Holland, Gyllenhaal Keep the Marvel Magic Alive in 'Spider-Man: Far From Home'

Even if you’re tired of seeing Spider-Man remakes, you should stick around for Spider-Man: Far From Home, which features Tom Holland’s (Peter Parker) endearingly quirky lead performance. The film captures the offbeat humor and charming awkwardness that fans cherished in the original films starring Toby Macguire. Only this time, fans get to experience the awkwardness alongside a high-schooler surrounded by other high-schoolers, all dealing with teenage uncertainty and naivete.

Far From Home, which opens today in wide release,  picks up shortly after the events of Avengers: Endgame, (most notably – spoiler alert – the death of Tony Stark. Lost without his mentor, 16-year-old Peter Parker, who has dutifully been playing the role of “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man,” is excited to take off on a school trip to Europe, where he plans to woo edgy love interest MJ (Zendaya) atop the Eiffel Tower. But Parker’s summer vacation is soon interrupted when an anthropomorphic water monster — which we later learn is called an “elemental” — emerges from an Venetian river.

Luckily for Spider-Man, a new player swoops in to save the day, blasting the creature with green rays. Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), also known as Mr. Beck, later befriends Spider-Man, urging him to “never apologize for being the smartest person in the room” after he nerds out in front of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Parker quickly begins to trust Mr. Beck, confiding in him that there’s no way a high school kid is meant to be “the next Iron Man” that everyone is saying the world needs.

But Parker ends up in the middle of the action anyway. As the group is volleyed across Europe by a travel agency secretly coordinated by Fury, Spider-Man finds himself fighting an unusual villain and struggling with a conflict between reality and deception, which highlights the film’s ultra-realistic special effects.

Spider-Man: Far From Home allows Parker to experience the best of both worlds, bringing together both cutting-edge Avengers technology — such as a pair of multi-billion dollar AI sunglasses (E.D.I.T.H.) that Stark left for him — and references to the beloved Maguire films such as a black spider suit and Parker’s constant anxiety about endangering loved ones. Despite the familiarities of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Far From Home never feels unoriginal, and it leaves fans loving Peter Parker even more than they already did. As always, be sure to stay for the post-credit scenes, certainly some of the most surprising in Marvel history.