We finally got around to watching the latest Marvel movie Sunday night, Spider-Man Far From Home. With the conclusion of Avengers, this movie slipped under my radar to see in theaters, but last week my wife reminded me that we still hadn’t seen it. As luck would have it, it was available for rental now.

Let’s get this out of the way… SPOILERS BELOW

One of the things that often gets overlooked in super hero movies is the aftermath of things that happen to ordinary people. For a short bit at the start of Far From Home, we get a glimpse into how the world has come to adjust to the “blip”. Half of the world population just disappearing for 5 years, and coming back un-aged, would cause a tremendous amount of chaos in the world. Seeing that Peter and his friends (who all conveniently blipped) had to just go right back to high school, showed that life finds a way to just keep moving on.

However, this trip into reality doesn’t last long before we’re thrust into a globe trotting super hero adventure. Peter gets thrust into the middle of a deception by Mysterio (Quinten Beck), a former Stark employee who was fired for being unstable. Mysterio uses technology to create elaborate holograms so that he can them swoop in and make himself the hero of the day. The goal of his hoax is to gain access to Tony Stark’s super computer EDITH, which has been gifted to Peter Parker.

Needless to say, things go awry and Peter unwittingly hands over the sunglasses. He then needs to get them back by defeating Mysterio and saving the day, as well as all of his friends, who by this point ended up in London.

So what did I like best about this film? I enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t directly tied in to any larger story arc, beyond Spider-Man himself. Sure there was the post-credit nod to the Skrulls, and Nick Fury being out in space. But the arc of this story was all about Peter just learning more how to be Spider-Man, as well as just learning how to be an adult.

The action was good, and the visuals were high quality as expected. The story was solid, though I feel like there was way more foreshadowing than necessary around Peter’s classmates. When he mid-credits scene revealed his secret identity to the world, and framed him for the murder of Mysterio, I knew exactly how it would play out in the sequel among his friends. The love story is going to get complicated and Peter’s classmate  Brad is going to swoop in to try and steal MJ away, perhaps becoming a villain in his own right. At least that’s how everything seemed telegraphed.

There wasn’t much to complain about in this flick. The writing was solid, even if the plot was straightforward and predictable. I did have a hard time believing Mysterio’s holograms could ever look that good, especially when he is fighting Peter one-on-one. He had to adjust way too quickly for something that in other scenes looked to take a long time to program and script out. It almost would have made more sense if it had been some type of hypnotism vs technology, but I can suspend some disbelief for an otherwise good film.

Hopefully, all of the disputes between Sony and Disney are settled enough to allow for the next two planned sequels to happen. Everything seems positive at this point, but who knows. Corporations are known for changing their minds.

Although not perfect, this was certainly a fun film and well worth a rental.