Director: Jon Watts
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 129 minutes
Spider-Man: Far from Home (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Even though many still think of Tobey Maguire when talking about Spider-Man, it’s actually Tom Holland that has been stealing the show in both his original feature film, Spider-Man Homecoming and his appearance in the Avengers movies. Of course, there was that ‘other’ Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield who has fallen into a black hole, only to be deemed a poor attempt at reviving the series. Nonetheless, even if you enjoyed the older movies, Tom Holland is here to stay, and today we can present you with our opinion of the second movie’s physical release on Blu-ray. Keep in mind that this movie takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame, and if you haven’t seen it yet, this review will contain spoilers.
The beginning of Far from Home is dated after the end of Avengers: Endgame. Those who had been snapped away by Thanos have been returned thanks to the bravery of the Avengers. Tony Stark gave his life in the final battle, but he had no regrets as he was able to bring back Peter Parker (Tom Holland). Five years had passed since half of humanity disappeared and reappeared. Those that were gone and reappeared are the same age as they were when they vanished. The world is slowly picking up the pieces and now Peter has the chance to go on a school trip to Europe. This trip is an ideal vacation from his duty as Spider-Man but also a great chance to declare his love for MJ (Zendaya). He asks advice from his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), but it seems like he wants to enjoy the European beauties instead, hopefully with Peter as his wingman.
In the meantime, strange occurrences of elemental beings are happening. This draws the attention of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders). They come across Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal), who seemingly has the power to master these strange but destructive beings. Peter is also contacted by Fury to help defeat the next predicted encounters in Europe. Peter declines the call for help, as he feels he isn’t completely ready for the task, Fury decides otherwise and forces him in a situation where he can’t sneak out. When his friends are also in the danger zone, Spider-Man dresses up for the occasion to give it all he’s got.
The flow of Far from Home is totally different than that of Homecoming. You’ll notice that this second movie has a longer warm-up time than the original, and that Peter’s character has also shifted his focus. Spider-Man is now a well-known figure in the MCU and he has also been dubbed an Avenger, proving that he has come a long way from dressing up to catch local hoodlums. In this movie, he’ll be more self-assured and will also focus on taking a small break from his superhero career and perhaps even, if possible, chase love. The movie will have two major plotlines, namely the upcoming battles with the elementals, as well as declaring his love for MJ, which combined create an interesting movie.
Like in the first movie, Far from Home features an impressive cast. While we’ll have to make do without the performance of Robert Downey Jr. in this sequel, we’ll get Samuel Jackson, Jake Gyllenhaal and Cobie Smulders to strengthen the great cast. We see that Tom Holland has not stood still and shows us that his character is still evolving and becomes a more assured hero in this second Spider-Man movie. Zendaya plays a bigger role in Far from Home, as she is gradually becoming Peter Parker’s love interest as MJ. Jacob Batalon still puts down his role as comic relief quite well, and all these great cast members combined make up for a great experience. We also see other cast members reprise their roles, such as Marisa Tomei as May Parker and Jon Favreau as Happy.
If you decide to buy the Blu-ray version instead of the DVD version, you’ll get a lot of extra special features. The disc contains over an hour’s worth of extras, including a short-film about Peter’s preparation for his trip abroad, as well as making-of sequences, a gag reel, outtakes, deleted scenes and so on. Overall, you’ll have a lot of fun content to view after the movie’s credits start rolling on the screen. It’s editions like these that make it worth purchasing a physical copy to enjoy all the extra content you wouldn’t get by simply viewing the movie at the theater.
Conclusion
Spider-Man: Far from Home is a great sequel to the series and shows us that the character depicted by Tom Holland is evolving in a real icon for the franchise. While the movie was somewhat slower as the first movie, the overall story build-up and the action sequences felt spot-on. We were also entertained by the many special features on the Blu-ray edition, which sadly won’t be found on the DVD version. If you enjoy the Marvel universe, you’ll certainly love this one. If you’re only aiming to see the Spider-Man movies, but don’t care for the rest of the Marvel cinematic universe, you’ll be disappointed as they’re pretty much a package deal from now on.
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