Spider-Man far from home review

[Westside Steve]

Spider-Man Far From Home
Marvel
PG-13         129 min

Has it occurred to anybody out there that they are making a new Spider-Man movie almost every couple years? There have been at least eight since 2002, none a whole lot different then the rest. Except for the origin where a young Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider and receives his Spidey senses and superpowers. Of course there will be a different super bad guy to fight but that really is secondary to the entire idea of Spider-Man which is that he’s basically a kid, faced with many of the struggles and anxieties that all high school kids have to deal with. The supervillains are just an extra pain in his ass. That means that the differences between the films boil down  to who the latest kid is playing the hero oh, and this time it’s Tom Holland who looks about 12 but is apparently in his twenties.
So this particular SPIDER-MAN has a lot in common with SAVED BY THE BELL and it’s obviously aimed at preteens. Peter Parker and his high school buddies are about to embark on a field trip to Europe. Recently the people at Marvel have been trying to incorporate SPIDER-MAN into another successful franchise The AVENGERS and Nick Fury and the rest are a little bit on the fence as to whether very young SPIDER-MAN belongs and that impressive group of Heroes. Apparently Tony Stark AKA Iron Man wanted Peter Parker to be at the recipient of some kind of fantastic powered suit. Iron Man himself has sort of been put on hold because Marvel is having problems finding enough money to get Robert Downey jr. back in the fold, but that’s another story. Downey has made that role his on unlike SPIDER-MAN who can apparently be played by anybody. So as Nick Fury contemplates adding Parker to The AVENGERS all hell breaks loose in Europe with giant monsters smashing up a lot of stuff. This looks like a job for SPIDER-MAN! Or is it? Enter Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal)ahero apparently right out of Central Casting to save the day. It’s beginning to look like he has the inside track and ending up as the recipient of Starks magic suit. But can he be trusted?  
Added to the core plot hope Parker versus Mysterio we have some subplots just your basic teenage romance with Ned (Jason Batalon)  Parkers new best pal and comic relief. (Also I think the producers wanted somebody dorkier than Holland to make him seem cool by comparison.) But there you have it teenagers on here. Vacation and a lot of noise and blowing stuff up. I think the target audience for this one is probably right around 6th grade give or take a year. I didn’t love it but it wasn’t aimed at me.
C+
WSS