The most recent movie in a Marvel universe, “Madame Web,” hit theaters Feb. 14, and so far it is not shaping up to meet fans’ expectations.
“Madame Web” is the newest film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe that is loosely connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film has only made $25.8 million since its debut and is looking to be a major failure for Sony.
Based on the Marvel Comic of the same name, “Madame Web” starts off with Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) and pregnant Constance Webb (Kerry Bishé) as they search for a spider rumored to have unique healing properties. The film picks back up 20 years later and follows Constance Webb’s daughter Cassandra “Cassie” Webb (Dakota Johnson) as a paramedic in New York City who begins to have visions of the future following an accident while on the job.
At the same time, Sims is having visions of his death in the future at the hands of Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced) and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor). Webb soon finds herself protecting the three teenagers from Sims and embarks on a journey of confronting her past while trying to keep the three teens safe.
The film received much criticism for its lack of similarity to the comic and overall lack of contribution to the film industry. These critics are valid on many levels. The film had a budget of $80 million, which compared to other Marvel-associated films, is quite low, and the difference was noticeable.
Many of the special effects seen throughout were done poorly. One of the biggest issues involves a clear misalignment in the dialogue of Ezekiel Sims. According to Comic Book Club, Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR) was used for Rahim’s character. There are many moments throughout the film when the words Rahim says does not match up with the movements of his lips. There are even a few moments when he speaks and his lips are not moving at all. This, the poor special effects and the subpar acting greatly contributes to the failure of this film. These issues certainly set Rahim up for failure, along with his co-stars.
Johnson is typically a good actress but this role was just not suited for her. Her acting was average at best, and her last moments of the film were truly just terrible. Sweeney certainly does not live up to the level of acting seen in her other new film “Anyone but You,” but her performance overall is decent. Merced’s performance is forgettable, whereas O’Connor’s is quite memorable. O’Connor keeps the light-hearted and comedic elements of the film alive. Her downfall comes from the moments of her in the future as Spider-Woman, but this does not drag her overall performance down. Most of the performance issues in this film are due to the plot more so than the work of the actors, as the actors can only do so much with what they are given.
This film contains so many negatives within it that it truly does not stand a chance in the theaters with fans of Sony and Marvel. It will no doubt go down as one of Sony’s worst comic book adaptations ever.
