Spider-Man: Far From Home

Stars: Tom Holland, Samuel L Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, JB Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Martin Starr, Marisa Tomei, Jake Gyllenhaal, Angourie Rice

Director: Jon Watts

The sequel strikes yet again with Hollywood continuing to mine the enormously profitable Marvel universe following Avengers: Endgame, with Peter Parker aka Spider-Man spinning into yet another special effects-laden comic-strip adventure as - getting further from his New York home scene by scene - Parker joins his best friends and the rest of his gang on a holiday in Darkest Europe.

Cue action and movie magic ad lib when Parker - played with a commendably straight face and energy to spare by Holland - agrees to Jackson's request to help sort out blazing attacks by various ingeniously-created creatures all over the continent, thus allowing director Watts to offer American audiences a series of vividly-used and (hopefully for the box-office, fairly familiar) European locations to stage the slam-bang special effects-driven action sequences that are the film's dramatic spinal column...

Armed with a suitably box-office friendly, action-propelled screenplay (Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's Marvel comic book), director Watts sensibly concentrates on action, movie magic, more action and more magic to warp-thrust the show, and he succeeds well enough to ensure this 23rd Marvel Comics-driven film hits the box-office mojo.

The plentiful action segues from Venice to Prague, Berlin and London, with Watts making the most of the locations, as Gyllenhaal's Mysterio and Jackson's Nick Fury do what is required of them in support.

The late Spider Man creator Stan Lee, the ever-modest cameo-role-filling non-actor, is missing from this, the 23rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having made his last appearance in Avengers: Endgame.

That said, number 23 ticks all the right boxes and provides action and spectacle galore without ever rising far above its obvious comic book origins.

Alan Frank

USA 2019. UK Distributor: Sony. Colour.
129 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 05 Jul 2019