Spider-man: Far From Home. (12A.)
Directed by Jon Watts.
Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Marisa Tomei, Angourie Rice and Jon Favreau. 128 mins.
Too soon? In his second solo Spider-man outing, set in the aftermath of the Avengers: Endgame, Peter Parker (Holland) and his classmates go off on a European Vacation that is constantly interrupted by attacks from beings from another dimension. Early on Parker complains that he had been hoping to spend the summer relaxing and trying to romance Mary Jane (Zendaya) rather than trying to save the world again, and you sympathise with his frustrations. After the events of Avengers: Endgame wrapped up a decade's worth of costumed cavorting, a bit of a break seemed in order. But no, two months later were not just back into costume heroics, but back into the whole bloody Marvel soap opera.
(And what bloody palaver it is. Now, I've never been a follower of Eastenders but if I'm sat in a room with it on I reckon within ten minutes I'd be up to speed with events in the square and all the present slaphead vexations. I've watched every single bloody Marvel film and I still lose track of who did what and how and why and when and whatever.)
Still, you can see why it's out now. Under the custody arrangement they have negotiated with Disney Corp, this is Sony's weekend with Spidey and, seeing as much of the latter part of Tony Stark's time in the Marvel films was about his affection for “The Kid” and talking up Tom Holland's incarnation of the role, Sony'd be crazy not to cash in.
After the weight of Endgame, this new entry is determinedly light and funny, maybe to a degree that takes some of the fun out of it. So unrelenting is the search for laughs that it's a bit Spider-man: Ragnarok, except Taika Waitiki's Thor 3 had a much more subtle wit than this. The trip around Europe is mostly basic teen-com stuff and the two teachers are such broad sitcom ninnies that you lose a lot of respect for the film. The incessant search for laughter, the fixed grin the film maintains gets a little bit desperate.
A lot of it is taken up with Parker trying to find excuses to cover up his absences as he goes off to do his superhero stuff. It's very old fashioned like that; in the old days, superhero films were like bedroom farces with the protagonist constantly having to lie to companions so he can sneak off and find a quiet place to strip down to his undies. The film even has a scene where a fellow classmate catches Parker alone with a strange blonde woman and his trousers round ankles.
The film has plenty of big laughs, Gyllenhaal is good as Mysterio but the action sequences aren't memorable and the effects work is nothing special. It's fine enough but frankly, it could've waited, they didn't need to bother us with it now. I do like a good superhero movie but after six (Aquaman, Captain Marvel, Shazam! The Avengers: Endgame, X-Men: Dark Phoenix in the last seven months, I can't tell you what a relief it is that there won't be another one (not counting the Joaquin Phoenix Joker film) till next April when Marvel and DC/ Disney and Warner will resume hostilities.
Spider-man: Into The Spider-verse
The Amazing Spider-man
Spider-man 3
Directed by Jon Watts.
Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Marisa Tomei, Angourie Rice and Jon Favreau. 128 mins.
Too soon? In his second solo Spider-man outing, set in the aftermath of the Avengers: Endgame, Peter Parker (Holland) and his classmates go off on a European Vacation that is constantly interrupted by attacks from beings from another dimension. Early on Parker complains that he had been hoping to spend the summer relaxing and trying to romance Mary Jane (Zendaya) rather than trying to save the world again, and you sympathise with his frustrations. After the events of Avengers: Endgame wrapped up a decade's worth of costumed cavorting, a bit of a break seemed in order. But no, two months later were not just back into costume heroics, but back into the whole bloody Marvel soap opera.
(And what bloody palaver it is. Now, I've never been a follower of Eastenders but if I'm sat in a room with it on I reckon within ten minutes I'd be up to speed with events in the square and all the present slaphead vexations. I've watched every single bloody Marvel film and I still lose track of who did what and how and why and when and whatever.)
Still, you can see why it's out now. Under the custody arrangement they have negotiated with Disney Corp, this is Sony's weekend with Spidey and, seeing as much of the latter part of Tony Stark's time in the Marvel films was about his affection for “The Kid” and talking up Tom Holland's incarnation of the role, Sony'd be crazy not to cash in.
After the weight of Endgame, this new entry is determinedly light and funny, maybe to a degree that takes some of the fun out of it. So unrelenting is the search for laughs that it's a bit Spider-man: Ragnarok, except Taika Waitiki's Thor 3 had a much more subtle wit than this. The trip around Europe is mostly basic teen-com stuff and the two teachers are such broad sitcom ninnies that you lose a lot of respect for the film. The incessant search for laughter, the fixed grin the film maintains gets a little bit desperate.
A lot of it is taken up with Parker trying to find excuses to cover up his absences as he goes off to do his superhero stuff. It's very old fashioned like that; in the old days, superhero films were like bedroom farces with the protagonist constantly having to lie to companions so he can sneak off and find a quiet place to strip down to his undies. The film even has a scene where a fellow classmate catches Parker alone with a strange blonde woman and his trousers round ankles.
The film has plenty of big laughs, Gyllenhaal is good as Mysterio but the action sequences aren't memorable and the effects work is nothing special. It's fine enough but frankly, it could've waited, they didn't need to bother us with it now. I do like a good superhero movie but after six (Aquaman, Captain Marvel, Shazam! The Avengers: Endgame, X-Men: Dark Phoenix in the last seven months, I can't tell you what a relief it is that there won't be another one (not counting the Joaquin Phoenix Joker film) till next April when Marvel and DC/ Disney and Warner will resume hostilities.
Spider-man: Into The Spider-verse
The Amazing Spider-man
Spider-man 3
