Girl power rising
MADAME WEB Cert 12A ★★★
In cinemas now
If you are blessed, or perhaps cursed, with the same psychic intuition as Manhattan paramedic Cassie Webb (Dakota Johnson) aka tormented superhero Madame Web, you will have foreseen that director SJ Clarkson’s tumble through the fractured Spiderverse is a solidly entertaining chase thriller loosely tethered to Peter Parker’s family tree.
You’ll also know there’s no point waiting until the end credits for a bonus scene that teases Aaron Taylor-johnson’s splashy introduction as antiheroic warrior
Kraven the Hunter in late August, or the autumnal return of razor-toothed alien parasite Venom.
Over the past 20 years, Elektra, Dark Phoenix, Captain Marvel and Black Widow have been the only female title headliners of blockbusters torn from the pages of Marvel Comics.
With great power comes great responsibility to take meaningful steps towards diversity, equity and inclusion in a lucrative genre dominated by testosterone-heavy, white male fantasies. Here, director Clarkson and three co-writers take a small, confident step forward.
They shoehorn Cassie’s tragic backstory into a trippy prologue in the Peruvian Amazon before the narrative slingshots forward 30 years to 2003 and unleashes the reluctant heroine’s clairvoyance. Disturbing visions focus on Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim), who possesses similar powers of prediction and is hellbent on murdering three young women (Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’connor, Isabela Merced) before they achieve their destiny and curtail his reign of terror.
Bombastic action sequences rely on digital trickery to pinball Madame Web through time, juxtaposing pyrotechnic-laden reality and Cassie’s mind’s eye until we share her dizziness and confusion.
Thankfully, Clarkson and co don’t permit character development to flatline in the back of Cassie’s ambulance although someone should have reminded the characters to put out that open fire in the middle of a forest.
To quote the script’s only clunky nod to Spider-man: “When you take on the responsibility, great power will come.”
‘‘ Bombastic action and digital trickery pinball Cassie through time