It’s been stated before, but it bears reminding: expectations can ruin an experience. This is equally true when the hype ahead of something implies one thing when the truth is something very different. In the real world, it can look like someone creating a “Willy Wonka Experience” and it’s really a vacant room with disconnected booths and costumed workers dressed as random creations. In the world of movies, it can be selling a film as a Marvel Comics Spider-People movie and it’s actually an origin story for a character most widely-known outside of the comics-sphere from the Spider-Man: The Animated Series that ran for five seasons: Cassandra Webb, aka Madame Web. As a result, complaints were high when the film released as the superheroine tale promised in the marketing wasn’t quite what Sony Pictures delivered. In truth, what’s given by director S.J. Clarkson (Marvel’s The Defenders) from a script by Clarkson, Claire Parker, Matt Sazama (Morbius; Dracula Untold), and Burk Sharpless (Morbius; Dracula Untold) is absolutely not what the marketing sold, while strangely being exactly what the marketing implied — a fairly standard superhero origin story that feels ripped from the era in which the story primarily takes place: the 2000s. If this sounds like your cup of tea, then this home release with roughly 36-minutes of bonus features is going to be right up your alley.
L-R: Director S.J. Clarkson and actor Dakota Johnson on the set of Columbia Pictures’ MADAME WEB. Photo Credit: Beth Dubber. © 2024 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
NYC EMT Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) is used to seeing the weird and wild at work, but when a rescue goes wrong and Cassandra ends up injured, that’s when things begin to change for her. At first, it’s the usual concussion response, until it takes the form of déjà vu. That is, until she starts to realize that what she’s experiencing isn’t déjà vu but a shift in the perception of time wherein she can experience a moment before returning to a starting point before it occurs. This ability couldn’t come at a better time as a ruthless person with spider-like abilities is hunting three teenage girls and Cassandra may be the only person who can stop him.
The advertising for Madame Web did both the film and the audience dirty. The majority of it, while setting up Cassandra (referred to as Cassie by her friends) and her burgeoning abilities, also made sure to focus on the three teenagers who would fall under her care: Julia Cornwall, Anya Corazón, and Mattie Franklin, each different Spider-Woman and played by Sydney Sweeney (Immaculate), Isabela Merced (Instant Family), and Celeste O’Connor (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), respectively. The trailers showed the three women in their superhero outfits, engaged in battle with the Madame Web’s antagonist, Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim), the suggestion being that we, the audience, would be treated to a unique battle between three upcoming Spider-Women and the cerebral Madame Web. But all that footage in the trailer comes from only a few minutes in the film, much of it reused in Ezekiel’s own visions of his future wherein the girls kill him. Thus, Madame Web is really about Cassie coming into her own, making peace with her past, so that she can help these innocent girls make it to their future, protecting them from Ezekiel being the first hurdle in a greater responsibility that comes with the power she inherits. Understandably, this frustrated many; however, if you go into the film aware that Madame Web isn’t a modern superhero origin tale, but something more akin to the type of stories 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Pictures released in the late ‘90s and through the 2000s, the whole of the film is actually fairly standard, resulting in an as-expected experience.
Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) in Columbia Pictures’ MADAME WEB. Photo Credit: Sony Pictures. © 2024 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
With expectations tempered, Madame Web tells a pretty interesting (even if rote, at times) story of accepting responsibility and found family. In order for the “ascension” to Madame Web to have meaning, Cassie needs to start in opposition of such a role and play out her story as one which begins in isolation due to her perceived abandonment by her mother (died in childbirth in Peru following a tragic incident). Adult Cassie, on the surface, doesn’t seek attachments or strings, yet she is a paramedic, which requires her to demonstrate a willingness to run into danger to save lives. Another way to look at it is disconnected enough to feel isolated, but not lacking in humanity. This leaves room for her growth as she (a) takes on the responsibility of protecting the three teens and (b) finally faces her past. Additionally, while the story itself doesn’t require the inclusion of Ben or Mary Parker (played by Parks and Recreation’s Adam Scott and Scream 4’s Emma Roberts, respectively), the inclusion allows for easier acceptance by the audience when it comes to talking about “Spider-People of the Amazon” or dealing with venom-induced abilities like clairvoyance (to start). Even the early comic book-based films of the 1990s and 2000s needed to spend some time setting up the rules and, while this film very much does that, they can do less by leaning on the pre-existing characters other films have established. Of course, Sony Pictures hasn’t had much luck doing this before (see: Morbius (2022) and the Amazing Spider-Man series), so while it is a strength, the fact that the inclusion doesn’t actually have to be there does create a shoe-horned feeling at times. Mileage on this will certainly vary, from audience member to audience member, but it more often than not does work as a way to demonstrate just how connected Cassie is to others, whether she wants it that way or not.
