With a 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.9 out of ten on IMDB, “Spider-Man: Far From Home” swung into theaters on July 2. This is the fifth movie starring Tom Holland as Spider-Man since Disney struck up a deal to allow the Sony-owned character to become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this deal, Marvel Studios gained the rights to put Spider-Man in the “Avengers” franchise, if “Marvel won’t receive a cut of the box office for any of Sony’s films that feature Spider-Man. Sony won’t receive a percentage of the revenue Disney makes from Marvel’s films that have Spider-Man, either,” explained a 2015 Variety article.  

Holland debuted the role in the 2016 film, “Captain America: Civil War.” Since then, Holland has played our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in two solo movies, the first being “Spider-Man: Homecoming” in 2017, and the most recent, “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” 

In this film, Holland’s character Peter Parker only wants a relaxing summer vacation, including no heroic tasks and telling his crush about his feeling for her. In addition to this desire to get away, Spider-man is tired of answering the question “Who will be the next Iron Man?” This is a hard question for Parker after the death of his role model and father figure, Tony Stark. Parker is set to leave for Europe and wants to leave his hero suit home. When Parker arrives in Europe, new threats called the Elementals start to wreak havoc on cities all over the continent. Parker must decide whether he wants to help save the world or just enjoy a normal summer vacation. 

This movie was thrilling and engaging from beginning to end, and allowed returning MCU fans as well as new MCU moviegoers to understand the concept. The cast, including Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jacob Batalon and Samuel L. Jackson, delivered strong performances. Creators of the film attempted something new in the MCU, and the humor felt natural. Additionally, after “Avengers: Endgame,” this was a highly anticipated movie and did not seem to cave into the hype that was built around it. The sets in the film were actual cities throughout Europe. This helped add to the realistic aspect of the film. 

On the other hand, one might say that the film did not live up to the hype that was established at the conclusion of the previous film, “Avengers: Endgame.”  A critic might also say that the whole conflict in the movie may have been avoided if Parker took better care of his gadgets and wasn’t so quick to trust. Ultimately, I enjoyed the film and would be happy to see a new installment. 

After five years in the MCU, the Sony-Disney agreement has expired and the two companies failed to renegotiate the deal allowing Spider-Man into the MCU. When asked about the split, Tom Holland explained to Entertainment Weekly, “Basically, we’ve made five great movies. It’s been five amazing years. I’ve had the time of my life. Who knows what the future holds? But all I know is that I’m going to continue playing Spider-Man and having the time of my life.” Holland, as well as MCU fans, look forward to the future of Spider-Man, even if it unfortunately does not include the MCU.