We've all had a couple months to recover from the epic conclusion that was Avengers: Endgame. Many stories ended there, but now Spider-Man: Far From Home is here to remind us that some stories are moving forward. The film is the official conclusion of Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and based on critics' reviews, it's a solid conclusion.
CinemaBlend's Eric Eisenberg gave the movie four out of five stars and says that, while Far From Home may not be the best Spider-Man movie to date, that's largely because the competition is quite fierce, but overall the movie is good and a worthy addition to the the MCU and Spider-Man history. According to Eric's review...
It is certainly a blockbuster made with ingenuity, and it makes more than a few clever and smart choices, but it also never makes any deep dives into the unexpected with its plot, and it isn’t exactly the game-changer you’d like to see this far into Spider-Man’s big screen legacy.
Spider-Man: Far From Home gives us the first glimpse of the world post-Avengers: Endgame. The world is recovering from what is being refereed to as "the blip." Peter Parker and his high school classmates are dealing with the fact that they are in still in high school while many of their former peers are now five years older. Parker's science club is taking a trip around Europe when he gets drafted by Nick Fury to deal with a new threat alongside a new ally named Quentin Beck, played by Jake Gyllenhaal.
With big superhero movies one thing we're all looking for is big superhero action. While Spider-Man: Far From Home has a lot to live up to in that area, i09 says that the new film largely succeeds. It's maybe not the best of Spider-Man, but it might be the best of the MCU...
With Into the Spider-Verse still fresh in everyone’s minds, Far From Home had its work cut out for it to create action sequences that convey the frenetic, adrenaline rush you associate with webslinging. The film does a solid job of it, but the real visual standout moments all revolve around Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio. There’s one sequence in particular that features some of the most imaginative set pieces yet to be featured in a Marvel film that far surpasses anything you saw in Doctor Strange or Infinity War.
Of course, being Spider-Man is only half of Tom Holland's job. He also has to play Peter Parker and, as luck would have it, he's also pretty good at that part too. ScreenCrush celebrates the way the non-superhero parts of Far From Home are handled, thanks to Holland and the chemistry he has with co-star Zendaya...
I wouldn’t necessarily say Holland is the best Peter Parker, or Zendaya is the best MJ. But together they might be the best lead couple in the series. With wholesome, wide-eyed Holland and smirking, deadpan Zendaya, they make a perfect opposites-attract couple, and even though the Elementals and Mysterio takes up a lot of screentime, the movie never forgets Peter and MJ’s relationship. The two stars get several outstanding scenes together.
Clearly, people are loving this movie. While it seems at this point, that pretty much everybody likes Spider-Man: Far From Home, there are at least some who absolutely love it. ComicBook.com doesn't mince words, calling it the best Spider-Man movie ever...
It doesn’t seem like we’re swinging to any crazy conclusions in calling Spider-Man: Far From Home the best Spider-Man movie ever. Top to bottom, it is a complete moviegoing experience. It is thrilling, it is fun, it is unpredictable, and it is full of heart. Spider-Man: Far From Home is a by far a home run.
The reviews for Spider-Man: Far From Home are mostly pretty good, but there are some that don't think the new film is quite that impressive. THR holds that the new movie just isn't up to the standards that we've seen in some superhero movies and Spider-Man movies of late. It mostly plays things safe and in doing so becomes a middle of the road movie.
[W]ithout a proper, full-on villain, as well as an adequate substitute for Robert Downey Jr.'s late, oft-mentioned Tony Stark, this comes off as a less-than-glittering star in the Marvel firmament. It pales even more when compared to Sony's wildly imaginative animated feature of last year, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
The New York Post also thinks that in the new movie's attempt to raise the stakes and make things a bit bigger, it lost what made Spider-Man: Homecoming special.
Through all this, you can see director Jon Watts and the filmmakers struggling to replicate the magic of their first film. But its charm came not from an overabundance of jokes, but from turning Spidey into a school hallway hero whose biggest challenge was girls. Jetting off to Venice, Prague and London and busting up landmarks brings it more in line with the rest of the overly dense Marvel Cinematic Universe.
We rarely see a movie obtain universal acclaim from critics, these are all personal opinions, after all, and everybody is going to come to to the project with their own feelings and ideas. That's the point of reviews, to put a film in context, and different reviews allow you to see the movie from different perspectives.
Having said that, it's certainly clear that from many perspectives, Spider-Man: Far From Home is exactly what people are looking for from the end of the MCU's latest phase.
Avengers: Endgame was the real end of the story in a lot of ways. Spider-Man: Far From Home's job is to largely let us see, on the ground level, what the universe will look like moving forward. Things are getting back to normal, but also they'll never be the same. The movie only gives us the slightest tease where things may be going from here, though, as you may have heard, it's one hell of a tease. It certainly sets up the future of Spider-Man in the MCU, what it means to the larger universe remains to be seen.
