*Spoiler warning* This review will contain spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, what the heck are you doing here?! Save this link and pop back once you’ve seen it

For the first 20 minutes, Spider-Man: Far From Home had me worried.

And not just a little worried. As a fan of every Marvel Cinematic Universe entry, (even the movies at the bottom of my list are easily re-watchable), this movie started on course to be crashing towards the bottom of my preference pile.

The exposition scene to explain how “The Blip” – the workaday man’s equivalent term for “The Snap” – was packaged well and it was great to see how Thanos’s finger-clicking effected regular people.

Aside from this bright spot, the dialogue in the first 20 minutes was clunky and, quite frankly, the entire scene on the plane could be cut from the movie – it was not for me.

But if a film is going to shoot a couple of shots wide of the goal, best to get them out of the way in the first act. It leaves plenty of time to recover and recover it most certainly did.

Far From Home turns into a juggernaut movie that is packed with stunning action sequences, great character moments and twists which – albeit predictable to comic fans – were delivered exceptionally well.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s portrayal of Mysterio can be described by the same adjectives used to laud his costume design – sleek, vibrant and on point.

From the moment he flies in to fend off quasi-Hydro-Man, the movie steps into another gear. Quentin Beck’s relationship with Peter Parker is so believable that, heck, going in I knew Mysterio was going to be a villain but even I started to wonder if Marvel was about to wildly subvert our expectations.

And that makes the twist that Beck is simply a disgruntled former employee of Tony Stark looking to dupe seven billion people all the more entertaining. The fact that he’s assembled a team of former ‘Starkonians,’ including some faces we already knew, was great writing.

Who would have thought that William Ginter Riva, i.e. the puzzled scientist at whom Obadiah Stane yelled “Tony Stark built this in a cave, with a box of scraps” in Iron Man, makes a return to the MCU? And in a Spider-Man movie as a kind-of-villain no less. It’s the MCU at it’s interconnected best.

Just like William “I’m not Tony Stark” Ginter Riva, Quentin Beck is not a Dark Elf or a mad Titan. He’s just a guy – a villain who’s salty towards a former employer and is willing to take some very drastic measures to essentially prove a point. Underneath the drones, crazy schemes, holograms and golden armour, he’s just an average Joe with a case of the Monday’s.

But the lack of a physically powerful villain is not to the detriment of the action in this film. It is some of the best action in the MCU, particularly in a final act where Spider-Man has to use smart tactics to fight against a seemingly endless army of killer drones.

This is some of the most spectacular Spider-Man’ing we’ve seen to date, swinging around Tower Bridge against impossible odds looking for the Edith-powered Beck.

We know that if Spider-Man reaches him it’s no longer a contest but Back’s projections keep the audience guessing throughout the final battle.

It’s safe to say that I don’t have the Spidey Sense, or indeed a Peter Tingle – I would have been shot by Beck in his final power play which a fully souped-up Parker adeptly read. I guess that’s why I work a retail job rather than being an Avenger, but it’s at least testament to the unpredictable nature of the third and final act.

About the only predictable element towards the end of the movie was the budding relationship between Parker and MJ. But I liked the dynamic too much to be at all critical of that – this is the best Parker and MJ pairing ever.

Finally, we’ve been given an on screen MJ who doesn’t simply scream her was through the third act of the movie and while I wasn’t sold on their relationship at the start, by the end it was impossible not to be on board.

What helps in that regard is Michael Giacchino’s score which couples beautifully with the personal character moments. The track entitled “Bridge and Love’s Burning” which plays underneath the post-battle scene where MJ and Peter meet on Tower Bridge is key to what makes that scene great.

To conclude the MJ section of this review, isn’t it great that she also hates swinging through New York with no harness, parachute or bungee cord – simply holding on to a fast moving Spider-Man because life depends on it. Sounds terrifying and the fact that MJ agrees is another great example of subverting convention.

I am planning to do a separate article on not only the brilliance but also the implications of the two post-credit scenes, but I will give you a teaser for that feature now by stating that I think the pair of scenes in Far From Home is the best package of post-credit scenes the MCU has ever offered.

The implications – the who, what, why of those scenes – will keep MCU fans up at night pondering not only what is in the future of the franchise, but even puts into question what we’ve already seen.

I mean, for how long as Nick Fury been Talos the Scrull?!

By the end of these scenes, I’d forgotten where we started. The poor pacing of the first 20 minutes was pushed to the back of my mind as the thrills and spills of the various plot twists took over.

I don’t care that the scene in which Teacher McTeacherface pointlessly fumbles his camera into a Venice canal for a cheap laugh is in the movie, because these forgettable – even awkward – moments pale into insignificance in context of what is a juggernaut superhero flick.

Multiple viewings will help to determine whether it’s a better movie than it’s predecessor Homecoming. As it stands, I’m perched on the fence regarding the question.

That’s testament to how much I love Spider-Man: Far From Home and I’ll no doubt see it several more times before it leaves theatres in order to make up my mind on the Homecoming question.

Maybe turning up 20 minutes late to those showings will help tip the balance in favour of Far From Home.