Spider-Man: Far From Home Parent Guide

After the events of Avengers: Endgame, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) finds himself busier than ever before. With the loss of so many Avengers in the battle against Thanos, Spider-Man has to step up to battle emerging threats. Peter sees an upcoming class trip to Europe as a welcome excuse to unwind and hang up the suit for a little while. Unfortunately for him, his arrival in Europe coincides with a new problem: huge monsters called Elementals which could destroy everything. With the help of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and the mysterious Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal), Peter will have to find time for his own plans while saving the world.

This film does a surprisingly good job balancing the emotionally heavy consequences of Endgame with the typically lighthearted tone of previous Spider-Man films. Peter is forced into difficult situations and emotionally complicated places; fortunately, the movie retains its good humor and keeps the characters it introduced in Spider-Man: Homecoming. That’s a tricky juggling act, but the natural chemistry between the cast members goes a long way in keeping all those balls in the air.

The biggest downside to this fun summer film is its predictability. Director Jon Watts is not spinning a complex narrative web: anyone who’s seen the trailer can predict the plot with a fair degree of accuracy. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean you can take a bathroom break whenever you want without worrying about losing the plot. (Although you do risk missing one of this movie’s many jokes.)

The content concerns are exactly what you’d expect from a superhero flick – lots of action violence - but this film feels a lot milder than some others. Certainly Endgame pushed the PG-13 envelope as far as it could with some messy deaths, but even compared to Captain Marvel or Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: Far From Home stacks up well as a surprisingly family-friendly entertainment option. One scene of intense and frightening imagery will deter younger viewers, but by and large this is not a terribly difficult film to recommend for teens and older kids.

Much like its titular character, Spider-Man: Far from Home was handed a difficult bill after Endgame, and much like Peter Parker, the film did a good job of staying true to its own style while incorporating the larger themes of its predecessor. In my opinion, Tom Holland is the best live action Spider-Man we’ve seen yet, and he keeps bringing the kind, considerate, and concerned kid that Peter Parker needs to be to the screen in a big way. Fans of the genre will definitely not want to miss this entry in the MCU, but a quick look at the box office revenue for other films in the franchise assures me that they will.