Movie Review: Spider-Man Far From Home

Spider-Man at the drive-in

In the summer of 2002, my parents took us kids to the drive-in for the first time. There, we saw a double feature of Scooby-Doo and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. At the time, we were going more for Scooby-Doo because my baby sister was a big fan. But it’s Spider-Man that really stuck with us.

Superhero movies had been in a bit of a rut up until that point. The Batman franchise had died off, and to me, the first X-Men movie was just so-so. At least it was nothing like the animated series that ran on Fox Kids. Actually, most of my Spider-Man knowledge came its animated series. So, I knew all of the main players: Peter Parker, Mary Jane, Aunt May, and the rogue’s gallery. What I didn’t realize was how much I would identify with it as a teen now myself.

An identifiable hero

This Spider-Man was in high school, like me. He was a nerd, like me. Movie special effects had advanced enough that you believed this kid was actually swinging through the streets and climbing up NYC skyscrapers. It was funny, epic, sad, and dramatic all rolled into one, reigniting the superhero bug that had gone dormant in me since I’d stopped watching  the cartoons.

I remember being transfixed, chewing on cherry Twizzlers and cut up watermelon from a bowl that my mom had brought along as a snack.  My brother and I peered at the screen through the back seat, and my sisters camped out on the roof of our Ford Explorer.

And in that final scene after Mary Jane tells Peter that she loves him, my dad decided to get a head start on the traffic. He pulled out of our spot with the car radio cutting out just before Peter could respond. We wouldn’t know the full ending until November when my brother got a copy of the movie as a birthday gift and we four kids spent Black Friday of our Thanksgiving break watching it while our parents were at work.

The bittersweet ending geared me up for Spider-Man 2, which still holds up as one of the greatest superhero films ever made. I love all three Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, even the third one, which admittedly falls by the wayside halfway through only to redeem itself in the third act.

Watching Spider-Man as an adult

Since then, I’ve grown into an adult. And while I’m still a huge superhero fan, it’s the more adult characters that I gravitate toward. There’s now a bit of a disconnect between me and Spider-Man because I’ve aged, and he has grown younger. Still, Marvel finds a way to make him just as entertaining to adult audiences, despite the age gap.  

So, while I don’t identify with him as closely as I used to, I still made a point to go see Spider-Man: Far From Home and write up my review for HubPages. Not only do I need to keep up with the MCU series, but I’m also starved for new content, and lately, they have been hitting it out of the park. This movie is no different. The momentum just keeps building as they explore these characters further and put them in situations that we never would have imagined.

My review

Check out my (SPOILER-FILLED) review of Spider-Man: Far From Home, and let me know what you thought of the movie. Also, be sure to take my poll on HubPages!

Pin it!