Oh what a tangled web we weave. Some movies are impossible to view while wearing one’s “film critic” hat. Sometimes, opinions are not as cut and dry as they should be. This, it seems is the problem with Madame Web. Much has been speculated, assumed, and projected onto the anticipated superhero film and many are coming in hot with preconceived notions. Will the web-slinging spin-off soar with the best of the series, or should it go back to researching spiders in the Amazon jungle? Read on.
Madame Web follows Cassandra (Dakota Johnson) as she struggles to get through her dangerous, day-to-day life as a New York City paramedic. Things only grow more complicated when an on-the-job accident leaves her somehow able to see the future. Just as suddenly, she ends up tasked with protecting a group of teenagers who are under attack by a man with ties to Cassandra’s past. Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor, Tahar Rahim, Emma Roberts and Adam Scott co-star in Madame Web. S.J. Clarkson directs the film from a script they co-wrote with Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless and Claire Parker.
Is this a good movie? Is it bad? It seems perhaps most honest to start with a single fact. Yours truly was certainly entertained through much of Madame Web. There are many moments capable of eliciting chuckles from even the most cynical of film viewers. However, any review of this movie is complicated by the fact the laughs aren’t always the most… intentional. While this film isn’t produced like a comedy, at times, it plays like one.
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This script is a big, clunky doozy loaded with some strange dialogue choices, even clunkier exposition and some truly weird decisions. Ultimately, stepping beyond this beast of a screenplay is a Herculean task for even the most talented actors. Tahar Rahim in particular is saddled with some truly questionable speeches, resulting in some equally questionable line-readings. Meanwhile, Dakota Johnson alternates between acting for the “cheap seats” and appearing as exhausted with the script as the audience is.
The actors struggling against the script is simply one part of an ongoing thread of weirdness. This is a big studio picture with big studio goals. As such, franchise expectations and likely legal notes force Madame Web into distracting narrative and visual somersaults. Some of these involve blatant product placement. Most though revolve around the film’s clumsy attempts to shoehorn the world into the larger web-slinging universe… even though they can’t fully make the connection. This isn’t really Marvel, after all. For causal Spider-Man fans, this might result in some fun moments, but in a world familiar with Marvel world-building, the referenced but unnamed characters and reworded taglines are frustrating.
Matters feel even more convoluted when considering the movie’s blatant departure from its marketing. Madame Web, as it hits the screen, is drastically different from not only the trailer but a large chunk of the marketing. The final product is an origin story at its most basic. These characters are young, barely fleshed out, and truthfully, it’s difficult to see how anyone looking for a “comic book” or “superhero” movie will be satisfied.
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Madame Web is likely going to get a lot of hate. Is it always justified? Of course not. This is a movie that requires its audience to know its expectations. It’s hard to say that comic book movie fans will get what they’re looking for from Madame Web. This hastily constructed superhero spin-off is trying to fit into the genre without necessarily doing the work. However, film fans who like the weird, the kitschy, and ultimately the “good bad” movie will have more fun with this one. It’s easy to see Mystery Science Theater 3000 tackling Madame Web at some point.
Madame Web opens in theaters around the country on February 14, 2024.
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