With such a beloved franchise as Spider-Man and its recent successes with the newest PS5 video game and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse;” it’s only natural for Sony to want to cash in on the franchise even more. So when a film centered around a character entrenched in the wall crawlers Spider-verse was announced, it felt almost like a natural progression deeper into this character’s confusing web of a multiverse. Yet what we were given in “Madame Web,” was a step in the opposite direction from the universe Sony has been building.
Before jetting to when the story is being told in 2003, we are first treated to a flashback depicting Cassandra Webb’s mother researching spiders capable of curing cancer in Peru. Unfortunately for her, these spiders are also the objective of her partner who is the antagonist of this film. Ezekiel, played by Tahar Rahim, manages to forcefully take the spider after Webb’s mother finds it and he executes the camp.
Webb’s mother is wounded and found by a tribe of spider-people, who then manage to successfully deliver her soon-due baby. She passes away, yet the baby lives and with an ominous message; we are sent forward in time to Cassandra Webb, played by Dakota Johnson, working as a paramedic. We are shown her balancing work and personal life before a traumatic incident on the job awakens her powers.
While her use of foresight would seem quite useful, we are shown some believable power discovery scenes before embarking on a sudden adventure. While this film does hold somewhat of a semblance of a plot; it feels almost thrown together and the events of the film seemingly progress because they have to, not naturally. Even with a star-studded cast, the film felt hollow in its acting purely because of the plot.
You can still find a little bit of hope in the acting in a few scenes from Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeny, but it doesn’t nearly make up for how rough the script feels. On top of this, the dialogue feels shallow and at times, it feels almost as though the actors and actresses are simply going through the motions. Even so, this film could make an argument to be entertaining for casual movie and superhero fans.
Despite a few well placed acting sequences and some okay action, “Madame Web” seemingly can’t hold up with the superhero movies today. Its rough script and seemingly thrown together feeling makes this film almost painful to watch at times. I wouldn’t recommend this film for most movie watchers, but some may get a kick out of it in one way or another.
