Sony Pictures
Starring Dakota Johnson (Cassie Webb), Sydney Sweeney (Julia Cornwall), Isabela Merced (Anya Corazon), Celeste O’Connor (Mattie Franklin), Adam Scott (Ben Parker), Emma Roberts (Mary Parker), and Tahar Rahim (Ezekiel Sims)
MADAME WEB
Directed by SJ Clarkson
Produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Written by Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Claire Parker, and SJ Johnson with Kerem Sanga
Music by Johan Soderqvist
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing
Run Time: 1 hour and 56 minutes
World Premier: February 12, 2024 (Regency Village Theater)
Opening Weekend Box Office: $43 million (North America)
Worldwide Box Office: $100 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 11%
Marvel Entertainment
Fun Madame Web Facts
Madame Web was created for Marvel Comics by Denny O’Neil and John Romita Jr, debuting in The Amazing Spider-Man # 210 in November of 1980. Madame Web is just one of several handicapped heroes that Marvel has published stories on over the years. Cassandra Webb is blind and paralyzed buts she is also clairvoyant and precognitive. She is the latest in several physically handicapped heroes that have been featured in live action Marvel productions, following such notable characters as Professor X, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Makkari, and Echo. In the comics, Madame Web is also a mutant.
Madame Web features several characters that have appeared in Spider-Man-related comics over the years. Sydney Sweeney’s character is based on Julia Carpenter / Spider-Woman / Aracne and she has also been Madame Web in the comics. Isabela Merced’s character is based on Anya Corazon / Arana / Spider-Girl. Celeste O’Connor is based on Mattie Franklin / Spider-Woman. Adam Scott is Ben Parker (yes, that Ben Parker; Uncle Ben), and his sister is Mary Parker, and yes, the baby that she is carrying is none other than Peter Parker. Tahar Rahim is Ezekiel Sims, a character that was created by J Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr during Straczynski’s lengthy Amazing Spider-Man run. In the comics, Ezekiel is a Spider-Person, and he was a key component of Straczynski’s emphasis on Spider-Totems during his run.
Madame Web was Sony’s first female-centric story within their live-action Spider-Verse films. It was the fourth live-action production in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe following 2018’s Venom, 2021’s Venom: Let There be Carnage, and 2022’s Morbius. These films are loosely tied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe via the Multiverse due to Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock / Venom briefly crossing-over into the MCU for inclusion in Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures’ 2021 blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home. On the flip side, Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes / The Vulture (as seen in Spider-Man: Homecoming) crossed over from the Marvel Cinematic (616) Universe into Sony’s Spider-Man Universe during a credits sequence in Morbius.
Over the course of production, there were ideas to specifically tie Madame Web to Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker / Spider-Man (as seen in Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and in Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: No Way Home). This would have made Adam Scott’s Ben Parker the Uncle Ben that dies in The Amazing Spider-Man (portrayed by Martin Sheen). This would have required a 1990’s primary setting however, and Sony ultimately decided to label Madame Web as a “standalone” adventure in a different corner of their Spider-Verse.
Madame Web was originally scheduled to be released on July 7, 2023, but with ongoing actor’s and writer’s strikes wreaking havoc on the movie industry, Madame Web was pushed back to October 6, 2023, before landing on its February 16, 2024, release date.
With an 11% Approval Rating, Madame Web became the worst-received film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, coming in behind Venom: Let There Be Carnage (57%), Venom (30%), and Morbius (15%).
Grossing a mere $100 million worldwide, Madame Web emerged as a box office bomb and as the lowest-grossing live action Spider-Man film of any kind. Madame Web came in behind Venom ($856 million), Venom: Let There Be Carnage ($506 million), and Morbius ($167 million). Madame Web was furthermore the second female-centric Marvel film to bomb at the box office in less than four months, as it followed Marvel Studios’ The Marvels, which managed just $206 million worldwide. emerging as the lowest-grossing Marvel Studios production since the launch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008.
Sony Pictures
My Madame Web Review
Wow. Where do I begin? I guess the plot, right? That’s usually how I start these reviews, so I’ll do that. Madame Web is a lot like a Final Destination movie without all of the captivating and ironic deaths. After drowning and being brought back to life by her best friend Ben, socially awkward paramedic Cassie Webb begins having mental flashes that show her glimpses of the future. This eventually leads her to taking three young girls under her wing in an effort to protect them from the malevolent Ezekiel, who not only has Spider-Powers, but an uninspiring Spider-Man-like suit. He also killed Cassie’s mother while Cassie was in the womb (she died moments after Cassie was born in a magic lake in the middle of the jungle), and he too has visions of the future; suffering from haunting dreams that foretell his death at the hands of a trio of costumed Spider-Women. Of course, those three Spider-Women are the three girls that join up with Cassie; they just don’t actually have Spider-Powers yet.
