Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 56 minutes, Director – SJ Clarkson
When she starts to experience visions of the future, ambulance driver Cassie (Dakota Johnson) finds herself protecting three teenagers (Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced, Sydney Sweeney) from a man with spider-like abilities (Tahar Rahim) who is trying to kill them.
One of my favourite Letterboxd reviews is from user Patrick Willems describing Sony’s first entry into their Spider-Man Universe (SSU; formerly called the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters – SPUMC), Venom. The review simply says “The #3 superhero movie of 2003.” If that’s the case, then Madame Web is towards the weaker end of such films. A common criticism of Sony’s recent batch of live-action Marvel features has been that they’ve felt about 20 years too late, and even if released at that time they still wouldn’t have flown high. Actually, set in 2003, blaring constant reminders which feel less like nostalgia but the clanging sound of ‘REMEMBER THIS!?’ showing the film thinking the audience might forget, this particular entry feels most at home in that year.
It also feels like a film trying to be legally different to Spider-Man. Despite the fact that Sony owns the rights to the character the handful of references to him, and the universe he’s a part of, are constantly interrupted or quickly moved on from as if there’s a fear there might be repercussions for doing so. The events and characters all feel like they’ve been plucked from a universe of Halloween costumes belonging to the ‘Spider Powered Hero’ universe.
Dakota Johnson’s Cassie Webb finds herself turning 30 and experiencing concerning visions of the future. Sometimes these are just a few seconds away others minutes before the event, it all depends on what’s convenient for the plot. When trying to get away from everything she sees a vision of three teenagers being attacked on a train. After rushing the trio back onto the platform the group are soon hunted by Tahar Rahim’s Ezekiel Sims – who has had visions of three masked heroes one day murdering him for many nights. Donning his own spider suit to match his wall-climbing abilities his aim is to kill the girls before they get to him in the future – his powers, initial want for the spider that presumably gave them to him and basically everything else about him is deemed completely irrelevant.
We get very brief glimpses of Mattie (Celeste O’Connor), Anya (Isabela Merced) and Julia (Sydney Sweeney) in their crime-fighting futures, but the most part they’re present for Cassie to save at the last minute. The quartet bring about a set of ranging performances from those which are seemingly in a comedy, those which you can tell the scenes which were filmed after they realised this likely wasn’t going to be the best film and those which are simply rubbish.
When the group first properly meet the jumps in time are chaotic and all over the place. A constant back and forth which pretty much make a confusing sequence of their own. Later on the visions are longer and more restricted to one thing, however a moment of frantically edited action leads to a decision which is frequently an Arthurian run away. In the end everything feels very generic and lacking in style. As if Cassandra Webb is a character with little story and detail to provide to a feature film. There feels to be little confidence in her from a screenwriting perspective, and indeed the universe as a whole, one which wants to be more connected to what’s around it but at the same time doesn’t want to properly reference it so as to be its own product. It simply leaves Madame Web struggling on its own underdeveloped island, one that hasn’t changed much since 2003.
Set in 2003 Madame Web feels like it belongs among the weaker films of that very year. Lacking in detail, and confidence, it moves along with confusing action sequences and underdeveloped ideas giving the impression that even the film doesn’t know what to do with the central characters it’s been given.
Just A Little Bit Random 