Spider-Man tries to fill empty spaces

Tom Holland and Jacky Gyllenhaal in a scene from Spider-Man: Far From Home.

It’s taken a while but I think I have worked out the secret to becoming a superhero: having a distant or absent father.

The future Batman was eight when his father was murdered in front of him. Captain America-to-be was a boy when his dad died. Iron Man’s driven, alcoholic father (a brilliant John Slattery in some of the movies) checked out early. Thor and his dad are realms apart. Superman’s father is on another planet and, making it even more challenging, he’s ­Marlon Brando. And so on.

This sense of fatherlessness is the driving theme in Spider-Man: Far from Home, directed by Jon Watts. This 23rd Marvel movie is a sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), also directed by Watts, and features much of the same cast, including the engaging Tom Holland in the lead role.

Yet while it’s a direct follow-on, its main nod is to another movie that came in between: this year’s Avengers: Endgame, which ends with Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) dead and buried. Stark was a father figure to the teenage Peter Parker, helping him find his sticky feet as Spider-Man.

Now he has gone, Peter (who also lost his parents young, and to violent means) needs a new male role model. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), head of SHIELD, could be a tough love dad. Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), security chief at Stark Industries, is making a play at Peter’s aunt (Marisa Tomei), the woman who knows he is Spider-Man but still treats him as a 16-year-old boy, and not without good reason.

Then there’s a new superhero on the block, laser-shooting Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal in his Marvel debut), to whom Peter relates. Some of the scenes between them are touching. Holland, who is 23, well captures the naivety and anxiousness to please that leads a lot of young men to make flawed decisions

The world, meanwhile, is looking for the apex big daddy: a new lead Avenger. Is Spider-Man up to it? The global population has been restored (the “blip” that followed the planetary devastation of Avengers: Endgame is cleverly and humorously explained) but there are still pressing concerns aliens will come back.

Peter, in turn, is more interested in chasing his crush, MJ (singer and actress Zendaya), and a high school summer excursion to Europe provides an amorous opportunity. It also provides a less romantic opportunity for some aliens — or at least that’s what everyone assumes they are — to wreak havoc on Venice, London and anywhere else on Peter’s itinerary. He soon has to decide whether to do something about this.

This is a zippy, funny movie — a scene where Peter shares a jail cell with three Dutch football fans is a treat — with excellent special effects. It races by in two hours without any boring detours. As with Avengers: Endgame, there are a couple of significant twists. While the post-credits sequence is now mandatory under Marvel Law, this one is worth waiting for. It sets up a whole new ball game.

Spider-Man: Far from Home (M) 3.5 stars

National release

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There’s a telling moment early in Child’s Play where13-year-old Andy (Gabriel Bateman) and two slightly older friends are watching an over-the-top slasher movie on television. They laugh their heads off as, on screen, heads come off. Also watching is Andy’s new toy, an interactive doll named Chucky (voiced by Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame).

Chucky, new to the human world, assumes decapitating people with chainsaws is something his new owner will enjoy. Chucky also has a literal mind at this stage, so when Andy says he wants to be rid of his cat and his mother’s new boyfriend, two and two go together.

And that literal mind can develop. This goes to the power/promise/threat of artificial intelligence. Chucky may end up making his own judgments, calling his own shots.

This focus on AI and the digital world is the clever, timely aspect of this remake of the 1988 horror film of the same name.

This Chucky is not possessed by the soul of a child serial killer but by the computer gadgetry of a technology company that looks a lot like Apple. And when his safety switches are disabled, boy can he byte.

This rest of the movie, directed by Norwegian filmmaker Lars Klevberg, is standard horror fare, with a welcome amount of humour.

Chucky is off the leash, Andy and his friends are trying to stop him, the adults in the room, including a police detective, think the kids are loopy. Note the MA15+ rating: some of Chucky’s doings are not for the squeamish. Overall, this is a fun 90 minutes, if you are into this sort of thing.

Child’s Play (MA15+) 3 stars

National release