Thin threads spin latest Marvel Comics tale in ‘Madame Web’
Sony’s Spider-Man has produced underwhelming spinoffs. In terms of stand-alone appeal, “Madame Web” likely represents the weakest, with a movie that screams “streaming series,” and even that might be a stretch.
This film starring Dakota Johnson as an obscure Spider-Man figure likely would have struggled in the best of times, but with superhero movies hitting a rough patch, its prospects look grim. Much of that has to do with a central character whose “power” exists entirely in her head, blunting attempts to spin excitement.
“Madame Web” does benefit from existing as a stand-alone origin story with only glancing (and clever) connections to more familiar material. Yet even the most hardcore Marvel fans might have difficulty becoming attached to something held by such slender threads.
The movie opens in Peru, where a scientist’s search for a spider with healing properties results in the birth of a baby with special gifts. It also imbues a villain (Tahar Rahim of “The Mauritanian”) with other spider- like powers, and nightmares about a trio who will one day bring about his demise.
Flash forward 30 years, and Cassie (Johnson) is working as a paramedic with partner Ben (Adam Scott, generally wasted here), when a near-death experience triggers visions of the future.
She gets glimpses of the danger facing the trio: Sydney Sweeney (“Anyone But You”), Isabela Merced (“Dora and the Lost City of Gold”) and Celeste O’Connor (“Ghostbusters: Afterlife”). Cassie gradually convinces them that the wall-crawling dude in the weird suit is determined to kill them.
Director S.J. Clarkson’s mess of a script creates a reasonably brisk pace that doesn’t compensate for bouts of clunky dialogue and shoehorned and cliched Disney-style character introductions.
But Sony will take another crack at a “from the pages of Spider-Man” movie later this year with the long-delayed “Kraven the Hunter,” which at least comes wrapped in the more conventional trappings of an action vehicle.
Ultimately, “Madame Web” might have sounded like an interesting experiment, and it sort of is, but the execution feels less like a fully realized film than an extended prologue for a movie to come. Even without a supernatural ability to clearly see the future, based on this outing that scenario seems unreasonably optimistic.