Madame Web
These sort-of spin-off “Spider-Man” films are wild in their varying degrees of artistic merit. One can see how films like the “Venom” films, “Morbius” and “Madame Web” connect to the Tom Holland films, but with filmmaking quality ranging from good to bland to gonzo but not good, it’s hard to know exactly what to say. That does make them a certain degree of chaotic, and I’ll take films that are bonkers with some entertainment value over just plain dull.
With “Madame Web,” the film has a fairly compelling structural hook to its narrative. Rather than being a traditional origin story, EMS worker Cassie (Dakota Johnson) finds herself seeing what appears to be the future after she nearly drowns. At first, there’s no rhyme or reason for them, but we have an idea, as we saw the prologue with her mother in the Amazon, looking for a spider whose venom allegedly has unique healing abilities. When she gets on the subway, and sees the brutal death of three teenagers (Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor), she is on her way to learning the truth about her mother, and herself.
Because it sets its fundamental nature up as a mystery to be discovered, even with some of the clues in front of our noses, S.J. Clarkson’s film manages to be engaging even when it is poorly made schlock. The visual effects are bland, the language of Mauro Fiore’s cinematography moves between generic to slightly decent, and the screenplay doesn’t pop in terms of dialogue, and barely does any heavy lifting in defining its characters. The performers, capable in most cases, do not help with dry, often emotionless line readings. And yet, I found myself engaged with this film to a degree, I think in large part because I find myself naturally connecting with most Spider-Man stories, and this is more that than the “Venom” films or “Morbius.” It’s hokey as Hell when Cassie has to go to Peru- where her mother died- and find if the legends of a tribe of Spider people are true, and they tell her about great power and great responsibility, but that still got me in the feels. When it’s Johnson and the teens (and let me just say, I have a hard time buying Sweeney as a teen after seeing her in “The Voyeurs” and “Anyone But You”), I’m actually on board, and I like the idea of this unexpected team-up. These are the type of things I find myself holding on to in a film like this, and why it feels more alive than other movies that feel more accomplished, but utterly predictable. To a large degree, “Madame Web” is worse than most superhero movies I’ve seen, but I am more likely to watch this over for what I liked about it than other films that feel more complete, but emptier on the inside.
