Movie Review: Madame Web (2024) *Minor Spoilers*

Movie Review: Madame Web (2024) Minor Spoilers

I'm willing to bet a lot of people haven't seen this film, and probably will never plan to watch it.

Madame Web was poorly reviewed by critics and largely ignored by audiences. For myself, I'll only see a Sony superhero movie in cinemas if Spiderman is actually in it. For everything else I can wait until it hits a streaming service I'm subscribed to.

Sony's Spiderman/Marvel adjacent movies aren't actually terrible movies. They're not great movies either but I've never put one on and not watched it all the way to the end. I do find them watchable... just not really rewatchable.

Madame Web is an origin story for the title character (Dakota Johnson), and three other future Spider Women (that I'm not all that familiar with) who suddenly find themselves being pursued by a dark figure with very spider-like powers.

The problem with this movie, in my opinion, is the writers forgot that the main reason anyone comes to see a comic book superhero movie is to see the actual superheroes brought to life in live action.

That just doesn't happen here. You never see any of the main cast suited up and in action during the movie - except very briefly in a flash forward. The title character doesn't even know she's Madame Web for the majority of the film. I'm not even sure if she's even using the name by the end (I didn't hear anyone say the movie's title once).

Just like the movie itself, who no one was asking for, no one was asking for this origin story either. It feels like the writers should've kept this script for reference (and inclusion as possible flash backs), and then written the sequel to this as the first Madame Web movie.

The whole thing does have some cool scenes, and is actually entertaining, if a little obvious in its foreshadowing at times (when Cassie/Madame Web is not literally foreshadowing the future with her visions). It's just not a Madame Web, or a Spider Woman movie. It's the movie before any of them become their superhero selves.

Such a missed opportunity to start a really cool, female led Spider Woman series. This is one time where the writers really should've stuck to the formula and started with the main superheroes fully formed, and in the thick of the action. I'm disappointed for the main cast, who all did what they could with what little they had to work with.

No one was asking for this, so it needed to really show that it's something we didn't know we wanted until we saw it.

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