‘Madame Web’ Makes An Un-Marvelous Debut

Sony Pictures’ weaves itself a web of disappointment with its Feb. 14 release of “Madame Web.” 

Sony’s history with movies based on Marvel comics like “Madame Web” has been inconsistent. “Morbius” (2022) received horrendous reviews and laughable ratings while “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (2023) earned a 95% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed over $120 million on opening weekend.

Despite the successes of the animated “Spider-Verse” films, the failure of “Morbius” gave some Marvel fans low expectations for “Madame Web.” They were unfortunately met.

The movie stars Dakota Johnson (“Fifty Shades of Grey,” “The Social Network”) as Cassie Webb, a paramedic in Queens, New York. After Cassie endures a near-death experience, she discovers that she has the ability to see small glimpses into the future. With a strong desire to help others, she uses her newfound clairvoyance to save the lives of three teenage girls and becomes dedicated to protecting them. 

With absent parents, the girls are defenseless, and Cassie — who lost her mother in childhood — relates to the girls and assumes the role of caregiver.

Throughout the movie, Mattie (Celeste O’Connor), Julia (Sydney Sweeney) and Anya (Isabela Merced) are pursued by antagonist Ezekiel (Tahar Rahim). To protect the girls — and their futures — Cassie realizes she must untangle the web of her past.

Despite her auspicious premise and history as a Marvel superhero, Madame Web unfortunately falls into a catalog of female heroines who deserved a higher quality solo film. Like Elektra and Captain Marvel, Madame Web’s cinematic debut was disappointing and dilapidated.

Even with an $80 million budget, the flawed automated dialogue replacement — obviously dubbed at certain points in the film — mixed with questionable CGI provided a mismatched visual for a low quality narrative. The script was lackluster, containing rigid, over-expository dialogue resulting in forced and unnatural conversations between characters.

The acting for “Madame Web” was reminiscent of The CW’s “The Flash” — sub-par and poorly delivered. 

The otherwise talented actress Johnson isn’t cut out to play an action hero. Her bland expressions and mannerisms are distracting to the narrative and lack the essential energy for a hero of this caliber.

Rahim’s performance as Ezekiel was equally as undeveloped and uninspired as Johnson’s. With hardly any origin story, there is no reason to seriously pay attention to his character. Ezekiel is one of the weakest Marvel characters Sony has ever produced — not in regards to strength but substance.

Despite its pitfalls, “Madame Web” had a few redeeming qualities. With a classic train fight sequence and signature “Spider-Man” cityscapes, the movie had some strong-yet-predictable moments. 

Although forced, there were also some exciting references, including allusions to Peter Parker’s birth and other foreshadowed moments that true Spider-Man fans will likely appreciate. 

“Madame Web” also successfully dealt with back-and-forth time jump sequences, building suspense and amplifying the high-stress sequences within the movie. These unpredictably compelling moments were by far the most entertaining.

Once again, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe sacrifices the story and development of a character for the sake of future franchise endeavors. If Sony keeps creating surface-level characters, its Spider-Man Universe will have a very limited fanbase, as people will be unable to relate to and become attached to characters. 

“Madame Web” is another addition to this expanding universe — soon to be followed by “Kraven the Hunter,” set to release in August.

“Madame Web” is in theaters now.

Featured image courtesy of Sony Pictures.