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Madame Web 's earnest approach to the title character's origin story has a certain appeal, but its predictable plot and uneven execution make for a forgettable superhero adventure.

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‘Madame Web’ Review: Dakota Johnson Can’t Save This Spidey Spinoff

The actress stars as a clairvoyant in the latest entry to the Spider-Man franchise, using her charm to rise above this flat, predictable movie.

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A woman in a red leather coat and a woman in a dark jacket with a white stripe look at something off camera and seem stunned.

By Manohla Dargis

The only real bummer about “Madame Web,” the latest installment in the Spider-Man chronicles, isn’t that it’s bad, but that it never achieves memorably terrible status. The story is absurd, the dialogue snort-out-loud risible, the fights uninspired. Even so, there are glimmers of wit and competency. And then there’s its star, Dakota Johnson, who has a fascinating, seemingly natural ability to appear wholly detached from the nonsense swirling around her. Most actors at least try to sell the shoddy goods; Johnson serenely floats above it all.

A misterioso clairvoyant, Madame Web is a secondary Spider-Man character who met the web-weaver in the comics in 1980 while regally parked on a life-support system shaped like a round-bottom flask. Blind and plagued by a debilitating autoimmune disease, she had a standard super-type get-up — a black unitard veined with lines that converge in a web — that was offset by a white-and-black hairdo that suggested she shared a stylist with Peter Parker’s editor J. Jonah Jameson. She entered with “a smell of ozone and disinfectant and age,” the classy intro explained, and with “a voice that crackles like ancient parchment.”

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Johnson’s Cassandra Webb — Cassie for short — is far younger and seems more like a patchouli and cannabis kind of gal, despite the frenetic wheel skills she displays in her job as a New York paramedic. Her powers haven’t yet emerged when, after a preamble in the Peruvian Amazon, she is speeding through the city in 2003. As with many superheroes, Cassie has a tragic back story and so on, a generic burden that Johnson’s palpably awkward charm humanizes. If the actress at times seems understandably baffled by the movie she’s in, it’s because she hasn’t been smoothed into plastic perfection by the star-making machinery. Johnson seems too real for the phoniness thrown at her, which is her own super power.

The British director S.J. Clarkson has multiple TV credits on her résumé, including a few episodes of the Netflix series “Jessica Jones,” about the hard boozing, fighting and fornicating superhero. Johnson’s Cassie is sadder and more naturally offbeat than Jones, and like most big-screen superheroes, Cassie doesn’t seem to be getting any noncombative action. Yet she too doesn’t fit easily in Normal World. One of the better scenes in “Madame Web” happens at a baby shower, where Cassie inadvertently wipes the smiles off the faces of a roomful of women by talking about her dead mother. It’s squirmy, funny filler: the guest of honor is Mary Parker (Emma Roberts), Spidey’s soon-to-be mom, who chats with his future uncle, Ben (Adam Scott).

Clarkson shares screenwriter credit with Claire Parker as well as with the writing team of Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, whose collaborations include a string of critically maligned box-office fantasies: “ Dracula Untold, ” “ Gods of Egypt ,” “ The Last Witch Hunter ” and “ Morbius .” (That’s entertainment!)

“Madame Web” hits the prerequisite genre marks, more or less, as Cassie starts developing her second-sight skills and begins shuffling into the near future and back. One of the character’s more attractive attributes is that her powers are mental rather than physical, which seems to have flummoxed the filmmakers. The movie never coheres narratively, tonally or, really, any way; one problem is the people behind it don’t know what to do with a woman who thinks her way out of trouble.

Nearly as annoying, the movie saddles Cassie with surrogate mom duties after she rescues three teens — played by Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor and Sydney Sweeney — a cute trio with absent parents, peekaboo midriffs and (surprise) special talents. Given the cultural conservatism of comic-book movies, it’s no surprise that Cassie only briefly evades gender duties, and at least Johnson makes Cassie’s flustering protective bit bearable. The teens are onboard to expand the Spider-world and presumably help seduce a new generation of true believers; yet while the performers are fine, these characters are as formulaic as the villain, Ezekiel Sims (a brutally miscast Tahar Rahim), who soon overstays his welcome.