That’s all the setup that you need, and from there, this is a sluggish, boring, and oftentimes nonsensical film with some absolutely awful writing, a slew of repeat sequences due to Cassie’s frequent visions, and very, VERY little superhero action or costuming.
This film oftentimes seems like its ashamed to be a Marvel movie. As an origin story for the Madame Web character, I don’t think it’s all bad. They started her off where they wanted her to be, and they left her where they wanted her to be (a blind and crippled clairvoyant). However, I’m just not sure that we needed a Madame Web movie, and I don’t think many people wanted a Madame Web movie. In the end, this is another frustrating case of Sony making a Spider-Man movie without Spider-Man in it. Beyond that, they allowed just about the entire movie to revolve around Spider-People that didn’t have Spider-Powers yet (sans Ezekiel) and the screen time allotted to showing Julia, Anya, and Mattie in-costume and kicking ass amounted to mere seconds! Not a great plan.
Writing reviews like this is not something that I enjoy and that’s because I know a lot of people put a lot of hard work into these films and I don’t enjoy belittling their efforts, but for the life of me, I really don’t know what the people behind this film were thinking. It feels to me like they wanted to make a superhero movie without superheroes in it and they wanted to do so in the name of what, exactly? Art? Girl-Power? “Real” Cinema? I just don’t know!
The best part of this movie were the three future Spider-Women: Julia, Anya, and Mattie. They were spunky and feisty and rebellious and the dynamic between all three of the actresses was enjoyable. It was just as fun watching them bicker as it was watching them rebel together, and I feel the worst for the three of them, because had this movie actually been good, they may have had really bright futures in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and could have perhaps even crossed-over into the MCU 616-Universe. It would have been really nice of Sony to give us more than just a taste of the heroes that these women become, and I think it would have benefitted this movie tremendously.
Dakota Johnson. She was just okay for me. She was made quite unlikeable at the beginning of the film and her monotone way of speaking did not do her any favors. She was really good when she was shepherding the other three girls, and I liked the scene when she returns to the Amazon and has the vision of her mother and what that did for her character, but like the other three Spider-Women, I simply would have liked seeing her kick a little more ass over the course of this movie.
Sony Pictures
Speaking of kick-ass, Ezekiel’s Spider-Man rip-off of a costume reminded of Kick-Ass. If you haven’t seen that 2010 Matthew Vaugh film, just google it and compare. I love that movie, but I don’t mean this comparison as a compliment. There are cosplayers who look far better than what we got here! And underneath the costume, it was no better. I hated Tahar Rahim’s performance, and it’s not because it’s not like the comics or whatever. Rahim actually captured the spirit of the Ezekiel character just fine, it’s just he either overacted, or underacted, or some combination of both, which makes no sense I know, hence the problem with the performance. To be fair, the writers did him no favors with the dialogue that he was supposed to recite, but the delivery was awful, and the costume was awful, and Ezekiel will be remembered by a lot of people that saw this film (and not many did, apparently) as one of the worst comic book movie villains of all-time.
The good guys won in the end, and that was great, and like I said, Sony got Cassie where they wanted the character to be for future crossovers which will probably never happen now that Dakota Johnson has renounced this movie. So, really, that doesn’t matter at all in the end, and this film will in all likelihood be remembered as a big waste of time, energy, and money by a movie studio in Sony Pictures that apparently has no idea how to make live action Marvel films without assistance from Marvel Studios.
I think variety is a good thing, and Sony is pretty much the only thing preventing a Marvel movie monopoly from emerging, but still, just stop, Sony! Stop trying to make Spider-Man movies without Spider-Man! Stop making superhero movies that feel like they were made in the 1990’s. Stop with the poor writing and the goofy, mustache-twirling bad guys. You want to tap-in to J Michael Straczynski’s Spider-Man run? Fine! Give us Morlin or Shathra, but please, just stop with all of these underwhelming and disappointing projects and creative decisions!
Madame Web was bad. Critically, financially … however you want to look at it.
Do better, Sony. Or just stop and let Spider-Man and his cast of characters return home.
Sony Pictures
Highlights of Madame Web:
Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O’Connor were great, but I wanted A LOT more
Adam Scott was fine as Ben Parker
The annoyingly awful Ezekiel character was killed-off, so we shouldn’t ever have to see him again
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