Sony’s Madame Web is one of the worst-received superhero movies in recent memory, but its overall reception would likely have been markedly better had the movie’s ending been its starting point. The latest instalment of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe sans the Web-Head himself, Madame Web centres on Dakota Johnson’s paramedic Cassandra Web, who develops powers of clairvoyance as she finds herself protecting three young women destined to become Spider-Women. With a critical audience reception dangerously close to those of 2004’s Catwoman and a dreadful opening weekend at the box office, Madame Web has seemingly halted any possible cinematic future for its telepathic heroine before it has even begun. What makes Madame Web’s horrendous reception even worse is that the movie’s ending shows how it could have charted a different path for itself.
Warning: Spoilers for Madame Web Below!
In Madame Web’s climactic battle, Cassandra finally masters her powers of clairvoyance and astral projection to defeat Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) and save the three future Spider-Women he’s been pursuing, Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor). However, this comes at a price, with Cassandra being struck by falling debris and being blinded and left confined to a wheelchair.
In Madame Web’s final moments, Cassandra fully becomes Madame Web proper with her visor-like glasses, wheelchair, and superheroine costume, along with her telepathic powers being fully developed. Having become Madame Web, Cassandra also becomes a guide to Julia, Anya, and Mattie, with the film’s final scene showing the four together fully suited up and ready for their next adventure. The only problem is this a great Madame Web origin story that comes two hours too late.
While Madame Web isn’t a superhero travesty on the level of Howard the Duck or Steel, the movie spends far too much time putting all the chess pieces on the board for Cassandra to actually become Madame Web. Moreover, the brief glimpses of Julia, Anya, and Mattie suited up in Madame Web’s trailers are virtually the extent of their superheroine lives in the movie, with Madame Web positioning the three entirely as future Web-Slingers. Most confoundingly of all, Madame Web’s ending shows that both Cassandra and the three Spider-Heroines could have had their original material wrapped up in about ten minutes.
Given that Madame Web could have opened with a version of the movie’s climax to get its four heroines to their superhuman status quo, the movie would have then been free to focus upon actual, present-tense superheroics and crime-fighting on the part of Madame Web and her Web-Slinging trio. Instead, the movie takes the most scenic route possible to get to the meat of its character’s origin story, which is a far less compelling or crowd-pleasing proposition than a Madame Web who is Madame Web for nearly the entirety of her first solo movie. Worst of all, this also took the one player off the board who could have helped Madame Web the most, namely New York’s Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
Madame Web includes young versions of Mary Parker (Emma Roberts) and Uncle Ben (Adam Scott), with the former giving birth to an infant, Peter Parker. While this and Madame Web’s 2003 time setting establishes the movie as a Spider-Man prequel of sorts (albeit an ambiguous one with the infant Peter never being identified as either an already established or entirely new Spidey), the movie would have benefited greatly from a more prominent Spider-Man appearance.
RELATED: Which Spider-Man Best Suits Madame Web?
If Madame Web’s ending had instead been its opening, Spider-Man swinging in for at least a cameo could have made the movie much more of an event, augmenting its box-office potential while continuing to expand the web of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. In the end, Madame Web’s origin being saved for the end of the Madame Web movie was the film’s biggest mistake, and an on-screen meeting with either Miles Morales or Peters #1, #2, or #3 might be Madame Web’s only shot left at a cinematic future.
Madame Web arrived in cinemas on February 16, 2024.
Madame Web |
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Cassandra Webb is a New York metropolis paramedic who begins to demonstrate signs of clairvoyance. Forced to challenge revelations about her past, she needs to safeguard three young women from a deadly adversary who wants them destroyed. |
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| Studio: Columbia Pictures, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Marvel Entertainment, TSG Entertainment |
| Running Time: 1h 56m |
| Release Date: February 12, 2024 (Regency Village Theatre); February 14, 2024 (United States) |
| Cast: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O'Connor, Tahar Rahim, Mike Epps, Emma Roberts, Adam Scott |
| Director: S. J. Clarkson |
| Writers: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Claire Parker, S. J. Clarkson |
| Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi |
| Box Office: $77.5 million |