Spider-Man has been a monster hitmaker for Sony, so it’s obvious why it keeps squeezing the character for new material. (It bought the film rights to Spider-Man from Marvel in 1999.) That it’s releasing “Madame Web” in the wake of last year’s imaginatively animated “ Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ” isn’t surprising; when a company throws every desperate idea at the wall, failure is inevitable. The most interesting thing about this particular one is that Johnson’s performance lightly complicates the oft-repeated belief that when it comes to superhero movies, the intellectual property matters more than any star (Tobey Maguire, etc.). “Madame Web” is a dud, but it’s one that Johnson transcends long before the final credits roll.

Madame Web Rated PG-13 for gun and knife violence. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic of The Times, which she joined in 2004. She has an M.A. in cinema studies from New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

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The film's weak execution, lack of empathy towards the characters, and clumsy writing prevent it from leaving a lasting impact.

Web Movie Review: A poorly-written thriller that struggles to impress

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This film marks the first collaboration of uncle-nephew duo Anil Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor. Arjun is the son of Anil’s brother Boney Kapoor. Share
This film marks the first collaboration of uncle-nephew duo Anil Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor. Arjun is the son of Anil’s brother Boney Kapoor.
This is the second time Arjun Kapoor is playing a double role, the first being Aurangzeb (2013).
The song ‘Yamma yamma’ from ‘Shaan’ is sampled in the song ‘Partywali Night' for the film.

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IMDb vs. Rotten Tomatoes vs. Metacritic: Which Movie Ratings Site Is Best?

IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic are the three most popular ratings sites for movies, but they aren't all equal.

Thanks to online ratings, it's easier than ever to know whether or not a movie is worth watching. A quick Google search brings up plenty of websites offering their opinions on the latest films.

The three most popular are IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic. But how do these sites differ, and which should you trust for information on movies? Here's everything you need to know.

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is a gigantic compendium of movies, TV shows, and video games. Its primary use is to find detailed information about any actor, producer, or piece of media content.

When you pull up a movie, you'll see a synopsis, trailers, photos, a cast list, trivia, and much more. What makes IMDb so useful is its cross-referencing. Upon opening the page for an actor, you'll see their best-known roles. Thus, IMDb is great for those "what else have I seen her in?" moments.

The IMDb mobile app takes this a step further. If you create an account and give ratings to movies and other media, you'll see a You may know them from field on an actor's page if you've rated something they appeared in.

With a free IMDb account, you can also create a Watchlist of movies you want to see. Along with contributing to the 10-point rating scale with other users, IMDb has many other useful features to offer if you're interested.

Pros of IMDb

Unlike the other two sites, IMDb's reviews come solely from users. It only takes a minute to sign up for IMDb and leave a review, so there's little barrier to entry.

Thus, IMDb's biggest strength is that its scores gives you a good idea of what normal consumers think of it. Professional critics have no influence on IMDb scores.

IMDb has a weighted average system to prevent users from rigging the score, but the service doesn't make it clear exactly how this works. Click the review count next to the star icon on any movie's page to see a breakdown of how people rated it.

Below the overall star average, you can see how the ratings break down by a few demographics, including age and gender.

Cons of IMDb

IMDb's biggest problem is that like other platforms, most people only leave reviews if they love or hate a film. Thus, this skews the scores in favor of either fanboys or haters.

People who want to boost a movie's perception will likely rate the movie a 10, while those who didn't like it will give a rating of one. This means you should read a handful of reviews to get a full picture of the movie's quality.

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is a trusted source for movie reviews sourced from critics. Every movie uses the "Tomatometer" to score the quality of a film. If the critic liked the movie, a red tomato appears by their review. When they don't like it, you'll see a green splat instead.

As long as 60 percent or more of critics like the movie, it earns an overall Fresh score with a red tomato. If under 60 percent of critics rate the movie favorably, it earns a Rotten score with a green splat.

Meanwhile, a Certified Fresh badge appears next to titles that are of particularly high quality. They must hold at least a 75 percent favorable score after 80 reviews, including at least five from top critics.

Open any movie's page, and you'll see the overall score plus its number of reviews at the top. Click See Score Details for a deeper breakdown. The Critics Consensus , present for most movies, is a great summary of why the movie received its score.

Rotten Tomatoes also providers a user score, shown by the popcorn bucket. When at least 60 percent of users rated it 3.5 stars (out of 5) or higher, it shows a full bucket. A tipped-over bucket represents that under 60 percent of users gave it under 3.5 stars. Since you can use half-star ratings, this is close to the IMDb score.

