The first post-Avengers: Endgame  Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Spider-Man: Far From Home  opened this weekend and reviewing it will requires spoilers for Endgame,  though I will refrain from spoilers for Far From Home  as much as possible.

Set five years after the events in Infinity War  and shortly after the return of the ‘snapped’ and after Iron Man’s sacrifice ending Thanos’ threat Far From Home opens with Peter Parker trying to resume his abnormal life as a high school student, he and all his emotionally relevant friends lost five years due to the Snapture (thanks to NPR’s Glen Weldon), while trying to cope with the loss of Tony Stark.

A new threat appears on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar when monstrous forces called elementals begin appearing around the world and the sole survivor from a parallel universe Quentin beck where these forces destroyed the Earth is recruited to save this version of Earth. With the major former Avengers either dead, aged out, crippled, or unavailable, Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. conscripts Peter Parker to help Beck save the world.

Peter wants nothing more than to leave the world saving to others, enjoy his high school class’ European Vacation, and possibly get closer to his crush Mary Jane Watson, but the continuing and escalating threat upset Peter’s plans and being the heir apparent to Stark’s mantle carries with it a level of guilt and responsibility that test’s Peter’s character.

Spider-Man: Far From Home  has exciting action set pieces, fine acting, deft, quirky, and often funny dialog but it lacks a strong story leaving it in the midlist of MCU movies. Unlike the last outing for Spider-Man where a padded plot dragged down the pacing this time the flaw is the central conceit of Peter’s motivation as character. As a protagonist Peter is simply far too passive.

In the Western tradition stories are constructed around a protagonist who desires a goal, something the protagonist much work to achieve, and the obstacles that the character most circumvent, defeat, or overcome to achieve their objectives. What your character wants and why they cannot simply have it is the core of a story’s plot. In this movie Peter wants to be left alone. He wants to go his vacation, not be ‘Spider-Man,’ and explore his relationship with M.J. Peter’s objective is not to do the thing the audience is here to see him do and as such the plot must repeatedly intervene and force Peter back onto the track that leads to dashing heroics and exciting action. In short he is pushed and pulled by the plot rather than driving the plot himself with his actins, choices, and needs for an objective. When the script makes the turn from Act 2 to Act 3 it finally creates enough pressure that Peter can no longer hide from his responsibilities and his objectives changes and for the final act he is driving the story, but this transformation comes too late to prevent the majority of the movie from being subjected to rudderless piloting.

How much this passive protagonist bothers someone will be a matter of individual taste. As I have mentioned this time the film’s running time doesn’t feel padded and each action set piece has a strong narrative purpose. There are plenty of humor and character moments to carry a viewer along but for me the lack of a plot driven by Peter’s needs drags the final product down into the mid-tier range of MCU movies.