L-R: Director S.J. Clarkson and actors Celeste O’Connor, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Dakota Johnson on the set of Columbia Pictures’ MADAME WEB. Photo Credit: Jessica Kourkounis. © 2024 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Unfortunately, this leads us to the things that make no sense (large and small), adding up to the worst aspects of the early Marvel films whose reliance on prior knowledge or general camera winking undercut moments meant to have weight. For instance, Cassie is an EMT and the trailers indicate that. As her powers are starting to activate, she “sees” a tragic accident happen with a fellow EMT. This is meant to be a lesson about what she can/can’t do with her powers until she understands them better — an important lesson for any hero, burgeoning or otherwise — and yet, what takes you right out of the scene, is that Cassie isn’t wearing gloves when performing recovery services on her comrade. In this sequence, she and others are at a fairly large accident scene and *everyone else* is wearing gloves and yet, despite shown working on someone, she isn’t wearing gloves. One can only surmise that this was intentional so that when she finds her hands covered in blood, the moment is more weighted, more visceral in the depiction of tragedy, a moment for a movie not reality — except it makes no sense in the larger rules established within the film. That’s a small issue that can be handwaved off like people not saying “goodbye” when they hang up the phone. What can’t is the inconsistency in the depiction of Ezekiel. In each scene where Cassie “sees” him kill the girls, he attacks directly and often publically without care or concern. So why is it that when he has the clear advantage, he uses strength and agility maneuvers, rather than straight-on attacks? After the initial save by Cassie in the subway station, Ezekiel takes the time to first put on his Spider costume and then takes out the cops one by one before going after the girls. From what we’ve seen thus far, he’s got the skills to take them all out quickly and, yet, doesn’t because then the movie would be over. That things like this keep happening before Cassie can gain full use of her powers begins to feel like she and the three teens are protected by plot armor rather than reasonable narrative choices. Don’t even get me started on the way she smiles about Ben Parker’s future as an uncle, which should not be a thing she, Ben’s seemingly best friend, should be in celebration of.
All that said, if you came to this place to learn about the bonus features as a fan caught in Cassie’s web, well, you’re in luck as there are five featurettes, one deleted scene, and a gag reel to extend the enjoyment. For fans of the comics, the easter egg featurette subtitled “The Many Threads of Madame Web” should be your first stop as it explains in-universe/comic accurate relationships referenced, points out smaller icons, and generally helps to express the lengths the film goes to to ensure it fits within the larger Spider-Man Universe. For more information on Cassie as Madame Web, head over to “Oracle of the Page,” as you get walked through the character from the comics so as to better understand the approach taken in the live-action version. If learning about the making of the film and hearing from cast and crew is your thing, then the remaining three featurettes — “Future Vision,” “Casting the Web,” and “Fight Like A Spider” — are where you want to go. Across the three, you’ll get a sense of the casting process, the chemistry among them, as well as how the whole production took on the task of bringing a potentially lesser-known character to life. One downside is the major focus on presenting the behind the scenes of the three girls in their superhero costumes, continuing the suggestion that really ruined expectations for a lot of folks. As someone who follows entertainment news, the press junket implied that the cast felt they were making a different movie than was released and, in watching the bonus features, it’s at least clear that these actors had fun doing what they were doing, so that’s a small bit of sunshine amid a great deal of grey clouds.
**Do note that the above bonus features are only included in the 4K, Blu-ray, and digital editions. The DVD includes only two featurettes. More information below.**
L-R: Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson), Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney) and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor) in Columbia Pictures’ MADAME WEB. Photo Credit: Jessica Kourkounis. © 2024 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Look, as someone old enough to own Blade (1998) on VHS and seen all the rest since in theaters, there’s something to be said for a solid comic book film that has a slight irreverence for itself, a willingness to get silly. The issue here is that Madame Web can’t decide if it wants to exist in the past or present, an ironic conundrum for a film featuring a clairvoyant that creates a strange frustration in the watch. The performances are, generally speaking, fine, and the recreation of the era is pretty on-target. It’s that the execution often feels like its padding itself until it can get to the final fight when, by Spider-Man standards, we’re dealing with a villain that should’ve won the day far sooner if he’d acted consistently. To call the total experience frustrating, as a viewer is, frankly, an understatement.
Madame Web Special Features:
4K UHD, Blu-Ray & Digital
- Future Vision (6:51)
- Casting the Web (9:10)
- Oracle of the Page (4:55)
- Gag Reel (4:32)
- Fight Like A Spider (5:32)
- Easter Eggs – The Many Threads of Madame Web (3:55)
- Deleted Scene – You Died (0:41)
DVD
- Future Vision (6:51)
- Casting the Web (9:10)
Available on VOD and digital March 15th, 2024.
Available on 4K UHD limited edition steelbook, 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD April 30th, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Sony Pictures Madame Web webpage.
Final Score: 2.5 out of 5.
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Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
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