In 2019, Rotten Tomatoes made some changes to reduce "review bombing" of movies. There's no longer a Want to See percentage, and you'll also see a check next to user reviews where the site has confirmed that the person actually bought a ticket to the movie.

At the bottom of a movie's page, you can read excerpts from the critic reviews, filter by fresh or rotten, or only show top critics. Search for your favorite actors, and you can check the scores of films they appeared in.

Related: Sites Like Rotten Tomatoes to Find Average Ratings and Reviews for Anything

Pros of Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes has the advantage of sourcing its reviews from trusted critics. The Rotten Tomatoes criteria page explains that the site only takes reviews from trusted newspapers, podcasts, and websites. In theory, this means that only the opinions of the most-trusted movie critics influence the Rotten Tomatoes review.

The Top Critic designation lets you filter by the absolute best critics if you prefer. You can't get a more professional opinion than from these folks.

Overall, Rotten Tomatoes does a good job of letting you know at a glance whether or not a movie is worth your time. The easily identifiable icons, overall score, and consensus summary only take a moment to scan.

Cons of Rotten Tomatoes

The biggest issue with Rotten Tomatoes is that it breaks down complex opinions into a Yes or No score. It scores a critic who thought the movie was decent but had some flaws (say, a 59 percent rating) the same as one who thought the movie was absolute garbage (a zero percent score).

You'll notice this with the Average Rating under the score. Take Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle as an example. Of the 232 critic reviews, 177 of them are positive. This gives the movie a score of 76 percent. However, the critics rated the movie an average of 6.2/10---quite a bit under the 76 percent displayed on the page.

This doesn't mean the scores on Rotten Tomatoes are useless, of course. But it's important to remember that there's nuance in individual reviews, and the Fresh/Rotten system effectively turns every rating into a 100 or 0 score.

Metacritic aggregates reviews of movies and TV shows, plus video games and music albums. It's one of the best sites for gamers , but it can give you a good idea on the quality of movies too.

The site collects reviews from many sources and aggregates them into one "metascore" from 0 to 100. It displays a color and one-line indication of quality based on the overall score, with the following used for movies, TV, and albums:

81-100: Universal Acclaim (Green)
61-80: Generally Favorable Reviews (Green)
40-60: Mixed or Average Reviews (Yellow)
20-39: Generally Unfavorable Reviews (Red)
0-19: Overwhelming Dislike (Red)

Unlike Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic uses a weighted average system. Nobody knows the exact details, but the service assigns more importance to some sources than others. Like the other two sites, Metacritic also includes a separate user score, which does not influence the critic score.

The Pros of Metacritic

Metacritic avoids the Rotten Tomatoes problem of scoring every review as simply "good" or "bad." A review of 50 percent gets mixed in with the rest to create the metascore. Thus, the score you see on Metacritic is closer to the average review, as opposed to the percentage of critics who simply liked the movie on Rotten Tomatoes.

Additionally, among these three sites, Metacritic is the only one to feature full user reviews right next to critic reviews. This makes it easy to compare what the general public thinks compared to the professionals.

The Cons of Metacritic

While it's easy to translate a score from a five-star or 10-point scale, Metacritic's way of translating letter grade is questionable. We can see how this works on the About Metascores page :

While scoring an A as 100 percent makes sense, note the scores for B- and F , for instance. A 67 percent score for a B- seems a bit harsh. In most schools, a score of 67 percent is closer to an F than it is a B- .

And scoring an F as 0 percent seems unfair. Something like 20 percent for an F might be more appropriate. Because every site has different scales for scoring (some might not even use pluses and minuses), this could skew a reviewer's original meaning.

Also, unlike Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic seems to have few public standards. There's no detailed information on where it sources it critics from. Thus, the score potentially doesn't have as much weight behind it as Rotten Tomatoes does.

What Is the Best Movie Rating Website?

So we've now taken a look at IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic, and listed their major pros and cons. As you might have guessed, there's no one website that's best for everything.

