Last night I watched 2019's Far From Home for the first time.
I know this is a thread about the actors playing Spider-Man, but I do feel that there's so much about the reality created for each actor's iteration of the character that has a knock-on effect of making the character himself more (or less) "right". Unfortunately, there's a lot I really struggle with when it comes to the MCU.
As with the first film, I hated that characters like MJ, Betty, Flash, Ned and Aunt May look and act nothing like they're supposed to. They're all nice and endearing and all, but I really wish they'd just renamed all the supporting characters.
A big appeal with Spider-Man has always been that he struggles with life. He has to wash his costume and find storerooms to change. He has to use his skills and his scientific knowledge for his gadgets. Because of this, I'm not a huge fan all the hi-tech Bondian stuff - especially the costume changes. I found some of it (the EDITH specs) enjoyably entertaining, but it doesn't feel like what Spider-Man does best, which is superherodom on a student's budget.
I think of Spider-Man as a loner, so the Avengers connection and Happy being on hand to support him makes it feel more impersonal. And while it was nice to see some different scenery, I did also feel the absence of the New York scenery I so associate with Spider-Man. I wasn't impressed with a lot of the CGI stuff which looked too computer game like. But given the meta aspect of some of it being CG even within the film I'll buy it.
My favourite plot within the film itself was the Peter/MJ Black Dahlia necklace business. I was invested in that and willing him to get through his battles without it being lost or damaged. If anything, I wish they'd played that plot up a bit as it really echoed a lot of what the comics character was about in my comics reading era of the Sixties to Eighties (I hasten to add that the Sixties and Seventies comics I read were all reprints or back-issues. I'm not quite that old).
One little running thing I noticed was Nick Fury's car number plate which seemed to be different in each scene. I didn't notice the numbers, but the letters in one read "ASM" (Amazing Spider-Man) while another was "MTU" (Marvel Team-Up), so they seemed to be the well-known initialisms for Spidey's various comic titles (presumably the numbers referenced issues or publication years).
The film's most unforgivable moment was referencing the world of the MCU as Earth-616. The only thing that's allowed me to suspend disbelief enough to enjoy these films has been to recognise that they exist in a different part of the multiverse to the Earth-616 which is the main Marvel Universe of the comics. I appreciate that the designation was used by someone who was being deceptive and so isn't necessarily true, but I really feel the MCU should keep well away from such a sacred cow as I don't consider any of the films to be canon.
As for Spider-Man himself, I found Tom Holland acceptable. I struggled to keep up with how quickly he spoke, and he feels more childish than Peter Parker was in even the earliest comics, but I can understand that this isn't the Eighties anymore and he has to be representative of American teenagers in the Twenties. However, he was just too whiny at times to be enjoyable.
He looks the part, but I did find myself thinking - even as I watched - that Andrew Garfield was better fit.