With Jon Watts’ first entry into the Spider-Man franchise doing pretty well at the box office, bringing home a cool $880 million at the box office worldwide, a lot was expected with this sequel.

It sees Peter Parker, played once again by Brit Tom Holland, go on a memorable European trip with his classmates.

He may well be the main superhero in the spotlight, especially after the blip, but Peter Parker has other things on his mind, specifically a girl, MJ (Zendaya). She doesn’t know it yet, but he has high hopes that the upcoming Midtown High trip to Europe will be the perfect destination to reveal his feelings to her.

Things don’t quite go to plan however, when their arrival in Venice is marked by a battle between a massive water enemy and a new superhero in town, Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) AKA Mysterio.

Peter helps him out, which is how he learns of the Elementals, which apparently are dead set on destroying the Earth. Beck could do with some help, which Peter doesn’t mind doing, despite getting pressure from a certain Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who is keen to have Spider-Man as the new head of the Avengers.

Peter soon finds himself conflicted between his own personal life and the responsibility of being a superhero. What he doesn’t know is that there’s even more to worry about, as not everything is quite what it seems on his European vacation.

Director Watts must have been suffering from a little NYC fatigue, with Spidey spending so much time there across the whole franchise, which is probably why he sent him on his holibobs. And audiences agreed with him that the change was good for our superhero, as they made it the first Spider-Man film to make over a billion at the box office.

That’s not taking anything away from Holland, who not only has a lot of screen time as Peter Parker, but also has more of an emotional arc to play around with this time around. He also has a dizzying amount of costume changes, with a number of Spidey outfits on show throughout, including the debut of Night Monkey.

What also works is the onscreen chemistry from off screen couple Holland and Zendaya, where they develop their meet-cute relationship to an adorable level.

Watts also does well balancing the action sequences and the personal life stuff, so it doesn’t quite feel the CGI-fest that other films before it have.

And there’s no doubt that a change of scenery is a welcome addition, and that the iconic New York skyline isn’t a dominant feature like it normally is.

The only real issue that remains is the reticence to have Peter Parker finally leave education behind, and although that’s still very much the case here, at least he’s getting schooled on another continent.

But at least he’s finally part of the MCU, and therefore Marvel canon, with a fair few references to the events of Avengers: Endgame, making him finally feel more of the Marvel family.

Watt’s sequel then is certainly progress in terms of character development and storytelling, making Spider-man: Far from Home a first class destination.