Madame Web
Sony Pictures ReleasingWith the rise of popularity and commercial success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a new boom of cinematic shared universes hit theaters with many hoping to capture even a sliver of the success found by Marvel. For a variety of reasons, this experiment was largely a failed endeavor with many attempts calling it quits rather early, perhaps the most iconic example being Universal's Dark Universe which called it quits after a disastrous single film after an extensive PR push and promise of what was to come. It is almost commendable in a way to see which of these attempts have pushed on, even in the face of commercial and box office failure. With the DCEU calling it quits last year to focus on a new start under the hand of James Gunn, this moves Sony's Spider-Man Universe up a position when it comes to superhero-shared universes. After taking 2023 off following the largely disastrous review of Morbius in 2022, the SSU is back in full force for 2024 with a whopping 3 feature releases, starting with S. J. Clarkson's Madame Web.
Set in 2003, Madame Web follows a paramedic named Cassie (Dakota Johnson) who begins to have short visions of the future. These visions lead her to three teenage girls named Julia (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie (Celeste O'Connor), and Anya (Isabela Merced) who have a mysterious man chasing them trying to kill them. This man is an explorer named Ezekiel (Tahar Rahim) who has a history with Cassie's mother, joining her on an expedition to Peru right before her death while she was still pregnant with Cassie. Still trying to figure out her powers, Cassie has to figure out a plan to protect these girls and figure out what Ezekiel wants before he can make the kill.
While critically mixed, the SSU has provided a certain type of dumb fun rarely seen in mainstream films up to this point, but Madame Web loses even this defense instantly becoming one of the worst films of the year. Incredibly boring and incoherent, Madame Web is a film that gives no energy to logic or direction. Dissecting the film bit by bit, perhaps the most confusing failure within the feature is its shortcomings as a superhero feature. The superhero narrative has been done to death over the last couple of decades with many of the tropes and expectations coming with the layout feeling contrived and predictable. Madame Web not only wanders through a stale formula but does it particularly poorly.
One of the biggest faults for the character is that her powers, quite frankly, translate horribly to the big screen, at least in the film's portrayal of them. The editing from Leigh Folsom Boyd is consistently rough, more on that in a moment, but the visual designs given to bringing Cassie's developing powers to life are genuinely headache-inducing. Rushed flashes of light and cuts feel disorienting and cheap. It doesn't help that her powers consistently make no sense with the logic of how they work changing with every scene, none of which feels that compelling or exciting. When it comes time for the film's action, a fundamental flaw is found within these powers. To defeat her enemies, Cassie has to simply follow her visions, showing no agency or effort beyond following what is given to her. Traditionally, a hero will show tenacity and effort to accomplish their goals, creating a compelling character that the audience wants to root for. Because of the nature of Cassie's power, this effort is never seen and the weight of the action sequences fall apart as a result.
Without getting into spoilers, it also needs to be noted that the promoted realization of Spider-Woman as a character is an embarrassingly cheap tactic to get audiences into the theater by promising something not really within the feature. Anyone going to the film to see these characters in action is sure to be disappointed. On the other side of the battle, Ezekiel is a tremendously shallow villain with the weakest of motivations. This lack of depth and effectiveness is not only seen in the roles these characters play in terms of the superhero fights but also in their personalities throughout the film. Outside of incredible basic motivations and backgrounds, the characters throughout the feature lack identity and feel like shells of real humans.
This lack of thought and effort translates also the the actual narrative and drama of the feature. Not only is the film hollow, but it is completely illogical at every turn. While fantastical in a way that naturally abandons reality, the film doesn't even attempt to have character choices or even simply world dynamics make any sense with this being so distracting that it feels impossible to lose oneself in the actual journey of the film. This journey doesn't even try to set up the story to make the emotional climax at the end feel justified with the grand conclusion to the film scratching an itch never present in the runtime before it. To bring the 2003 setting to life, the film also has an obnoxious habit of throwing references to the era in your face in a contrived fashion, a particular standout for me is a massive ad for Beyoncé's Dangerously in Love album.
On a basic filmmaking level, Madame Web manages to find new lows even beyond the already-mentioned failures. The visuals are atrocious with horribly mashed-together edits and lazy visuals that never hold any sense of awe or imagination. The film doesn't even try with much of its ADR creating some of the most embarrassing sequences of any major release, especially when it comes to Rahim's performance with his dialogue legitimately not even somewhat matching up with the movement of his mouth. While there are many terrible films each year, the vast majority can at least hold themselves to a basic filmmaking standard, something Madame Web fails with. While many praised the studio for utilizing a smaller $80 million budget, in the context of what these types of releases normally are budgeted at, it is clear Madame Web suffers from a lack of both resources and care on every level.
If there was one decently ok portion of the film, it would be in its performances. While predictably Dakota Johnson overall struggles to find her footing in a heroic lead role such as this, despite a few stronger comedic lines, the rest of the cast is aggressively fine. Adam Scott plays his part well as Cassie's co-worker who gets brought into the conflict within the feature while Sweeney, O'Connor, and Merced show basic hints at possible chemistry moving forward. Rahim seems to have potential as a villain, but again his performance is completely undercut by the film's horrific production value. However, even if this wasn't the case it is almost a guarantee that his performance would be broken apart by the film's awful dialogue to reduce any larger chance for impact or success.
Even in the context of the SSU, Madame Web is one of the worst main release disasters in recent memory. Not only is the film boring, hollow, and incompetently stupid, but the feature can't even put in the effort to achieve basic filmmaking norms, delivering a final product that is genuinely embarrassing for all parties involved. While the trailer and promotion for the film were worthy of memes, the final feature doesn't even deserve that fate and instead should be avoided by all.
