Although the MCU is currently struggling and Sony hasn’t always known what to do with its Marvel properties, that doesn’t mean they aren’t still making movies. Some of them are fascinating. And in recent years, there has been a movie that has caught everyone’s attention for being a strange combination of a little-known character, a lot of problems surrounding the film, and a failure that actually has been more of a small bluff without much more significance. Because Madame Web is less than what people say.
Madame Web is the fourth film in Sony’s Spider-Man Cinematic Universe, which includes Venom, Morbius, and Kraven the Hunter. Being the fourth film produced for it, but unable to use Spider-Man, they continued with the idea they started with when producing these films: to capitalize on the large number of iconic characters surrounding Spider-Man to produce movies
Madame Web, one of the most unique characters in Spider-Man
But who is Madame Web, anyway? For many people, she is not even a well-known character within the Spider-Man mythology, and we can’t blame them. Madame Web is a mutant, like the X-Men, who has the ability to see the future. Working as a medium and living connected to a life support system in the form of a web, hence her name, her connection to Spider-Man comes from helping him in moments when he has been lost and hasn’t known how to move forward through normal means, needing the help of someone capable of seeing beyond what anyone else can.
In the movie, as expected, we have an origin story that tells us not only how she becomes Madame Web, but also how she saved three young girls who will become Spider-Women in the future, unless they die before she can save them.
With a luxury casting, with Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb and Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced, and Sydney Sweeney before deciding that she valued her career as a fascist muse more than as an actress like the three future Spider-Women, the movie is based on that premise. Dakota Johnson trying to come to terms with her body slowly failing her, her ability to see the future and the fact that these three girls will be crucial for the future of humanity, and that’s why she can’t leave them behind.
With a very interesting premise and a capable team, the movie falls short of being what it aims to be. With a disjointed script and direction lacking in personality, the potential of the film is evident, but it lacks a bit to be what it promises. This is also reflected in its box office performance. Costing 100 million dollars, it barely managed to gross a little over that same 100 million, making it a small failure.
The biggest failure was the reception from critics and the public. The critics destroyed it, reaching a 10% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 26 on Metacritic. On social media, it became a meme for weeks. It received awards, yes, but exactly the ones you don’t want to receive. It won the award for worst movie, worst actress, and worst screenplay at the Golden Raspberry Awards and was nominated for the most campy movie at the Dorian Awards. This demonstrates that there is little future for Madame Web in Sony’s plans.
But the movie is not, by any means, the terrible disaster that critics and the public claim. It is a movie that could have been much better, but it is not an absolute disaster either. And you can check it out by watching it on Disney+, now that they finally dare to bring it to the streaming platform for everyone to see.
