Madame Web is directed by S.J. Clarkson and follows Cassie Web as she discovers she has the power to see the future and is connected to these girls who being hunted by the villain Ezekiel.
While I really enjoyed the first two acts of this movie, the plot felt so aimless by the end that it just couldn’t find its feet.
A few positive aspects include some excellent action choreography, with quite explosive and well edited fight sequences. There is sleek cinematography on display, focalising a nice warm tone for the nostalgic 2000s NYC setting
The cast is also a highlight, with earnest and fun performances from the supporting cast that felt under-utilised. Dakota Johnson is also wonderfully sarcastic and charming in this.
I also particularly enjoyed some creative editing during the glimpses of the future that Cassie has, one scene on the train in particular building tension in a way that had me hooked and invested in the scene.
However, overall Madame Web falls down because the story doesn’t really have a reason to exist. It kind of leads nowhere, and feels pointless.
It’s like an origin story, but before the origin story. Most of the film revolves around three girls who will all become spider-woman in around 5 years in the future. But in the movie there’s just regular people who are on the run and hiding from the villain. They don’t have powers, they have no reason to be there, and no contribution to the plot other than the villain is after them.
But the main character is Madame Web, so you’d assume at least she has her powers but it takes her the entire movie to learn how to use her powers and by the end the most impressive thing she does is like drive a truck into the villain once and access some web force thing. At one point she travels to some Spider-Clan in the amazon to discover how she got her powers and it was genuinely one of the most forced, bizarre, and rushed pieces of story I’ve ever seen in a superhero film. It was so weird.
Sony’s made bunch of these Spider-Man movies without Spider-Man, whether it’s Venom, or Morbius, and they have three coming out this year. But if you’re going to these movies about side characters where Spider-Man doesn’t even show up, the story has to have a reason to exist. Not every character should get a movie. But if they do, you should give it a good story. If you do a Madame Web and Spider-Woman movie, give them their full powers from the start, and tell a genuinely compelling emotional story about their journey.
Though imperfect, it was a still enjoyable enough watch for me in the sense that it had a sleek visual flare, some super explosive action, and despite it mostly being filled with clunky forced dialogue it actually had some funny moments which made me I crack up.
Let us know what you thought if you’ve seen the film!