The movie theater lights slowly relight the room, and the audience sighs with relief as the 116-minute sissy fight finally ends. People leave the theater laughing, not because “Madame Web” was funny, but because of how comically bad it was.
“Madame Web” was released on Feb. 14, 2024. The film follows Madame Web, whose real name is Cassandra Webb, and her origin story of becoming a superhero. Webb can see the future and sees the villain, Ezekiel Sims, defeating three other Spider-Women. The storyline focuses on Webb’s journey of stopping Sims and saving the three women.
Considering its $80 million budget and high-profile actors, such as Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney, expectations were high. The opportunity of a female-focused superhero movie led to people anticipating an exceptional film that would excite and further develop the “Spider-Man” universe. To an unfortunate surprise, Sony’s production of “Madame Web” completely missed the mark.
The “Spider-Man” movie franchise itself is a very action-packed and amusing string of movies; however, “Madame Web” was not a fun watch, as it had weak action scenes and poor acting. The trailers made the movie seem like it was full of action, yet those trailers were the closest thing to action in the movie.
The script was also underwhelming and made the movie even more confusing. The development of “Madame Web” had so much potential, but the screenwriters missed the mark completely.
The actors themselves did the best they could, given their questionable script. Additionally, the constant “Spider-Man” references they made were poorly written and stopped the flow of the movie.
In addition, “Madame Web” had over 2,000 edits in it, none of which were smooth or high-quality. The film had many retaped lines, which made it very sloppy. Sims’ role as a villain was hard to take seriously because his dialogue was botched the entire movie.
It was inclusive for a film in the “Spider-Man” movie franchise to have many women playing the superheroes of the movie, though it would have meant so much more to women if it had been of quality and not just thrown together. “Madame Web” would have been a perfect opportunity to add powerful female figures to the superhero world, but Sony’s production made those figures look like a joke.
Disappointing is an understatement, and its 13% Rotten Tomatoes score reflects that. Compared with the high-standard “Spider-Man” movies previously, “Madame Web” was an almost shameful addition on Sony’s behalf.
