The latest installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Cinematic Universe, Madame Web, has been mauled by critics and reviewers alike.
With their track record of films like Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Morbius, which have also garnered bad reviews, is Madame Web truly as bad as it seems?
While the film isn’t perfect, it has moments where the plot isn’t explained thoroughly enough or at all. Still, the result is a superhero adventure that satisfies with its likable characters and interesting concepts not seen before in a Spider-Man-related film.
Madame Web stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra “Cassie” Webb as she discovers her mysterious newfound abilities and learns how to control them. She comes across three girls (Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O’Connor) who are being threatened with being killed by someone from Cassie’s past, a man named Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) who sees his future murder at the hands of the three girls. Although this vision was never confirmed to be true. With the powers she has attained, Cassie has a sense of responsibility to protect the girls from this new foe as he goes through catastrophic proportions to get what he wants.
What Dakota Johnson offers in her role as Cassie Webb is a character who goes on a journey of self-discovery and finding out what it means to be a hero and the responsibility that comes with it. It flows naturally with the plot as Cassie gains her newfound powers of seeing people’s future and seeing the future of the three girls mentioned earlier, Julia Cornwall (Syndey Sweeney), Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor). While the development between the four is a bit rushed, it is believable, and the mother figure Cassie poses for her “daughters” is what makes this a worthy addition to the Spider-Man mythos, Cassie demonstrates the type of person she is, responsible and compassionate, and how she reflects that person with how she treats these girls.
Tahar Rahim’s performance as Ezekiel Sims is nothing less than great. However, his character’s backstory is bland and very underdeveloped. In the film, not much is shown or told about what drives him. For example, he worked with Cassie’s mother, Constance Webb as she researched a certain species of spider to cure diseases. He would betray her but there was no clear reason why he did other than he wanted power. The positive aspects of Ezekiel’s character are the intensity and often scary scenes he dominated when he would go after Cassie and the girls. Plus his suit is pretty awesome and similar to the future Spider-Man.
The film itself isn’t that bad and the hate for it is unwarranted. It does have its flaws and inconsistencies but it’s far from being the worst Spider-Man, or Spider-Man-related film out there. Instead, Madame Web follows the consistently powerful themes of power and responsibility which makes it a great movie that adds a lot to the Spider-Man mythos. But all in all, the film is a fun-filled ride with great characters and a decent enough plot to keep the viewer invested.