SONY’S MADAM WEB ADDS NOTHING TO THE SUPERHERO MOVIE STORIES WE KNOW

There are two types of superhero movie fans: those that read all the comic books they spawn from and those that only love the movies. The comic book fans have a much deeper understanding of the characters and their backstory while those that only watch the movies only know the stories that are presented on the big screen. The delicate balance that movie studios have been working through over the years is how to please both types of fans as either can lash out and cause the box office to fair poorly. Marvel rules the roost in theaters as the Disney owned company has put out movies steadily since 2008. When they talked Sony into sharing Spider-Man with them it made for a rare team-up that was beneficial to both. However, Sony didn’t want to not fully pull bank on their property and started making their own superhero movies that owning the Spider-Man rights gave them access to. They started with Venom which was a moderate hit and it’s sequel. They then tried Morbius which was an utter failure. For some reason they thought that the next character to focus on was Madam Web. She is able to see the future and multiple time lines. From the little I know of the character she really isn’t a superhero but just a character that shows up every now and then and helps out. She doesn’t even have her own comic book series.

In this film we meet Casandra Webb played by Dakota Johnson who is a paramedic in New York. After a near death experience her powers manifest where she can see future events moments before they happen. She is then able to change the outcome. That’s about it. She doesn’t do anything else. She spends the movie protecting 3 girls (Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor, Sydney Sweeney) from Tahar Rahim’s character, Ezekiel Sims who can see the girls becoming great superheroes in the future and killing him.

This movie is a mess. The premise is generally interesting in that Sony could have made a superhero movie based in a thriller and made something new and exciting. Instead, they tried to stay in the bright colored suits style of Marvel and missed the mark terribly. Oh, and how do you know it’s tied to Spider-Man? Casandra’s ambulance partner is Ben Parker, played by Adam Scott who helps keep an eye on his sister-in-law named Mary who is very pregnant with his brother Richard’s baby. The baby’s name is never said but it is HEAVILY implied that it is Peter Parker who famously grows up to become Spider-Man. Also, the bad guy is basically dressed like Siper-Man will eventually be dressed. Wow. It’s basically just “Spider-Man adjacent”. The movie is spent with Web not knowing how to work her powers and clumsily protecting the girls by accident mostly. Even the final battle with Ezekiel is not a battle, but them avoiding being killed by an exploding fireworks factory. In the end, this movie is not fun, doesn’t have any heart, and is a broken web of connectivity. I mean, at one point Cassie runs off to Peru to find out more about her powers! The best thing is that not seeing this will not hurt any of your other Marvel movie viewings as it’s so far removed. It’s on Netflix now and I would only watch it out of the same feeling you get watching a traffic accident. You’re only watching for the crash.