geezer cinema: spider-man: far from home (jon watts, 2019)

Various things have had me occupied away from the blog, so this is a bit late ... we watched it more than a week ago. It's the third in a series I've decided to call Geezer Cinema, a planned once-weekly trip to the movies for my wife and I now that we are both retired. (The first two were John Wick: Chapter 3 and Booksmart, chosen by my wife and I respectively.) Spider-Man: Far from Home was my wife's choice. I'll be brief, since it's been so long since I saw it.

I wrote about the first film in this Spider-Man series:

Homecoming has a few things that distinguish it. Tom Holland is the youngest actor of the century to play Peter Parker. Parker/Spidey is a fairly enjoyable character. I don't know ... I liked it more than I did the Raimis, although that may just be my lowered expectations. Bonus points for the supporting cast, which includes Michael Keaton, Marisa Tomei, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Bokeem Woodbine, Tyne Daly, Hannibal Buress, Martin Starr, and the voice of Jennifer Connelly.

Far from Home continues the winning streak. Holland and his character remain appealing. Tomei, Zendaya, and Starr return, and are joined by Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, and Jon Favreau from earlier Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Mysterio, and J.B. Smoove turns up as well. Zendaya is becoming a favorite of mine due to her performance on HBO's Euphoria, and it was fun to see her once again in the "Kirsten Dunst" role.

I'm not too concerned with how this fits into the MCU ... I mostly judge these movies on their own merit. Far from Home is one of the better ones. At first, I thought too much time was spent on the Lives of High Schoolers angle, but it had some solid emotional payoffs at the end. If, like me, you aren't a big Marvel guy, you might like this one nonetheless.