VERDICT: Despite a tangled narrative web, this arachnid superhero saga makes a far better would-be tentpole in Sony’s Spider-verse than ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ or ‘ Morbius,’ thanks mainly to Dakota Johnson.
Sony Pictures has the rights not only to Spider-Man but also to the many supporting characters in his orbit. The studio has tried desperately to make those supporting characters popular on their own, but the results so far have been pretty dire: Does anyone remember the attempt to set up a spin-off for The Secret Six at the climax of The Amazing Spider-Man 2? Are the memes of Morbius all that’s left of that legendary turkey?
With expectations wildly lowered by these inglorious antecedents, the bar was set pretty low for Madame Web, a paramedic who develops the ability to see the future, all tied to her mother’s search for a legendary spider in the Amazon jungle. To its credit, the film clears that low bar, serving up some memorable action sequences amid breezy banter, all while laying the groundwork for a trio of budding superheroes who might surface in a future installment.
That paramedic is Cassandra Webb — why give her one on-the-nose name when you can give her two? — and as played by Dakota Johnson, she’s a grown-up orphan who keeps relationships at bay; her childhood in the foster-care system has made her a loner, and her only close friend is Ben Parker (Adam Scott) who revives patients in the back of the ambulance while Cassie drives recklessly but expeditiously through 2003 New York City traffic. (And if the name “Ben Parker” gets your spider senses tingling, there’s more where that came from.)
While rescuing a car crash victim, Cassie takes an accidental plunge into the river, which imbues her with the ability to predict events that are about to happen. The first few times this ability manifests, it feels like a walloping case of déjà vu, but when she sees a co-worker die on the job before it actually happens and then fails to save him, she’s traumatized. Cassie gets a shot at redemption when she’s on a train and foresees that Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim, A Prophet) is about to murder a trio of teen girls; she rescues them and whisks them out of town with Sims in pursuit.
Sims, coincidentally (or maybe not), is the jungle guide who murdered Cassie’s mom right when she found the spider whose venom gives humans superpowers. And the young women — Julia (Sydney Sweeney), Anya (Isabela Merced), and Mattie (Celeste O’Connor, A Good Person) — are Sims’ targets because he knows that, in the future, they will murder him. (Cassie’s not the only person with the power of prognostication.) It’s a convoluted web of character and circumstance — one that the screenplay doesn’t entirely unravel — but Madame Web throws in just enough exposition to get the audience to the next chase before they can ask too many questions.
Director S.J. Clarkson (a veteran of Succession and various Marvel TV projects) and editor Leigh Folsom Boyd (Spider-Man: No Way Home) maintain a breathless pace throughout, but the cutting is at its best when Cassie starts having visions and then returns to the present, where she can make decisions based on what she’s predicted. As she grows more comfortable with her power, the movie can ricochet more quickly between alternate scenarios until Cassie determines the best possible outcome.
None of this would work without Johnson, whose gift for side-eye and deadpan line readings grounds what could be a very silly story into one with real human stakes (that do not, thankfully, involve the fate of the entire world). Sweeney, Merced, and O’Connor imbue their underwritten characters — who could all have “TO BE CONTINUED” stamped on their foreheads since Madame Web makes it clear they’ve all got arachnid superheroics in their futures — with as much empathy and emotional resonance as the film allows.
The weak link in the cast is Rahim, a formidable presence in international cinema who has thus far made less of an impact in English-language movies; whether it’s the actor’s fault or the material’s, Ezekiel Sims never musters a memorable level of wickedness, winding up as just another harrumphing guy in a suit (and, sometimes, a costume).
The screenplay has some smart ideas, including an exploration of how the post-9/11 period saw U.S. citizens forfeiting their right to privacy from government surveillance, but it also offers up clunky flashbacks and shameless product placement (for Pepsi and Mountain Dew, up to and including a giant neon sign that becomes a major plot point). Madame Web isn’t going to reverse the ongoing decline of superhero cinema, but unlike some of its notable contemporaries, it’s strong enough to make its intended sequels feel like promises rather than threats.
