Empire Australia - 08.2019

DO NOT CROSS HERE IF SPOILERS OFFEND

DO NOT CROSS HERE IF SPOILERS OFFEND

DO NOT CROSS HERE IF SPOILERS OFFEND

THIS MONTH’S

SPOILER

TEAM

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emotionally resonant without being cloying, its

an inspired device that navigates the tricky

exposition while never having to stray from

Spidey’s more upbeat, irreverent tone.

The blip’s ramifications are handled equally

deftly. Handily, all of the film’s major players fell

foul of Thanos’ snap, so Peter’s nascent romance

with MJ isn’t made suddenly awkward by her now

being 21. The writers both nod and lean in to the

idea, however, with the addition of new classmate

Brad (Remy Hii), a former 11-year-old now

blossomed into a studly teenager.

Knowingly self-aware and slickly delivered,

Far From Home’s treatment of the Infinity Saga’s

close (“It’s like we’re entering a whole new

phase,” comments one student) is a lesson in

confident storytelling, one other sagas could

learn a great deal from.

James Dyer:How do you make a film about

high school when half the students have been

dead for five years? Coming hot on the heels

of Avengers: Endgame, Far From Home was

always going to have to do some narrative

heavy lifting. Peter Parker’s mentor is dead,

Earth was invaded by aliens (again), and 50 per

cent of the population has spent the past half

decade snapped out of existence. Rather than

opting for clunksome dialogue, though, FFH’s

solution is a simple as it is elegant: a student

TV broadcast outlining the timeline’s existential

hiccup — ‘the blip’.

That said broadcast includes a my-first-

iMovie eulogy composition for Tony, Cap and

Natasha set to the strains of Whitney Houston’s

‘I Will Always Love You’ is simply the icing on

a very tongue-in-cheek cake. Clear, concise and

1 TACKLING THE BLIP

Top: Spider-Man

(Tom Holland)

with Aunt May

(Marisa Tomei)

back at Midtown

High. Above:

The press and

paparazzi

naturally want

to talk...

Spider-Man: Far From Home

CHRIS HEWITT

Associate Editor & Podcast

Host, Empire

JON WATTS

Director, Spider-Man:

Far From Home

JOSH COOLEY

Director,

Toy Story 4

JAMES DYER

Digital Editor-In-Chief,

Empire

BEN TRAVIS

Online Staff Writer,

Empire

AMON WARMANN

Contributor,

Empire

ALAMY, LANDMARK, MARCO VITTUR