'Spider-Man: Far From Home': The Lonesome Avenger

MCU's latest entry puts Spidey's old mantra, "with great power comes great responsibility", to the ultimate test in one of his most exciting adventures yet.

It's tough to be Spider-Man. 

As moviegoers, we've known this for a long time. The dual life responsibility of Peter Parker has been chronicled on film for almost two decades now and through various interpretations with their varying degree of success. But with Spider-Man's more recent adventures in the MARVEL cinematic universe, a new and narratively exciting burden has been thrown onto our young hero's shoulders; how does he stand out and make a difference in a world full of gods and monsters?

With Spider-Man: Far From Home, director Jon Watts puts our lead character in a place of isolation on both his home fronts. On vacation with no Aunt May at his side and with his best friend being preoccupied with romantic interests, Peter Parker is alone. In an environment that is harder to traverse than his own, Nick Fury placing all bets on him, and none of the other Avengers available to help him out, Spider-Man is also alone.

The story that ensues is one that is full of humor and serves as a nice coda to this year's Avengers: Endgame, but also deals with darker themes not seen in Spider-Man media. It's the story of how Spider-Man learns to both appreciate and fear relying on those he looks up to after four movies of doing just that. 

No one has portrayed Peter Parker/Spider-Man better than Tom Holland. With his endearing sense of awe mixed with awkwardness, Holland has proved over the course of three years and five film appearances that he is the quintessential cinematic web head (Jake Johnson's a close second, by the way). A lot of what makes this film work is on him and how he interacts with the colorful characters around him. But I think what makes his performance in Far From Home work even better is seeing him mature and how he's FORCED to mature over the course of the film.

The best Spider-Man movies (i.e Spider-Verse, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming) all deal with the issues of wanting to live a normal life, but understanding that it's these characters' responsibilities to their city and its inhabitants that keeps them from doing that and the pressure it brings them along the way.

Far from Home raises the stakes by making 15-year old Peter not only responsible for the inhabitants of New York, but the world at large. With all of The Avengers either dead, preoccupied, or off-world, Peter isn't allowed to take his time into growing into the great superhero Tony Stark once was, he must instead be forced into this role, because there aren't a lot of options left and this leads to a wonderful amount of the film's emotional heft. 

This aspect of the movie is what makes the relationship between Peter and Jake Gyllenhaal's interpretation of Quentin Beck/Mysterio so engaging. Most comic fans could absolutely see the "twist" of Mysterio becoming a bad guy a mile away, but I loved how Mysterio is practically a beacon of hope for Peter. Another adult who seems to share the same values and words of wisdom as Tony Stark and one who he can come to for guidance and pass his burdens on to. This inevitable twist works as an extra punch in the gut for our protagonist as it drives home the point that he is truly alone.

The final act winds up being one of the most satisfying in any MARVEL movie. Broken, without hope, and scared, Peter lets his emotions loose in front of Jon Favreau's Happy Hogan (a series regular since the first Iron Man) and explains to him how he's not sure he has what it takes to be an Avenger and take on the responsibility of saving the Earth. Favreau's monologue, which winds up getting Peter back in the game, is an incredibly emotional one and made even more so when you realize the man telling Peter that he is worthy to take Iron Man's mantle, is the guy who directed the first Iron Man himself.

It all leads to a final battle that is as cathartic as it is entertaining. The place where most movies of this type fail is where this movie shines, because this is a final showdown built off the back of Peter getting his ass handed to him time and time again throughout the movie's runtime and seeing him use all the lessons of his past failures to take down the villain once and for all. Other MCU movies could learn A LOT from the tremendous structure of this one. 

On top of all this, Far From Home rewards the viewer with a wonderful romantic dynamic between Tom Holland and Zendaya's MJ along with some genuinely hilarious character moments. I was happy to see that none of the charm of Homecoming disappeared with this movie's larger scale. The icing on the cake, of course, is the mid-credits scene which not only gives us the triumphant return of J.K Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson (seriously, how cool is that?!), but also gives us a wonderfully exciting cliffhanger that had me more excited for a new MARVEL installment than ever before.

Far From Home is very high up on my personal MCU ranking and unlike many other stand-alone MARVEL movies, it's one I wouldn't mind seeing again and again. But not only for the tremendous Spidey action, but to relive a wonderful story of how we prove ourselves in times of personal turmoil.