Rent Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

Awful, probably the worst Spiderman film made to date! - Spider-Man: Far from Home review by CS

This has got to be probably the worse Spiderman Film ever made, but in reality it's not a Spiderman film at all, just another in the Avenger series with Nick Fury! The storyline is really silly, full of holes and has very little continuity. Moving on from the end of the last Avengers movie, Endgame, this simply throws at us a preposterous and pathetic theory of what happened that does not make any sense at all. Then gives us what in essence is yet another re-hash of other movies. It's quite clear that Marvel appear to be concentrating so much on merchandising, that they've forgotten how to make decent films! They need to stop throwing lots of characters from different time lines and worlds together and go back to basics again, concentrate on one superhero and the time to give us a decent story, with some new and original ideas, instead of just mashing it all up and being lazy! All the PC boxes are noticeably and blatantly happily ticked, Muslim Girl, Black, Indian-Middle Eastern, East Asian, Jewish, Fat Cheery Guy, etc, ensuring no-one complaints that the film wasn't inclusive and allowing it to be shown in various world territories! And that's another thing, many film makers today seem to be so bent upon not upsetting certain markets, such as the Middle East or China, that any gritty or controversial elements are taken out or subdued, and this completely destroys any sense of gravitas that the film may have had. For me this film was really boring to watch, unoriginal, badly scripted, badly directed, the camera was all over the place, way too much CGI and I'm not sure there was much acting in it either!

Surprisingly likeable superhero film - Spider-Man: Far from Home review by Alphaville

Set amongst the beauty spots of Europe (Venice, the Alps, etc), this fairly zips along without the usual Marvel baggage. The up-to-the-minute plot revolves around deepfake technology and gives rise to some imaginative surreal sequences, making even the cgi battles against monsters less boring than normal.

It works even better as a superior high-school comedy as Peter Parker (Spider-teen) and his classmates go on a European school trip. JB Smoove (Larry David’s house guest in Curb Your Enthusiasm) is a riot as their teacher. Instead of yawnfest superhero angst and soul-searching we get fun set-pieces and punchy dialogue. Sample: when Peter tells the girl he fancies that she’s pretty, she replies haughtily “And therefore I have value?”. Marvel nerds may be disappointed, but for those who find most superhero films a waste of screen time, this one’s impossible not to like.

Come and look at Peter Parker's holiday snaps... - Spider-Man: Far from Home review by The REAL Film Cricket

I have to once again reiterate that I am not a big fan of superhero movies and comics. So I do not have a huge stake in any of the MU movies. Having said all of this I do enjoy the Spider-man franchise more than most and in particular, Tom Holland who has seemed to encapsulate the character of Peter Parker perfectly.

Everything in the Marvel movie world is here. A big baddy, whose reaction to his situation seems to have been slightly over-the-top in my view but I suppose super-hero stories are always over-the-top so I’m being churlish. Huge confusing battles and explosions and comic relief from best friends and Happy Hogan.

The story takes you a direction you are expecting and at least drags into a different direction which is definitely to the writers’ credit. I did feel the big-bad was generic and the reaction that made him a ‘big-bad’ was shall we say, a bit of an over-reaction? Jake Gyllenhaal, always reliable, arrives as a competing and competent super-hero that seems to threaten Peter Parker's superhero credentials.

All the actors do their superhero bits well, some could probably do this in their sleep but for me, this is just another superhero film amongst many, I was not following it so intently so I did not notice and clues to further stories (apparently this happens) and I could not help feeling that despite a nice trip around the landmarks of Europe there did not seem to be any reason for Peter to got Europe.

Spider-man is a good comic-book super-hero, he is fun, interesting and more importantly flawed (and I very much like his aunt) but even this film was stretching my benevolence towards this particular hero.

I fell comic-book and super-hero movie fans will love this next instalment whereas others in the same mould as me (is there anyone like me) will be a bit bewildered by moderately entertained.

I still get bored by the huge noisy explosive action scenes and surely I am meant to get excited. I find it very odd.