“Madame Web,” a film that depicts an alternate Spider-Man universe, was directed by S.J. Clarkson and released on Valentine’s Day. While the film does feature cheesy dialogue, overdone character tropes and questionable CGI, it also showcases girl power, an empowering soundtrack and strong acting from Dakota Johnson.
Cassie Webb, played by Johnson, is the film’s protagonist. The movie starts with a flashback to 1973 in Peru, where the audience meets a pregnant Constance, Cassie’s mom, as she is searching for a rare spider whose venom, she believes, has unique healing properties.
Kerry Bishé’s Constance is accompanied by Ezekiel Sims, portrayed by Tahar Rahim, who betrays her when she discovers the elusive spider. Ezekiel steals the spider from Constance and shoots her. As the researcher is dying, she is found by an Indigenous tribe, known through local legend as “Las Arañas,” or “Spider-People.”
The Spider-People scoop Constance up and run through the trees at super-speed, with ridiculous special effects rivaling the “Twilight” movies.
Before Constance dies, she is bitten by one of the spiders and gives birth to Cassie.
The film then flashes forward to 2003, where Cassie is a paramedic in New York City. How she moved from Peru to America and started her life there is just one of the many unanswered questions in the film.
Cassie eventually gets in an accident on the job, which somehow triggers her powers: the ability to manipulate time and see the future.
The audience is also introduced to the 2003 version of Ezekiel, who also has powers from the spider and is having a recurring dream of three Spider-Women killing him.
The three women are Julia, Anya and Mattie, played by Sydney Sweeny, Isabela Merced and Celeste O’Connor, respectively. While none of them have powers in 2003, it is assumed through Ezekiel’s dream that they will eventually gain them, though this never earns any further explanation, and the film ends with them still powerless.
Ezekiel is a weak villain with cheesy lines that undermine the potential depth of his character, including, “Believe me. It’s a good thing you had no idea today was the day you were going to die.”
Due to bad sound editing, Ezekiel’s voice sounds dubbed for nearly the entire film, which is incredibly distracting.
Ezekiel sets out to kill the girls prophesied to assassinate him, though they are only teenagers in 2003.
Cassie and the three girls, none of whom know each other at the time, coincidentally end up on the same train. She then has a premonition of Ezekiel murdering them and decides to take the girls to the middle of the woods, all of which they are unrealistically calm about.
Unnatural dialogue forcefully establishes each of their personalities. Julia is the innocent goody-goody, Isabela is the nerd and Mattie is the rebel. If their roles weren’t made clear by their conversation, Julia is in a schoolgirl outfit for the entirety of the movie, and Isabela wears a shirt that reads, “I eat MATH for breakfast.”
Side note: putting Sweeney in glasses is not enough to make her a homely teenager. The “beautiful girl behind the glasses” trope is exhausted.
However, the movie also displays strong costume choices, including Cassie’s gorgeous red leather jacket paired with a dark blue shirt, alluding to the classic Spider-Man colors.
Soon after Cassie meets the girls, she realizes the myth of the Spider-People is true and decides to go to Peru to look for answers. It is there where she meets Santiago, the man who saved Constance, and he helps her understand and control her powers.
The segment of the film where Cassie is in Peru feels rushed, improbable and confusing. Additionally, Cassie is wanted by the police for seemingly kidnapping the three girls on the train, so how is she able to travel internationally at the drop of a hat?
Upon her quick return to America, Cassie, Julia, Anya and Mattie work together to defeat Ezekiel and eventually become a found family.
Unrealistic behaviors or actions throughout the film pull the audience out of the movie. When Cassie and the girls are staying at a hotel to hide from Ezekiel, they don’t lock the door behind them when they enter the room. If I was being hunted by a man with superhuman abilities, I would remember to lock the door.
The film is riddled with lucky conveniences and unanswered questions that writers expect the audience to forget. How was Cassie so swiftly able to find the exact spot in the Amazon rainforest where her mother took a picture 30 years ago without a map or guide? How can Ezekiel poison people just by touching them? How do the Spider-Women get their powers?
The characters are never seen in superhero suits except in Ezekiel’s dream and a brief premonition Cassie has at the end of the movie. With less than a minute of screen time in their suits, the movie just feels like a two-hour origin story, not like a superhero movie.
However, songs with strong female voices like “Dreams” by The Cranberries, “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tiffany and “Toxic” by Britney Spears elevated the film and the theme of girl power.
If the film had been directed by a man, starred men or sexualized the women through their outfits, I don’t think the movie would be getting as much hate as it is.
Women superheroes are often unnecessarily sexualized, from the suits they wear to the ways they are filmed. However, this is not present in “Madame Web.” With two actresses that have been largely sexualized by the media, Johnson and Sweeney, this lack of objectification was likely surprising to many audiences. Clarkson did not succumb to that expectation, even when it may have boosted ratings, and that is commendable.
While the film is certainly not the best of the year, I also don’t think it will be the worst. The film was not particularly memorable, but it also wasn’t boring. It’s a fun watch when you’re with friends and don’t want anything too serious, as long as you don’t think too hard about the details.
Rating: 6/10