After the undoing of the infamous snap of Thanos, Earth is recovering from a five-year-long catastrophic event named The Blip.
Unlike those who stayed, those who vanished and returned are the same age as when they disappeared.
While a world filled with two sets of people whose life has changed drastically in different ways makes for a brilliant backdrop, Marvel has opted to play safe with what they do best - stick to humour, sentiment, action, and loads of CGI.
And what can be a safer bet than a film on Spider-Man, the closest character to Tony Stark who sacrificed his life for the greater good?
With Tony not around anymore, Peter Parker (a superb Tom Holland) has to face the question of whether he is the next Iron Man.
If that’s not enough, his emotional baggage is already weighed down by his inability to lead the life of a regular teenager.
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Peter is yet to confess his love for MJ (Zendaya), he fails in trying to fit into his school team and more importantly, Nick Fury is trying to recruit him for bigger missions while the young superhero prefers being just a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.
When ghosting Fury does not go per plan, Peter’s “vacation is hijacked” as he is forced to tag alongside Quentin Beck aka Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal)—a superhero from another Earth (Earth 833 to be precise, which, in the comics is the home to Spider-UK, where incidentally, the climax of this film occurs).
They team up to terminate the evil Elementals who seem to have a thing for sightseeing in European countries.
After apparently losing his own Earth to the wrath of these Elementals, he wants to save this one—which he calls Earth 616 (which, according to the comics, is the main Marvel Universe).
While this fills up the majority of a not-so-surprising first half, the events of the rest of the film make you feel that the makers have been underplaying intentionally.
The underlying theme here, which has actually become more of a checkbox item in Marvel films, is that not everything is what it looks like and we are living in an illusory world.
The character development of the pivotal ones is the biggest strength of Far From Home. Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio, though sporting a goldfish-bowl helmet a la Buzz Lightyear, is called ‘Iron Man and Thor rolled into one’, by one of the other characters.
Apart from looking like a distant relative of Spidey’s arch-enemy, Green Goblin, his powers remind us of Doctor Strange and DC’s Green Lantern. The CGI is brilliant and makes one marvel how Marvel continues to perfectly use it.
On the whole, Spider-Man: Far From Home is a fitting successor to Endgame. Aside from being a true blue coming-of-age story of Peter, the film also doubles as the stepping stone into phase four of the MCU that is indicated in the mid-credits scene -undoubtedly one of the best mid-credits scenes of all times.
| Film: Spiderman: Far from home Director: Jon Watts Cast: Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L Jackson, Zendaya, Jon Favreau |