Today, before I jump into the business of the day - my thoughts on "Spider-Man: Far From Home" - I'd like to first talk about how much I love the new Spider-Man. I know people were salty about the quick turnover rate from Maguire to Garfield to Holland (not to mention (Moore, Johnson, Pine, Mulaney, et al of the Spider-verse), but this latest Spidey is too good to hold a grudge over. Now that that is out of the way, on with the show...
"Spider-Man: Far From Home" picks up where the "Endgame" left off, so before I go any further, I want those of you who have not seen "Avengers: Endgame" yet (you know who you are), that I will do my best to not spoil anything, but I make no promises. So, if you want to play it safe, I suggest you walk away now...
Following the losses of "Endgame" (vague enough for you?), there's a lot of uncertainty in the Marvel universe, with no clear path forward for anyone, let alone our teenage, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who just wants to be a normal teenager, go to Europe with his high school class, and tell MJ (Zendaya) that he likes her (likes her likes her).
Unfortunately for him, the planet has other ideas and they find him and his class in Venice, and all the other Avengers are apparently on vacation (not a plot gap, that's literally part of the story).
Fortunately, there's a new hero in town (and by town, I mean parallel universe), Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), who's traveled from a parallel universe to save this Earth from the elementals, a group of Titan like baddies who destroyed his Earth in his reality.
Are you still with me?
Of course, the earth, wind, water, and fire monsters are just the tip of the villainy at hand, but in the interest of not spoiling anything (for anyone who hasn't seen any of the trailers), all I'll say about the villain (who is an A+ baddy) is that they are an egomaniac who invents a threat in order to scare the population into giving them power. How do you come up with these storylines, Marvel?
What I can tell you is that this is one of my favorite Marvel movies. Seriously, out of all of them. It's smart, sweet, really tight, and just fun ... which is even more wonderful after the heavy (but excellent storytelling) subject matter of "Avengers: Endgame." Also, you'll want to make sure you see "Captain Marvel" and "Avengers: Endgame" before you see this one. And stay until the end of the credits. You're welcome.
...bi-daily smile...
