Madame Web

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Madame Web is the latest film in Sony's spinoff Spider-Man efforts; a story following Cassie Webb, who develops the ability to see into the future. When this paramedic foresees the immediate deaths of three young women, she intervenes to save their lives. Now on the run, Cassie must learn her new powers fast if she hopes to defeat the mysterious spider-themed assailant looking to kill the women under her protection.

 

What I really enjoyed about Madame Web was the tilt from Act One into Act Two, howe we see Cassie growing conscious of her powers and then getting in over her head very fast. The film plays with this sense of something wrong and new in a creative way, making us question what is real or just how an event might actually play out. It's also really satisfying to see Cassie grow and develop a confidence around her powers.

 

While I can't speak to all aspects of this element, I did enjoy the visual effects overall. There were some fun astral projection sequences, the 'webs of fate' looked especially well designed and the big pyrotechnic sequence with the explosions in the final fight were effective.

 

Sydney Sweeney, who played Julia Cornwall, does her very best with a poorly written role; I found Sweeney's performance as a more shy and reclusive teen charming and a bit of a contrast to her usual roles. Adam Scott, who played Ben Parker, was a real hit for me in this film; Scott and Johnson have some exceptional chemistry with one another as on-screen best friends.

 

However, the best performance came from Dakota Johnson, who played Cassandra Webb. This is a role that has gotten it's fair share of criticism but I think overall, Johnson helmed a really poor script surprisingly well. Cassie Webb is a bit of a reclusive figure, she sits apart from folks normally and carries around a big chip on her shoulder. Johnson plays awkward strongly, and those disarming moments of poor social interaction from Cassie are made all the better because of it. Her ability to actually deliver dialogue that feels a bit cutting and funny at the same time lends a weirdly camp quality to this role that I enjoyed. I also felt Johnson allowed herself to be angry at the three under her protection, the reluctant hero angle is something she played to very well. I also got this sense that Cassie was a lonely figure, looking to connect with others but being held back - a distance that was very well presented by Johnson.

The issue these Sony films have that take off minor Spider-Man characters and attempt to make their own thing is just the extremely vapid scripts. I remember when I watched Morbius how I didn't quite understand the point of it; why were they making this film? At least in that feature you could see the success of Venom reflected in another dark anti-hero. Here you have an extremely obscure figure without a strong fanbase saving superheroes before they even have superpowers with a power set that isn't extremely investing to watch for an entire film. This movie was set during 2003 but it felt like it was written back then too. You had ancient Amazonian Spider people tribes, annoying teenagers that aren't very well written and a bad guy motivated by bad dreams that haven't come to pass yet. For no reason at all Spider-Man's pregnant mother is in this film, placed in danger and ultimately delivering the future wall-crawler (though he is never named). The plot also has a weird sense of what is important and what isn't; our three leading protagonists beyond Cassie are never really developed and are instead sort of archetypes. The film doesn't pace especially fast, it moves in a meandering sort of way which drops the stakes significantly. The protagonist even has time to jet set off to Peru before the final act of the film.The antagonist, Ezekiel Sims, just might be the worst realised comic book antagonist I've seen brought to the big screen. His character never makes a modicum of sense and a lot of the time he just seems purely motivated to be bad for the sake of it. The film also has the gall to entirely change Cassie into a cryptic fortune teller in the last five minutes immediately after she goes blind, entirely shifting her character on the viewer. More than that, the film never realises the other protagonists as superheroes in anything but dream sequences.

The way this film is shot feels quite by the numbers, blocky wides that centre the leads but a distinct lack of original vision. I also found the action sequences to be shot in a way that really highlights the effects but ruined the flow of the scene or made the setting very obviously a big sound stage. The editing was disruptive and jarring, there was a tendency for things to cut quite abruptly and it resulted in quite an ugly film. The score was entirely forgettable fanfare, the sort I could attribute to any blockbuster not wanting to claim it's own identity. The soundtrack felt setting appropriate but there was no sense of decision making there, the tracks didn't exactly support the film they were in.

Isabela Merced, who played Anya Corazon, just gets the least amount of attention out of the teenagers which means she drops to the background quite a bit; Merced feels like she has nothing to work with and knows it. Celeste O'Connor, who played Mattie Franklin, is a hard protagonist to like; her role grates against the others and just comes off as very self-centred the entire film with no redeeming arc. Tahar Rahim, who played Ezekiel Sims, might be the worst thing to happen to comic book movie bad guys in decades; Rahim absolutely gargled his dialogue and had no variety in his delivery whatsoever. Emma Roberts, who played Mary Parker, is an actress who I felt used to be very up and coming so it's surprising to see her in such an asinine role; Roberts stereotypical turn as a bubbly baby shower momma feels out of step in a Spider-Man story. Kerry Bishé, who played Constance, really sets a poor start to the film; she gives no impact to her lines and you don't really believe she genuinely cares about the things she is talking about in her scenes.  Zosia Mamet, who played Amaria, is hilariously bland as the bad guy's hacker; Mamet just seems a bit lost at the wheel with this role at times. José María Yazpik, who played Santiago, comes off as a caricature role; a poorly realised fictional indigenous tribesman played by a good actor with a script entirely disservicing him.

A film that lacks purpose in a superhero universe lacking any kind of road map or reason for existing at all. I would give Madame Web a 3/10.