He wants to go on a class trip to Europe, to pursue a relationship with his crush MJ (Zendaya), and to just, for a little while, not have to worry about saving the world.
Plans change, however, when they arrive in Venice just in time for a giant water-monster attack. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) wants to recruit Spidey to help save the world from these Elementals – creatures of air, earth, water, and fire – who threaten to destroy the Earth. To that end he teams up with an extra-dimensional superhero Quentin Beck, operating under the name “Mysterio” (Jake Gyllenhaal).
Comic-book fans familiar with Spider-Man and his extended cast of characters will know from the outset where this is headed. Even so, the twists and turns along the way keep the story from falling into predictability. It is fast-paced, engaging, and fun all the way through.
And it’s the relationships among the characters that really drive the story. Beck settles easily into the mentorship role left vacant by the death of Tony Stark. Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), having learned at the end of Homecoming about her nephew’s secret identity, has become his biggest fan and strongest support, which is a departure from the comics but makes for a great dynamic between them. And Peter’s best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) is sidelined by a romantic interest, leaving more room for Peter’s and MJ’s relationship to develop.
MJ’s expanded role here allows her to occasionally drop her Too-Cool façade and connect with Peter. The chemistry between Zendaya and Holland as they stumble through the ungainly steps into teenage romance is one of the film’s small, subtle delights.
The movie does in fact have a lot of small, subtle delights alongside its big action set pieces. That’s the core of Spider-Man as a character: even when fighting disaster on a global scale, he’s still just a kid from Queens trying his best to do the right thing. He’s just a friendly neighborhood street-level crime-fighter at heart.
Spider-Man: Far From Home is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, some language, and suggestive comments. One awkward situation is played for sexually suggestive humor. The Catholic News Service rates it as A-III: Suitable for Adults.
Josh McDonald
Josh McDonald is a jack-of-all-creative-trades: a writer/actor/singer/cartoonist who got his degree in film and is currently in training as a Catholic lay minister. Connect with him on Twitter and at his blog www.connectingdotsblog.com