Film: Madame Web
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Director: S.J. Clarkson
Cast: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Adam Scott and Tahar Rahim
What can I say that hasn’t been said about this film since it’s Valentines Day release here in Oz?
Is it as bad as it’s been made out to be……well yes and some no. Sure I’ve read my fair share of Spider-man comics and watched animated shows over the years and Madame Web has popped up and played her part and that’s all there is you know about her. She’s simply a plot point designed to further the story while she gives an important exposition on possible outcomes regarding the future.
Some genius at Columbia thought that she was an interesting enough character to spend $80mil to make a full-length feature on. When you can’t have Spider-man you get characters that only comic book nerds know about while the rest of the world doesn’t care. To simply quote Homer Simpson, ‘’Why have hamburgers when you can have steak!’’ This film ain’t no sirloin.
So anyway, this version of the title character is a paramedic who goes by the name of Cassandra Web (Dakota Johnson), who one day while on the job suddenly develops psychic powers. Again, that’s all there is about her well aside from being an insufferable asshole, which sadly has become a disturbing trope with strong female characters in current genre cinema. These current writers mistake strength for obnoxiousness. Don’t these “‘writers”, view films such as Alien(s) or the first two Terminators to understand this is how you write a strong feminine character. Then again what does this white, heterosexual man know about such things?
As these stories go once the hero of the story gains powers a villain shall appear. In this case, the villain happens to be Ezekial Sims (Tahar Rahim), a wealthy and well-connected man who has powers and a spiffy suit all his own. But Cassandra is not (at first), a high priority for Ezekial. Three young women who are yet to possibly shape the future for Ezekial are his main targets. Of course, Cassandra stands between the three girls and Ezekial.
I won’t deny that some of the action scenes are nicely done especially when you have a character who can see the future. The biggest issue for this film is that we’ve seen it all before. If this film was made around the time of the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire Spider-man series this could have been viewed as something special.
Sadly, with so much against it, the film will end on the pile of not only current mediocre comic book cinema fair. It will become another lukewarm attempt at making a film based on a female character with possible potential.
