Madame Web, a recently released Sony movie in association with Marvel, was released on Feb. 14. It stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, canonically known as Madame Web. Sydney Sweeny, Isabelle Merced and Mattie Franklin all join her in the action, and she protects them. They will each fall into their respective spider roles but that is not hinted at until later. This movie’s purpose appears to be to introduce four new characters, but mostly focuses on the origin and story of Madame Web specifically.
I think most people have heard that this movie is a rough one, and I cannot help but agree with them. There is a lot of character development left out, especially for the three teenage girls who we are supposed to care so much about. Maybe Sony aims to develop their backstories later, but here we learn very little about them throughout the film. This leaves the viewers with little-to-no emotional connection with these characters. As mentioned above, the only one we do learn the backstory of is Madame Web, which allows the viewers to feel a little bit of empathy for her. It felt like we also saw a lot of information that wasn’t necessary at all.
The whole baby shower scene felt like a way to advertise Pepsi, since Dakota Johnson held an unopened can of the soft drink for what felt like a full minute of on-screen time. What is also confusing about this part is that her friend Ben is most likely Peter Parker’s uncle. The baby shower that is held is for his sister Mary, who is Peter’s mother, though this information is not directly given to us. They never say the baby’s name although the topic of his name is brought up about three or four times. This whole Easter Egg felt a little random and was not developed enough. It does not confirm if the universe is connected or what this really means at all.
The dialogue throughout the movie was also a struggle to listen to. The lines were glaringly predictable, obvious and repetitive. Towards the final fight scene, Cassie screams “Look out” far too often. It felt like the writing was almost rushed and just lacked any depth. The “fight” scenes, if you would call them that, really weren’t much. While they are all just people fighting a spider human there just isn’t anything that was exciting to watch. It felt like a compilation of them running from the villain or hitting him with a car.
Sony opens some doors from this film to further develop more of a Spider-universe than just Spiderman. It seems like this movie’s purpose was really to set up the storyline for the three girls. Julia and Mattie are thought to be two different spider women versions from the comics. Anya would either be known as spider-girl or Arana. This could be an exciting avenue for Sony to travel but I hope they improve their story development and the writing in general.
Overall, Madame Web was a rough watch. I think it could have been better in many areas, but Sony was trying to open more storylines for themselves. If you are interested in watching this, I would recommend waiting for it to come out on a streaming service. It is not worth the movie ticket and effort. Sony has made worse movies in the past, but I think people were expecting much more, especially from a women-centered cast.