REVIEW: “Madame Web” Is a Tangled Mess
Sony Pictures returns to the Spider-verse in its new movie, Madame Web. Based on the Marvel Comics character, this iteration of Madame Web is nothing like the character first introduced by Marvel Comics 43 years ago. In this version, Cassandra “Cassie” Webb (Dakota Johnson) is a 30 year old paramedic in New York City. Having grown up in the foster system after her mother died during childbirth, Cassie is a little awkward and a bit standoffish. However, she has made a friend in her paramedic partner, Ben Parker (Adam Scott), and for those wondering, yes its that Ben Parker. Other than that, her life is quite mundane. Until Cassie is involved in almost fatal accident, her relatively boring life gets turned upside down. You see, this event unlocked powers that have been laying dormant in her since she was a baby. These powers allow Cassie to see the future and re-write it if she sees fit. When her visions thrust her into the path of three teenage girls, Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor), and Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), Cassie must decide if she will help these three young women avoid dying at the hands of the powerful, Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) or let them die.
Sony Pictures could have really had something with this movie had they chose not to make this an origin story. Let alone an origin story that in no way shape or form follows the character’s comic story. The screenwriters on this project deviated, and deviated hard with how “Madame Web” came to be. And, because of that, they lost the character completely. The Cassie fans are greeted with in the movie is not the version they know, and dare I say love in the comics. The explanation on how Cassie gets her powers to how she ends up blind doesn’t fit the character’s narrative at all. It was as if the writing team had never read a comic featuring Madame Web.
The other issue was the amount of other storylines occurring while the origin story was playing out. That’s right, this was not only an origin story for Cassie, but an origin story for our three teenagers, Julia, Mattie, and Anya who all become some form of Spider-Woman in the comics. This jumble web of storylines made the film a tad bit hard to follow. I think if the team had focused more on the teen trio origin story rather than Cassie’s it may have turned out to be a better movie. However, that could have only been done if the villain had been better developed. It was as if the writing team threw this character into the movie at the last minute. They never fully explain the motivation that drives Sims to be the villain. Instead, they use those moments for unnecessary plot pieces; like the need to remind the audience that Cassie lives in the same universe as Peter Parker. They did not need to make that connection. Truth be told, they could have left that connection out of the movie entirely and it would have freed up room to better develop Cassie’s character.
Johnson leads this movie, but can’t carry it. With the lackluster writing and an unlikeable character, Johnson was handed a character I don’t think any actor could have saved. I had to wonder how much of her character changed with all the rewrites the script went through, but I do need to know how bad the original version was that this is where the writing team landed. Sweeney, Merced, and O’Connor did well as the teenage trio, but like Johnson, they were given little to work with. There storyline should have been the focal point of this movie. Rahim played our villain and couldn’t pull off the part. As noted previously, there wasn’t enough meat to his character.
If you go into this movie with no expectations at all then you may find yourself enjoying it. If you go into this movie knowing it won’t be good, you may also find yourself enjoying it. I would not waste my time seeing it in theaters. It has no post credits scenes and does nothing to propel the Spider-verse forward. If you insist on seeing it, wait until it is released to streaming later this year.
Grade: D