Friday, July 19, 2019



SPIDERMAN: Far From Home  3.3***
When the movie starts out the viewer gets all the emotions back from the ending of Avengers: Endgame which included Spider-Man and his very special relationship with Iron Man a/k/a Tony Stark.  The movie follows Peter Parker and his high school science class on their field trip around the world. The film does a great job of showing how a teenager, here Peter, develops a crush on a girl, MJ, and how nervous he is about being around her. It's a nice touch to have super hero with teenage angst about a girl.

 When things start going well, a villain appears and Peter Parker must work with a new hero that people name "Mysterio." The movie does a great job of keeping the viewer sucked into the screen with constant, well timed humor and heart-tugging moments. Once you feel like the movie should be coming to an end, you look at your watch and realize you're only an hour in. That is when the movie has a brilliant plot twist and much of what you thought you knew about the movie was just an illusion. As characters get reestablished in their roles, the viewer is treated to more thrills, suspense, and fun as the story unfolds.  

Surprisingly enough, the centerpiece of this film is not the superhero's extraordinary world-saving abilities, but the budding romance between  very ordinary human characters. It might be more accurate to describe this film as a blend of rom-com and action-comedy under the disguise of a superhero movie, since the scale of the "world-saving" and the stakes for the final showdown are more much limited compared to what happened in Endgame.  

I was impressed with Zendaya's performance as MJ, which finally breaks the stereotype of a superhero's love interest. Instead of your typical dumbed-down eye-candy, Zendaya's MJ is intelligent, quirky, interesting, and absolutely lovable. Tom Holland is, at this point, Spider-Man's alter ego. I cannot really imagine Spider-Man being anyone else other than him although I liked Toby McGuire in the 1st Spider-man movie. Mysterio (played by Jake Gyllenhal) is the new Marvel character appearing for the 1st time in a Marvel movie.  Gyllenhal was born for this role and performed the part quite well . 

The movie makes us cheer for its big heart in addition to the action sequences. Maybe Spider-man falling in love is just as important as saving the world. That's something we can relate to. "Spider-Man: Far from Home" is definitely worth seeing and if you can,  see it at I-MAX in 3D.