Disclosure: This is not a compensated or sponsored post. I was invited to attend an advanced screening of the movie. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Picking up immediately where Endgame left off with the devastation of Thanos’s snap finally undone, Far From Home does its best to thread the needle between major world-building moments and the John Hughes flavored high school microcosm that worked so well back in Spider-Man: Homecoming. The setup is pretty simple: Endgame happened, people are trying to get back to their lives, and Peter Parker’s high school class is going on a European vacation. But, unfortunately, superhero business doesn’t really respect the field trip timeline, leaving Peter with both his masked and unmasked lives playing tug-of-war for his time.

It’s endearing. Tom Holland, Jacob Batalon, and Zendaya reprise their roles as Peter, Ned, and MJ with the same energy and chemistry they had in Homecoming, while Tony Revolori’s Flash Thompson and Angourie Rice’s Betty Brant return as supporting comic relief. Basically every moment between the high school kids trying to cope with the craziness as  they keep finding themselves in works, but the balance between that plot and the high stakes superhero action hits the mark. Said superhero action comes thanks to Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), who all really want Peter to drop what he’s doing and save the world, no matter the cost, with the help of newcomer Quentin Beck AKA Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), a man who claims to be from another dimension trying to fight giant monster “Elementals” who plan on destroying the Earth.

Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio is a definite standout in the ensemble. He’s equal parts charming and hilarious, immediately memorable and wholly unique, complete with maybe the most fun backstory reveal the MCU’s ever accomplished. He and Holland are delightful together onscreen, with chemistry for days–so much so that it almost outshines Holland’s already stellar dynamic with the rest of his high school classmates.

This movie is  full of heart and good intentions, clever, quick-witted, and confident enough to pull off some really insane reveals. The parts that work, work very, very well. Head out and go for a big ride.