Madame Web

The golden age of the superhero movie is sadly in the past and we are experiencing the decline of the genre even with all the big budget films and exiting characters that creators can put out. I never thought they would run out of steam and I would have to endure these movies made by studios that have no love for the characters or have lost their love. Sony has mastered this format by make a whole Spiderverse of movies with characters that do not interact with Spider-Man at all. How that makes any sense I will never know. Madame Web is the latest of these films to come out to blistering reviews and much hatred from audiences. It might be the worst of them all. It makes me wonder why any studio would take the time and effort to even produce such garbage in the first place. As a long time comic book fan I find myself doubly disappointed in the result. I was thinking of just believing the reviews and letting this one pass without seeing it but I had to know just how bad it was and I wasn't ready to quit my streak of watching every superhero movie that is released. I should have just trusted my instincts and the opinion of everyone else because this effort left a bad taste in my mouth.

The film centers on Cassandra Web (get it?) who discovers her powers to predict the future after a near death experience. Some of those visions are interesting but most occur at unpredictable times that interrupt the flow of the story. Plus they can't be relied upon. In her visions, Cassandra can see the bad guy killing these girls and prevents it from happening many different times. Three other girls are put in danger  by Cassandra's powers as she faces off against the man that also killed her mother while her mother was studying spiders in Peru. Ezekiel was the killer who got his powers by being bit by a rare spider. So special spider creates a bad guy with spider-like powers but is NOT Spider-Man. (even though he dresses just like Spidey) That is the biggest sin the movie commits. No one is learning that with great power comes great RESPONSIBLITY here. What is the point of a 'Spider-Man movie without that central pillar.

Ben Parker (Uncle Ben) and a child that is inferred to be Peter but not directly named also appear. Another wasted opportunity in a film that ties up NON of the story threads it creates, It's just there and done., No suspense and no character growth. It has been compared to Morbius and took a much larger drubbing from critics. It also should kill any Sony films from the Spiderverse franchise in the future unless Sony wants to keep wasting good money after bad,

Venom worked in Sony's Spiderverse because the character at least had some charisma but no characters in this film can hold up that Spider-Man vibe and what we are left with is a mess and a wasted opportunity to tell a real fun story. Four individuals without powers defeat a character much faster, stronger and more homicidal than them. That is a hard pill to swallow. There are virtually no stunts beside some running and climbing. No great plan to defeat Exekiel without letting things play our like the visions said it would. You would think that his visions would have taught him that lesson but they do not. With his powers he should be able to easily kill all four girls who threaten his life but ends up losing anyway in a way he does not predict would happen. What is the point in having visions in the first place unless it's to give Exekiel the advantage but doesn't. Again he defeated by girls without any powers except for being 'spunky'.

Cassandra's powers to see into the future is never logically explained and more conveniently forgotten sometimes, especially in the third of this very short film. We are shown a future where the three girls that Cassandra is trying to save get spider powers of their own but we are never shown that evolution in their characters and the whole film seems like an origin story without actually showing the origin parts.The film is literally begging for a sequel that it doesn't deserve. At the end we are left with Cassandra blind and in a wheelchair. How that happened to her is never explained. With her powers she should be able to avoid that outcome but never does. 

The fragile structure of the story just can't hold up to the expectations we are led to believe. It forgets that superhero films have rules and without them you are just left with a film that is full of missed opportunities,. It's almost like they planned to fail with a terrible script where there are no consequences. That is turn makes everything boring and when you are bored nothing can make you enjoy a movie. For a superhero movie there are very little superhero stuff going on although the movie can't help but reveal a future that seem most interesting than what they have given us with Madame Web. That revelation and seconds of footage make me long for a better film and when I am rewriting the movie in my head you know things are bad.

It's not worth seeing even if you are a superfan of the superhero genre but aside from that I can recommend nothing. It will be forgotten in a week by people who felt cheated. Everyone who was involved in the making of this movie, especially the writers, should be ashamed. They had the germ of a good idea but chose instead to abandon a more creative version of the story out of sheer laziness and in no way should be rewarded for their lack of effort. We movie goers deserve better.