Empire Australia - 08.2019

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elemental creatures alongside Jake Gyllenhaal’s

newly arrived hero Quentin Beck, aka

Mysterio — purporting to hail from the same

alternate dimension as the monsters. Watts nailed

the localised Queens setting ofHomecoming, but

clearly delights in the possibilities of taking the

friendly Spider-Man out of his neighbourhood

— Parker now contending with crumbling

architecture, crowds of sightseers, and enemies

unaffected by his webs. The director gets

maximum mileage out of Spider-Man’s status as

the most acrobatic Avenger, punctuating the

action set-pieces with dizzying flips and thwips,

most effectively in a slick showdown on

London’s Tower Bridge.

AfterHomecoming saw Parker working

to be aSpider-Manmovie,Far From Homewould

fly by without the superheroics. The impeccable

Spidey-sense of humour from the previous film

isn’t quite as well-honed here (a recurring gag

about J.B. Smoove’s teacher believing in witchcraft

never lands, while Ned and Peter’s double-act gets

less screen time), but returning director Jon Watts

clearly relishes the coming-of-age touchstones

afforded by his teen hero, this time combining the

Hughes influence with aEurotrip-inspired vision

of Europe (a brief jaunt to the Netherlands is

improbably populated with windmills, tulips

galore, and kindly sports hooligans).

But superheroics do, inevitably, interrupt

when Nick Fury (Jackson) hijacks the school

trip, recruiting Spidey to battle destructive

Above:Spidey,

having a swinging

time in Europe.

Left:Mysterio

(Jake Gyllenhaal)

finds out what a

green gas tariff

really looks like.

ON SCREEN

VERDICTIt’s not quite the home-run of

Homecoming, butFar From Homeisn’t far from

matching it, with heaps of humour, energetic

action, and the answersEndgame left you craving.

under the tutelage of Tony Stark, the Iron

Man-shaped void brings three new potential

father-figures into his life. Mysterio, in a typically

non-traditional MCU twist on the source

material, is now his co-worker and confidante,

offering companionship and empathy for

Parker’s latest loss. And then there’s Fury,

Jackson back on mischievously imperious form,

both lamenting that Earth’s most available hero

is a literal schoolkid and relishing the chance to

brandish his considerable authority over him.

And after spending much ofHomecoming

fielding Parker’s needy voicemails, Jon Favreau’s

Happy Hogan now bonds with the youngster

through their shared grief and fear of Fury — all

while striking up a secret relationship with Aunt

May (Tomei). It’s testament to Watts that these

character threads dovetail neatly without jostling

for screentime, bringing even more emotional

depth to the MCU’s Spidey-verse.

If the buddy relationship between Parker

and Beck initially feels bland, Gyllenhaal later

shakes up his vanilla heroism, the film switching

up a gear just as it appears to be going through

the motions. There’s no equivalent rug-pull to the

Vulture reveal inHomecoming— anyone who

took Spidey Comics 101 will see a major

development coming — but Watts stages his

upping-of-the-stakes moment with a jolt of

energy that spurs a wickedly fun second half,

boasting surprising ties to the minutiae of the

MCU that reach right back to the franchise

beginnings. Not only that, butFar From Home

unexpectedly delivers the series’ most thrillingly

mind-bending imagery since Doctor Strange had

his third eye opened by The Ancient One.

Despite everything else going on,Far From

Homecharmingly never loses sight of Peter’s quest

to ask out MJ. The couple’s would-be-romance is

sweet and endearing, but not sickly in the slightest

— and Zendaya shines, dropping razor-wire

zingers with deadpan delight. Tom Holland

remains a note-perfect Spider-Man — still funnier

and more believably teenage than Tobey Maguire

and Andrew Garfield’s incarnations. WhileFar

From Homefinds him desperate to take the weight

of the world off his shoulders, Holland never loses

the ebullient spark that makes him one of the

MCU’s most endearing figures.

Far From Homeis a looser film than

Homecoming, with pacing that occasionally

slackens, and a compulsion to give every minor

character time to shine. But it’s a light-footed

summer blockbuster that facesEndgame’s

monolithic legacy head-on, before leaving it behind

to embark on its own globetrotting adventure.

The MCU doesn’t need a new Iron Man yet —

Far From Homeproves it’s more than safe in the

web-slinging hands of Spider-Man.BEN TRAVIS