Our review of Madame Web, a cinecomic starring Dakota Johnson arrives in theaters on Wednesday 14 February.
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| Image Credit: Sony Pictures |
Imagine being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the wrong one. Tom Hardy realized this (late) with the ramshackle, albeit very entertaining, Venom and Jared Leto with the failed Morbius. Now, to complete a narrative piece belonging to the Spider. Man Universe flying the Sony Pictures Entertainment flag comes Madame Web. Freely inspired by the character from the comic books created by Danny O'Neill and John Romita Jr. in 1980, the film directed by S.J. Clarkson finally arrives in cinemas with Sony Pictures and Eagle Pictures starting from Wednesday 14 February, in time for Valentine's Day weekend.
In our review of Madame Web, we will delve with great detail and analytical readings into yet another failed film project of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Sony, inaugurated years ago by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, and continued with little intent, means, and contents from the aforementioned Venom and Morbius. And with Madame Web, unfortunately, the music doesn't change at all.
A day in the life of Cassandra Webb, paramedic
Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) is a New York paramedic who begins to show clairvoyant skills, which also allow her to see the world from the point of view of arachnids. Forced to face some revelations about her past, she is determined to protect three young women (Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O'Connor respectively) from a mysterious adversary (Tahar Rahim) who wants them dead at all costs. Coming to terms with the powers to predict the imminent future, however, will not be an easy task for Cassandra, torn between trying to create a new family with the young Julie, Mattie, and Anya and discovering the origin of her extraordinary powers.
Thus begins Madame Web, the fourth cinematic event in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, which in recent years, with the timid opening towards the multiverse of Kevin Feige's Marvel Cinematic Universe, has presented obvious cracks and signs of strong structural failure. Directed by S. J. Clarkson (a director who comes from TV and who in the superhero field had already directed episodes of Jessica Jones and The Defenders) and co-written by the same together with Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, and Claire Parker, the feature film with Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney leaks from all sides and definitively drowns the interrelational project with Spider-Man, Venom and Morbius through the features of a fallacious and defective standalone.
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| Image Credit: Sony Pictures |
Stories from the Marvel multiverse
Yes, because Madame Web has no important cameos, has no post-credit scenes, and does not more or less blatantly wink at other characters outside of the sprawling Sony/Marvel project. An all-female standalone cinecomic, supported by Dakota Johnson's grand entry into the current cinecomic genre assisted by not one, but three young and promising performers. Not only the semi-unknown Isabela Merced and Celeste O'Connor but also the highly launched Sydney Sweeney, who after the success of the HBO series Euphoria and the unexpected blockbuster Everyone But You, is preparing to change the cards on the table of the super-heroine movie.
Set in 2003 (and the musical playlist, with nods to Beyoncé and the presence of Britney Spears' hit "Toxic" is a perfect testimony to this), Madame Web works best when it takes typical elements of seriality and entertainment cinema from the beginning of the Millennium to (sorry) weave a superhero story that in times of extreme connectivity and meeting/clash timelines, dares to reach the contemporary cinema audience within a package of its own, independent of any more or less direct reference to the characters of previous Sony films and light years away from the "Multiverse danger" lurking in all Marvel multimedia and intellectual properties; last but not least, the highly anticipated third chapter on the big screen of the irreverent Deadpool with Ryan Reynolds. With S. J. Clarkson's film, this surprisingly doesn't happen.
An all-female super-team
Madame Web is first and foremost and perhaps more than anything else the attempt to establish a purely and proudly female narrative in a narrative universe, that of Spider-Man, where the exploits of the superhero of the moment are almost always relegated to the male protagonist. It was for obvious reasons with Sony's Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield respectively, and the refrain was repeated with the less busy Venom and Morbius. For this reason, perhaps the feature film directed and co-written by S. J. Clarkson forcefully throws out the window any reference and interconnection with other people's Marvel properties, staging a curious film in which the emblematic Peter Parker coexists in the same space for maneuver as Cassandra Webb and his all-female trio without affecting their actions (any greater reference to the role of the young Spider-Man here would be a spoiler in no uncertain terms).
Clarkson's objectives are sacrosanct and legitimate, but she forgets that accepting to try her hand behind the camera of a Sony cinecomic does not equate to originality and quality of intent, staging, mise en scéne and writing of situations and characters. What is worryingly lacking in Madame Web is in fact the depth of direction and screenplay, even in the lightness and playfulness of some of the narrative situations involving her characters. After all, although we are still talking about the superhero genre, this cannot and must not mean that the talent behind and in front of the camera must be sacrificed in the name of artistic choices that have little to do with creativity and which increasingly resemble the perverse fruit of algorithmic positions of threatening relevance.
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| Image Credit: Sony Pictures |
A failed comic book
Ultimately, what is missing from Madame Web is the intelligence of knowing how to make an action feature film according to the most contemporary canons and impulses of the current cinecomic genre. As if the film flying the Sony flag (and the same problem was with its predecessors Venon, its direct sequel, and the more recent Morbius) was stubbornly perched on positions and stylistic features belonging to a way of approaching the superhero movie from the early 2000s, without but the spark and passion behind the camera of Sam Raimi, who not only saved Sony from the risk of bankruptcy at the beginning of the Millennium but redefined the comic book film once and for all by decoding it for an audience eager for great stories and recognizable characters but with extraordinarily fresh, if not downright authorial, attitude.
Phlegmatic, tired, and totally lacking in rhythm and credibility (Dakota Johnson herself ironically complained that working in constant contact with the green screen was exhausting and psychotic), Madame Web stands out as perhaps one of the most disappointing cinecomics of recent years, even if distant from the chaotic madness of DC's ramshackle Suicide Squad or from the false and degrading post-feminism of the camp movie Catwoman with Halle Berry. These two titles, at least at the moment, are still at the top of the podium of the worst, most likely.