Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: John Watts (Cop Car, Spider-Man: Homecoming)
	Actors: Tom Holland (Captain America: Civil War), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Big Game), Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Enemy)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 17.07.2019, Cineplanet Costanera Center.
Synopsis: Re-united with his high-school friends, Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man (Holland) is looking forward to a Europe school trip and firmly plans to leave his super-hero suit behind. In Venice however a water monster, a new hero dubbed Mysterio (Gyllenhaal) and Nick Fury (Jackson) turn his plans upside down.
Review: I may have been harsh by rating 3/10 the first Spider-Man: Homecoming (now raised to 4/10). I found it better on second viewing, mostly thanks to a convincing acting by Tom Holland. Now that the character was better established in the MCU with Avengers: Infinity War, I found this sequel better even though still nothing fantastic. Forget a comparison with the super-fresh animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but it is nice to get a first look at what may come in Marvel's Phase Four, i.e. what happens after Avengers: Endgame. On the positive side, Spider-man having adventures in Europe is a nice change of Scenery and the events ocuring in all the cities he visits are half-justified. Mysterio is a nice villain although if you start to think too much about it, a villain is always the same in the MCU and as the others this one gets defeated (no spoiler here). But in this case he leaves a surprise for the post-credit scenes, true to one specificity of Spider-Man to never get a fully happy ending, as much as one characteristics of Iron-Man it to create his own demons, as pointed out by Kevin Smith in his heart-felt (as usual) movie recap on his news Youtube channel "Silent Bob speaks". The special effects are as good as usual with Marvel (well, flawless in this case not like in Endgame) and the high-school humor follows the same pattern as the first one. As usual for a nice full breakdown you should watch the New Rockstars Youtube channel. But for me the great thing in this movie is Tom Holland, and how he plays a Spider-Man who just wants to be a high-school kid. The Actor is now 23 so he starts to be too old for the part, but still nails it when it comes to express the difficulty of the choices he has to make (of course helped by a good director and the rest of the cast and crew). This seems to be a trait of the character as well, and we have seen such struggle in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, in particular Spider-Man 2 when Peter Parker wants to be the hero no more. Oh, another great thing about this movie is the shadow of Iron Man. Between a few flash-backs, memorials and shared memories with Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), the mentor role that Tony Stark had is ever more felt. I can't pinpoint something specific to criticize about this movie, except that it is yet another Marvel super-hero one... Thinking back about it, and after watching Kevin Smith's recap, I feel that it is not bad at all, relatively to its genre. I may need a second viewing.
Rating: 6 /10