<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Jon Watts. Starring Tom Holland, Samuel L. Jackson, Jacke Gyllenhall, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, JB Smoove, Martin Starr, Jacob Batalon, Tony Revolori, Angourie Rice, Remy Hill, Marisa Tomei

Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes

It seems to be the trend to take heroes away from America and show audiences Europe with films like MIB: International and now Spider-Man taking the leap. If only a change of scenery could make these franchises more interesting. 

The 22^ndfilm in the Marvel Universe is here and it picks up after the last Avengers movie (Endgame), which saw the great battle and some of our heroes dying. Peter Parker AKA Spider-Man (Tom Holland) is still grieving the loss of his surrogate father and friend Tony Stark AKA Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and would rather be wooing MJ (Zendaya) than fighting the bad guys. Their class trip takes them on a tour of some European cities where coincidentally a mysterious set of ‘elemental monsters’ appears wreaking havoc and engaging Spider-Man who is joined by the mysterious off-worlder Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhall). They form a bond, but something far worse is about to test Peter and the city of London, which has become the new cinematic target for destruction.

Far From Home is like a video game on steroids. There’s way too much fast-paced action and choppy CGI to allow for any real story. Kids may enjoy it. There’s also that humour Marvel films are known for. So be ready for jokes while buildings are crashing and people are dying.

The film does show us how tired Spider-Man is after all the Avengers films and also how he’s certainly not ready to lead the Avengers into anything. Perhaps it’s to show us his learning process as he grows up but there’s no serious character development here. Most of what we see is CGI and special effects overshadowing the actors in a blitzkrieg of noise and devastation.

I think Marvel is getting very cocky and critics are being way too generous with the films now. If Sony had churned out Far From Home without Marvel’s help I’m pretty sure it would have gotten terrible reviews.

I still love the old Tobey Maguire/Sam Raimi Spidey movies that evoked emotion and sentiment. With Marvel there is no seriousness to the proceedings which means that loss and tragedy never make you feel anything. I didn’t care Iron Man died. Even Pepper Potts was like, ‘Don’t worry Tony, we’ll be fine’ as he lay there dying in Endgame.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Holland have good chemistry in the film though and at points I was rooting for them to get together instead of MJ and Peter who come across more as buddies than anything romantic. Alas, Marvel only teases with thoughts of introducing a gay super hero. At least it would be different from the last 20 movies they’ve made (other than Thor: Ragnarok, which was great).