Spider-Man : Far From Home

In 1999 Paul Feig & Judd Apatow created a TV show called Freaks and Geeks. If you're lucky enough to have seen it you'll remember it as a funny and painfully accurate look at teenage life. You may also remember a lanky teen in it by the name of Bill Haverchuck. Bill was an übergeek and the actor playing him, Martin Starr, did well in the part but he wasn't an actor you expected to see much of again when the show was unfairly cancelled after 1 season. He definitely wasn't an actor I expected to be calling the funniest person in the Marvel Cinematic Universe 19 years later but there we have it. All hail Mr Harrington. And his horrible, horrible wife.

In the aftermath of the Snap (renamed the Blip after everything was sorted) things are ever so slowly getting back to normal for Peter Parker. The events of The Avengers : Endgame returned Peter, his aunt May and his friends MJ and Ned to Earth and they are trying to move forward with their lives. Part of their return to normality involves a school trip to Europe and Peter can't wait to spend some time away from his web shooting heroics and just be a teenager for a while. Annoyingly for him a man by the name of Quentin Beck has arrived on the scene to deal with a planetary threat and him and Nick Fury need Peter's skills to get a job done.

The 23rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is mostly good craic. It's also a blisteringly topical watch. In an era of fake news and giant corporations showing us carefully crafted and curated versions of current events it's a film that in places rings very true. It's a hard thing to talk about without using some rather large spoilers though so lets just say that hidden in plain sight amongst the fun and the laughter lies plenty of food for thought. The laughter though. Oh man there's loads of it. Comedy has always been a strong point in the MCU but the Spider-Man films have just got it down to a tee. The aforementioned Mr Harrington is a scream and steals every scene and his Blip experience is one for the ages. We get Night Monkey's and a suit that's a bit tight around the ol' web shooter, a pathetic Captain America impression, poorly timed pants removal and so much more.

Spider-Man has always been one of the more lighthearted superheroes and anyone going into this expecting a heartfelt look at the ramifications of the Blip is going to be sorely disappointed. It's touched on in a cheeky way that, imo, feels far more satisfying than deep and meaningful discussion and then like that we're off. NO messing around. Europe bound. It's National Lampoon's European Vacation with added fire monsters and drone strikes. Yeah i know compared to Endgame it all feels a bit fluffy and inconsequential but sometimes all we need from our superhero movies is fun and this delivers in spades. Since 2002 there's been 3 different Spider-men but Tom Holland definitely feels like the real deal. His personality is as close to the Lee/Ditko character as we're going to get anyway. He's someone you empathise with instantly. All he wants to do is do normal stuff and talk to the girl he fancies and these gigantic, earth shattering things just keep getting in the way. He's 16. Life should be simple for him and it's anything but. With great power comes great responsibility etc etc etc but this time there's too much responsibility on Peter's shoulders and 16 year old's tend to do silly things under pressure. As we get to see....

The new addition to the cast this time around is Jake Gyllenhal as Quentin Beck. We get to see a side of Gyllenhal here that we rarely get to see. The fun side, the nice side, the side that cares. His Beck is a man who's suffered, a man who feels things need to change. He slots into the universe like a well oiled part. The existing characters all shine too. Ned (Jacob Batalon) and his new found worldly confidence is hilarious, the deceptively fragile MJ (Zendaya, currently killing it in HBO's Euphoria) is both funny and dark and her chemistry with Peter is so good that all memories of Kirsten Dunst in the role will vanish. Hell you'll even feel an emotion other than hate for the ghastly Flash Thompson. Other familiar faces tie this to the larger universe too but i'll leave you to discover those for yourself if you've managed to avoid the trailers.

It might look like I'm fawning over a perfect film here but I'm not. Far From Home is an enjoyable watch but it still suffers from the same issues as Homecoming. The Spider-Man we grew up with in TV shows and on film was a lone wolf in his battle against evil. That's not the case here. First he had Iron Man backing him in plotline that sucked any bit of tension away from Homecoming and now he has Shield and a big shiny new piece of tech doing the same thing. It's a far cry from the web shooters and acrobatics of yesteryear. One thing people loved about the Sam Raimi take on Spider-Man (I won't even mention the Andrew Garfield version) was the threats he faced were always localised. Manhattan and Queens were his playground and his battles took place within. This one has just too much scale. He's your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man not a global Spider-Man. Hopefully the next one keeps him in NYC, the city that has always been an integral part of the character.

Spider-Man : Far From Home is Marvel lite but it's fun. We all need a bit of fun in 2019. It's entertaining, it's well done and it has a scene midway through the end credits that will have long time Spidey fans geeking out and leave everyone else exhilarated and giddy. Lovely jubbly.