Quick Movie Review – ‘Madame Web’

SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

I’ve seen the latest instalment of ‘Sony’s Spider-Man Universe’ (SSU) called ‘Madame Web’. This is the fourth film in the series, following ‘Venom’, ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ and ‘Morbius’. Naturally, as a Spider-Man fan, I couldn’t resist checking out this certain film in the ‘SSU’ film series.

Madame Web as a ‘Spider-Man’ character is someone I don’t know very much about. The only times I’ve come across Madame Web as a character is in episodes of Seasons 3 and 5 of ‘Spider-Man: The Animated Series’ from the 1990s. She was a very different character in that compared to this movie. 😐

In the 1990s animated ‘Spider-Man’ TV series, Madame Web is depicted as an old woman who seems to be blind and she mentors Peter Parker as Spider-Man with her clairvoyant powers. In her latest film, Madame Web isn’t blind for the most part and she only becomes blind by the film’s conclusion.

She’s also younger when played by Dakota Johnson. Now, I appreciate this film being an origins story for Madame Web, especially when it takes place in 2003 (I was in secondary school at the time 😀 ), but surely the character could be blind and young at the same time whilst also being a clairvoyant. 😐

In the film, Dakota Johnson plays Cassie Webb, a paramedic who confronts her past whilst trying to save three young women and their futures from a man called Ezekiel Sims. Cassie must learn the truth about herself as well as consider whether she’s worthy to be a good mentor to the three teens.

‘Madame Web’ as a film hasn’t been well-received in terms of by the critics and at the box office. In fact, before going in to seeing this film at the cinema recently, I’ve heard how ‘Madame Web’ wasn’t well-received and is considered poorer than ‘Venom’, ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ and ‘Morbius’.

After seeing the film myself, I actually rather enjoyed it and found it okay. Don’t get me wrong, the film’s not great, but it is okay. The problems are pretty self-evident, especially when it doesn’t feature enough superhero stuff. The film’s played out as a thriller and a mystery-solver with high tensions throughout.

I expected the film to feature Madame Web and the three teenagers that were about to become Spider-Women to have their super-suits on in order to defeat their enemy Ezekiel. There are teases of the teens becoming Spider-Women, especially by the climax, but it’s annoyingly left open-ended.

As well as Dakota Johnson as Madame Web, there’s Sydney Sweeney as Julia Cornwall, Isabella Merced as Anya Corazon and Celeste O’Connor as Mattie Franklin. Honestly, I’m surprised this film wasn’t called ‘Madame Web and the Spider-Women’, as that would have been an eye-catching title.

There’s Tahar Rahim as Ezekiel Sims, who wears a black suit in a style similar to Spider-Man when he’s chasing after the three Spider-Women teenagers, as he’s convinced that they will kill him in the future. Tragically, Ezekiel killed Madame Web’s mother before she gave birth to her in Peru in 1973.

There’s Mike Epps as O’Neil, a co-worker of Cassie/Madame Web’s; Emma Robert as Mary, Peter Parker’s mother; and Adam Scott as Ben, Peter Parker’s soon-to-be-uncle. It’s interesting how these characters know Cassie Webb, and there’s even a scene where baby Peter Parker is born in the film.

Kerry Bishé stars as Constance Webb, Cassie/Madame Web’s mother, who gets killed in the film; Zosia Mamet stars as Amaria, a gifted hacker who works for Ezekiel Sims as his research assistant; and José María Yazpik stars as Santiago, a member of Las Arañas – a secret tribe with spider abilities.

So, ‘Madame Web’ is not a great film. There’s no question about that. With that said, I couldn’t help enjoy the film, as there was tension throughout with Cassie trying to save the three teenagers from Ezekiel. Honestly, I found ‘Madame Web’ more enjoyable than some of the previous ‘SSU’ efforts. 🙂

I don’t know what the future lies ahead for upcoming ‘SSU’ films like ‘Kraven the Hunter’ and ‘Venom 3’. ‘Kraven the Hunter’ looks interesting from what I’ve seen in the trailer, but I’m not that keen about seeing a third ‘Venom’ film. If only these films would feature Spider-Man properly to make them better.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