Spider Man: Far from Home (2019)

Directed by: Jon Watts | 129 minutes | action, adventure | Actors: Tom Holland, Samuel L. Jackson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Tony Revolori, Angouri Rice, Remy Hii, Martin Starr, JB Smoove, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Cobie Smulders, Numan Acar, Zach Barack, Zoha Rahman, Yasmin Mwanza

In the Marvel superhero universe, the stretch is not over yet. With ‘Spider-Man: Far from Home’ Marvel manages to produce a new gem. Tom Holland is fast becoming the most popular Spider-Man, leaving his predecessors Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire far behind.

Peter Parker (Tom Holland) struggles with the consequences of the events of ‘Endgame’. He is a broken teenager with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He can’t handle this weight, so he constantly tries to evade his responsibility.

The process of accepting responsibility is the theme that keeps coming back to Spider-Man: in the comics, the original films and now in the latest film. With great power comes great responsibility: in ‘Far from Home’ this statement takes on even more meaning.

In this film, Peter travels through Europe with his classmates. Where this normally offers the opportunity to show a number of European attractions, director Jon Watts has chosen to choose slightly less central places. In Venice, only back alleys on the canals are shown and the landmarks only play a role in the background. In a (for the Dutch) hilarious scene, Peter suddenly ends up in a village in North Holland (Broek op Langedijk), which is portrayed wonderfully stereotypically. It is precisely by choosing such locations that Watts makes room for a continuous stream of comedy moments.

Not only the locations bring hilarity. The love affairs of insecure teenagers yield several funny scenes. Sure, some of the comedy is predictable, but the way it’s played makes the jokes land well.

The game is therefore the biggest plus of this film, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Holland play their roles fantastically, and the rest of the cast also keeps the standard high. They know exactly how to walk the line between humorous moments and serious play. The highlight is a scene between Tom Holland and John Favreau (Happy Hogan) in which the layers of these two characters are increasingly exposed.

To prevent this review from containing too many spoilers, it is difficult to go into detail about the problems of this film – because it is of course not all positive. Something happens in the movie that you could dismiss as the writers’ laziness, because it’s an easy way to steer the audience. This has happened in some other recent Marvel movies as well. In ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ Watts manages to be fairly creative with this, but Marvel might still want to stay away from this gray area.

A superhero film, driven by characters, with a solid story, entertaining special effects and a healthy dose of humor. ‘Spider-Man: Far from Home’ has everything a summer film should have.