Spider-Man: Far From Home

(Movie Review)

The Review
A fun little Superhero movie, but nothing particularly groundbreaking like Endgame.

I suppose it's unfair to compare this movie to Avengers: Endgame.  Not every movie can or should be a huge event movie like Endgame.  You need the ordinary superhero movies in between so that the big event movies can feel special.  But... I can't help but think it, this movie does feel a bit anti-climatic after Endgame.

...anyway,
A good Spider-Man movie needs to focus on Peter Parker's high school angst, and Peter Parker's group of teenage friends.
A Marvel Cinematic Universe movie needs to make connections to the larger world of superheros and reference the big events that happened in previous movies.
This movie does as good a job of balancing the two as can be hoped for.  The decision to send Peter Parker's high school friends on a European field trip allowed the writers to take the story to exotic locations, while still keeping the focus on the group of friends.

The movie is lighthearted and fun.  With a lot of jokes thrown in.
If I was inclined to be critical, I could complain that the movie is not quite as funny as it thinks it is.  (Quite often I thought that a corny joke didn't quite merit all the set-up that the movie gave it).  But why complain about nitpicks? These Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have always done a fairly good job of managing the tone-- keeping their movies fun, but also keeping the stakes real.  (After the complete failure of the DC Cinematic Universe to manage the same act, it's a reminder that we've gotten spoiled by how good the Marvel movies are.)

Other Notes
* I was a little concerned at first that Marvel was throwing away the dramatic weight behind their own storyline by treating the "blip" as just a joke.  But after thinking about it, I think it works.  The opening scenes were just showing how high school students would react to the blip.  Of course from a high school student's perspective, the injustice of having to retake mid-terms would be the most important thing about the blip.
This doesn't preclude a later movie from taking a more serious look at the massive societal disruption the blip must have caused.

Rating:
7 out of 10 Stars.  (Good fun film, but just as easily forgettable).

Marvel Cinematic Universe Reviews Links

1. Iron Man
2. The Incredible Hulk
3. Iron Man 2
4. Thor
5. Captain America: The First Avenger
6. The Avengers
7. Iron Man 3
8. Thor 2: Dark World
9. Captain America 2: Winter Soldier
10. Guardians of the Galaxy
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron
12. Ant-Man
13. Captain America 3: Civil War
14. Doctor Strange--Haven't seen yet
15. Guardians of the Galaxy 2
16. Spider-Man: Homecoming
17. Thor: Ragnarok
18: Black Panther
19. Avengers: Infinity War
20. Ant-Man and the Wasp ,

21. Captain Marvel--Haven't seen yet
22. Avengers: Endgame

Video Review:
Video review HERE and embedded below:



Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky - The Relevance of Anarcho-syndicalism (1976)