Spider-Man: Far From Home

Last night I spontaneously canceled my plans and ended up at a movie theater for a screening of Spider-Man: Far From Home.  It was a good decision!  In the aftermath of the events of Avengers: Endgame, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is mourning the loss of his mentor Tony Stark but he feels the heavy responsibility of being one of the few remaining Avengers.  All he wants to do is be a normal teenager and have a good time on his school trip to Europe and tell M.J. (Zendaya) how he feels about her.  Meanwhile, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) investigate a destructive storm in Mexico and discover that the Elementals, a group of four monsters who can channel the power of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, have come to Earth from a different reality and that Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) has come from that reality to fight them.  When the Water Elemental attacks Venice, where Peter and the other students have begun their trip, Spider-Man helps Beck, who is dubbed Mysterio, destroy it.  Nick recruits a reluctant Peter to help Beck fight the Fire Elemental in Prague and gives him Tony Stark's glasses which have an artificial intelligence known as E.D.I.T.H. that can access all of Stark Industries' databases and weapons.  After Mysterio and Spider-Man defeat the Fire Elemental, Peter turns down Nick's invitation to form a new Avengers team and gives up E.D.I.T.H. with dire consequences.  What I really liked about this movie is Peter's journey (literally and figuratively) of discovery.  In Spider-Man: Homecoming, he yearns for adventure and wants the excitement of being an Avenger but, in this movie, he now understands the consequences and is not sure that he is ready for the responsibility.  He is forced to find his own inner strength, without his mentor, to save the people he cares about.  I have always loved Holland in this role and he is even more endearingly awkward this time around.  Gyllenhaal is having so much fun as Mysterio and I thought he was a great character.  I also really enjoyed the action sequences, especially the virtual reality aspect of some of the battles, because they feel quite fresh for the MCU.  Finally, I thought this movie was absolutely hilarious because of the interactions between Peter and his friends, especially the relationship between Ned (Jacob Batalon) and Betty (Angourie Rice).  Having taken students on three school trips to Europe, I laughed out loud at just about everything Mr. Harrington (Martin Starr) and Mr. Dell (J.B. Smoove) said and did. I also laughed when Happy (Jon Favreau) played "Back in Black" and Peter said that he loves Led Zeppelin.  This movie is a lot of fun and it does a good job of bridging the gap between Avengers: Endgame and the future of the MCU (stay for the mid and end credits scenes).  I definitely recommend it!