- Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O'Connor
- February 14th 2024
- S.J. Clarkson
Dakota Johnson plays paramedic Cassie Webb, who gains clairvoyant powers after an accident.
Dakota Johnson makes her first outing in the superhero world in Madame Web.
She plays paramedic Cassie Webb, who unlocks her clairvoyant powers after an accident, leaving her able to see bad things that are about to happen. Cassie tries to intervene and save the person in her vision.
One premonition shows her that three girls – Julia (Sydney Sweeney), Anya (Isabela Merced) and Mattie (Celeste O’Connor) – are about to be killed by Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim), a man in a black Spider-Man suit with Spidey-style abilities.
After preventing the vision from coming true, Sims ruthlessly pursues the trio, intent on carrying out his evil plan, so Cassie steps in to help protect them.
The film, set in 2003, serves as an origin story for Madame Web, who is depicted in the comics as a blind and paralysed elderly woman.
This story shows us how Cassie got her powers, where they came from in the first place and how she ended up like the comic book version.
Judging by the final product, the Madame Web story was changed many times in post-production.
It has been edited like crazy, leaving us with an illogical plot that feels like puzzle pieces are missing.
Also, there is an ADR (automated dialogue replacement) issue where some of Rahim’s dialogue doesn’t match the movements of his lips. It’s hard to know if it was simply poorly synced, or if those lines were rewritten in post.
Still on the subject of editing, viewers will likely come away from the film feeling disorientated due to the choppy cuts and odd camera movements.
There aren’t many action scenes (Cassie’s powers are in her mind after all) but the ones they have are edited poorly, lifeless, and feature budget VFX.
Director SJ Clarkson and her three co-writers seem to have struggled to write this story and fit in everything we needed to know in a cohesive and logical way.
There are massive patches of clunky exposition, the villain storyline is seriously undercooked and the storytelling is a confusing mess.
Despite the dodgy script, the four lead girls do the best they can and build a rapport with each other. It feels more natural in the first half than the stilted second half, but Merced and O’Connor still shine through while Johnson solidly carries the story.
However, Rahim is awful – his villain is written and brought to life very badly and the ADR issue did not help.
If Madame Web had been released in 2003, the year the film is set, then it would not have been slated so badly – but Marvel has set a very high bar and it falls way short. What a letdown for all involved.
In cinemas from Wednesday 14th February.
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