※This article contains a spoiler on the Avengers: Endgame and the Spider-Man: Far From Home.
One would be hard-pressed to come up with a comic superhero as down-to-earth as this young man. Peter Parker (played by Tom Holland) from the movie Spider-Man: Far From Home, which will be released on Tuesday in South Korea, hasn’t changed one bit from the innocent boy who made his debut in front of a constellation of superheroes three years ago in Captain America: Civil War.
People who went missing for five years since the battle with Thanos have come back, but the world is still full of chaos. Coming back to a normal life, Peter goes on a trip to Europe where he is confronted with a new villain named “Elemental.” Protecting the plant from the bad guys, however, is a still a task to be done by “the real superheroes,” and Peter Parker, a teenager in the heart, is preoccupied with MJ (played by Zendaya Coleman) who he has a major crush on.
Attending a press in Seoul on Monday, Tom Holland said Robert Downey Jr. certainly left a big shoe to fill. “No one can replace the Ironman. During the shoot, I called him every now and then for advice,” said the 23-year-old English actor.
The Peter Parker played by Tom Holland is different than the one in the previous Spider-Man series in a way that he is still a teenager and far from a “complete paragon” of superheroes. While Director Sam Raimi focused on the melancholic vibe of Tobey McGuire (2002-2007), and Mark Web on the mischievousness of Andrew Garfield (2012-2014), the latest sequel sheds light on the growth pain of Spider-Man torn between choices over the successor of the Ironman as if a high teen movie.
Of course, it lacks the necessary weight expected of a final chapter to put an end to the MCU series following the Avengers: Endgame. Movie fans accustomed to the spectacle of the Captain Marvel flying through the space and beaming laser from her arms would find it rather stale. However, there are a set of elements in the movie that are entertaining enough such as the four different Spider suits and the action scenes unfolding in beautiful cities including Venice and Prague. The battle in London where Peter Park shoots spider web and singlehandedly fights hundreds of drones is a signature Spider-Man action.
Kyu-Jin Shin newjin@donga.com