Going into the release of the movie, most people correctly expected Madame Web to be terrible. The lead actress, Dakota Johnson, admitted to reporters that she was unhappy with the project, claiming “drastic changes” were made to the movie from when she signed her contract, which she couldn’t disclose due to legal ramifications. When asked whether she has watched the film, she said, “I haven’t actually watched the movie.” Further, she does not intend on watching the film’s premiere.
Since the film’s release, critics have agreed with the movie’s lead actor: Rotten Tomatoes has rated it 13% on their scale, the lowest of all of the Spider-Man franchise movies. The movie’s quality falls short of that expected from a Marvel movie, especially one with an $80 million budget. It features awkward dialogue, weak script, underdeveloped characters, and forced franchise nods. Its comedic attempts fell flat, but the laughable execution of many scenes kept us amused. The movie also spoon-feeds the audience with excessive exposition, undermining the viewer’s intelligence by overexplaining the things that happen on screen. In one scene, Cassie (Madame Web) teaches her girls CPR. This scene felt very out of place, and its purpose was only realized later in the film when these same people conveniently had to use CPR to save Cassie’s life. This scene was not the exception as moments like these happened throughout the film. To make matters worse, the producers couldn’t even do the voiceover of the main villain, Ezekial Sims, properly. The audience can see throughout the film that his mouth movements do not match his words. Unfortunately, the awfulness seen in Madame Web is nothing new. Ever since the fifth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was introduced, in which characters such as Iron Man and Captain America were retired, Marvel has taken a turn for the worse.
In addition to the film being horrible, its version of Cassie is nothing like Cassie from the comic book Madam Web—an elderly woman confined to a chair throughout the volumes—as Dakota Johnson is 34 years old. The director, S.J. Clarkson, makes an appalling link by limiting Cassie to a wheelchair at the end of the movie. Furthermore, the main characters don’t even wear their iconic spider suits, except for in one of Cassie’s prophetic visions. Watching the movie reminded us of the X-Men series: vaguely related to their comic books but easily forgettable.
