Cassandra Webb develops the power to see the future. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women bound for powerful destinies if they can all survive a deadly present.
I used to love Marvel. From the first “Iron Man” movie in 2008 through “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019, Marvel was on their A game. While a few movies in there didn’t exactly blow audiences away – “Ant-Man” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp” – everything else was top-tier. When Marvel worked with Sony Pictures to bring Spider-Man back, they knocked those films out of the ballpark, but several other co-productions failed at the box office. Titles such as “Venom,” “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” and “Morbius” failed to ignite the box office like Spider-Man, and now you can add “Madame Web” to that list.
It’s not a poorly produced film; it just feels lazy and by the numbers. Like the filmmakers had a blueprint of what was previously successful and tried to emulate that stratagem only to realize that every movie has to have its own unique voice, otherwise, it’s just a poor carbon copy of what came before.
Dakota Johnson plays Cassie Webb, a Manhattan paramedic who, after an accident, develops psychic abilities that allow her to see the future. When she inadvertently saves three young girls from Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim), a mysterious masked man with superhuman powers, it takes her on a journey to the Amazon Rainforest, where her mother Constance (Kerry Bishé) died right before she was born. Now, she must learn about her mother’s past to save the future and discover how Ezekiel plays into both of their lives.
“Madame Web” so badly wants to be Spider-Woman, but while its star, Dakota Johnson, does fine in the titular role, she lacks the charisma and onscreen magnetism someone like Toby Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland brought to their big-screen personas. She takes her role so seriously, what few moments of humor are utilized, are assigned to Adam Scott and her three younger co-stars, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O’Connor. While she excels during the serious moments, her character would have benefited greatly had she been given more humor and one-liners.
The film’s antagonist, played by Tahar Rahim, feels miscast and is nothing more than a cardboard cutout who never poses a real threat; only his abilities are menacing. His main henchwoman, Amaria (Zosia Mamet), like Rahim, a computer nerd, is also miscast and given nothing to do except look at her computer screen a few times and spout off some technical jargon. The movie also sets up future iterations for the three young girls to become superheroes, but it feels forced and mechanical. If you think of the Avengers, we had two Iron Man films, one Thor, one Captain America, and two Hulks before they were all thrown into the mix together. This way, we got to know the characters individually. Nowadays, studios want to cram as many characters and superheroes into one film as possible, but it never works if we can’t relate to the characters, especially if this is their first outing.
“Madame Web” has a few exciting action set-pieces, but that is all. I would have loved a film about the mysterious Amazonian tribe who helped Cassie and her mother when she was dying; that was something I could have gotten behind, but as it stands, “Madame Web” is an uninspiring and conventional superhero film that will be released in theaters on Valentine’s Day and will disappear just as quickly.
In Theaters Wednesday, February 14th
