Opening 15 Feb 2024
Directed by:
S.J. Clarkson
Writing credits:
Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Claire Parker, S.J. Clarkson, Kerem Sanga
Principal actors:
Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O'Connor, Tahar Rahim
Madame Web (Dakota Johnson) relates how her mother was investigating a certain spider species in the Peruvian Amazon when she died in childbirth. Therefore Madame (Cassandra) Web suffers from abandonment issues having grown up in foster care. Her daily life as a paramedic suddenly changes for her. Suddenly she can foretell certain parts of the future and becomes more confused in her daily life. She sees the death of three young teenagers and tries to intervene. Will Madame Web be able to understand where she comes from and will she be able to save the three girls from Ezekiel?
I was optimistic for this movie being a big Marvel fan, I was optimistic that this would be another fantastic movie, but I was severely disappointed. The storyline and the dialogues were not adequate for this type of movie. The abandonment issues of Madame Web were portrayed far too often that it became irritating. The characters were weak which made the viewer not care at all about them. Even the idea itself of a spider providing special powers has been way overdone in the movie industry. It did not dive deeply into the potential abilities of special powers that the girls were supposed to receive. So what was the villain Ezekiel (Tahar Rahim) supposed to be afraid of? The powers in fact were never developed or even shown during the movie. The action scenes were not in the usual Marvel style. Ezekiel was the only character that had special abilities to properly fight, and Madame Web was the only one who could stop him by using her clairvoyant powers to see the future. I found the film was not very entertaining even when Ezekiel was confronted by hurdles such as exploding buildings.
This non-action Marvel film seems to be appealing to a different set of viewers. This movie is for people who like strong female characters. The movie discusses the feeling of abandonment and becoming a family despite not being blood relatives. It also shows that people should support each other because you never know what the other person is going through. (Adrian Schoeneshoefer)