However, we can recommend each of these sites for different reasons:

IMDb is great for seeing what general audiences think of a movie. If you don't care what the critics say and want to see what people like yourself thought of a film, then you should use IMDb. Just be aware that fans often skew the vote with 10-star ratings, which may inflate scores somewhat.
Rotten Tomatoes offers the best overall picture of whether a movie is worth seeing at a glance. If you only trust the opinions of top critics and just want to know if a movie is at least decent, you should use Rotten Tomatoes. While the Fresh/Rotten binary can oversimplify the often complex opinions of critics, it should still help you weed out lousy films.
Metacritic offers the most balanced aggregate score. If you don't mind which critics' opinions go into the final score and prefer seeing a general average, then you should use Metacritic. Its standards are mostly unknown, but Metacritic makes it easy to compare professional and user reviews side-by-side.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with checking all three of these sites every time you're thinking of seeing a movie. Over time, you should figure out which site's tastes most match yours; then you'll know which is best for you personally.

Personal Taste Still Matters Most

Remember that movie scores aren't everything. All three of these sites don't, for instance, paint an accurate picture of movies that are so bad they're good. Because those movies are objectively terrible, they carry low scores even though they have ironic value.

Plus, it's impossible to sum up complex opinions from dozens of people into a single number. And no matter what the critics or general public think, your preferences might be totally different anyway. There's nothing wrong with enjoying a movie that most people find stupid. So while these sites are helpful, don't take them too seriously.

Movie Reviews

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The original Swedish-language adaptation of Stieg Larsson ’s phenomenally successful novel “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” was not an especially great film by most cinematic standards—it was directed in an efficient though relatively nondescript manner that didn’t always hide the occasional clunkiness of the narrative—but it contained a performance by Noomi Rapace as troubled hacker genius Lisbeth Salander that was so focused and driven and compelling that it single-handedly elevated the proceedings to the level of compulsively watchable. When David Fincher did his surprisingly by-the-book big-budget studio version of the story soon afterwards, it still had the lumpy storyline as well as a performance by Rooney Mara as Salander that, while perfectly adequate in its own right, could not begin to hold a candle to Rapace’s stunning take on the part. However, Fincher directed it with such elegance and precision—without tamping down any of the edgier elements in order to make things more palatable to the masses—that it also resulted in a film that was much better than it had any real right to be. Now, having skipped over the two follow-up books that Larsson himself wrote before his death (and considering the weakness of the Swedish film adaptations, that was probably a good idea), the English-language version of the franchise is being relaunched with “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” and this time around, the resulting film features all of the dubious qualities of the previous entries listed above without any of the virtues.

Based on a novel by David Lagercrantz , the writer hired by Larsson’s family to create new stories, the film takes place three years after the events of “Dragon Tattoo” and finds Lisbeth (now played by Claire Foy ) working as a sort of avenging angel for abused women everywhere—she is introduced to us as she ties up a slick businessman with a penchant for beating women and transfers his bank account holdings to the wife he has just smacked around, before applying a Taser to his genitals. However, she is still a hacker first and foremost and when she is offered a seemingly impossible job to do by former NSA employee Frans Balder ( Stephen Merchant ), she cannot resist the urge to take it. It seems that Balder invented a computer program named Firefall that gives the person using it the power to hack virtually any nuclear missile system in the world. After getting it up and running, however, it dawns on him that this was probably not a good idea and so he wants Lisbeth to steal it away from the NSA computers and hide it. This proves to be easy enough but someone else is on the trail as well and steals her computer before blowing up her apartment with her in it.

She survives but is sufficiently distracted to miss her meeting with Balder and his young son, August ( Christopher Convery ) and Balder, deciding he has made another mistake, throws himself on the mercy of the Swedish Secret Service, whose deputy director (Synnove Macody Lund) hides them away in a safe house. Having learned from her one-time ally, crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Sevrrir Gudnason), that those responsible for the bombing are connected to the Russians, Lisbeth begins her own surveillance of the safe house and when Swedish security proves to be less than it is cracked up to be, she ends up rescuing August and, with the aid of Blomkvist and Edwin Needham (Lakeith Stanfield), another NSA agent trying to retrieve Firefall, trying to figure out who is behind it all. When that person turns up (played by Sylvia Hoeks ), her identity turns out to hit Lisbeth a lot closer to home than expected.

The title sequence of “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” deliberately evokes the highly stylized ones designed by the late, great Maurice Binder that used to preface the James Bond movies. In a way, this is appropriate since the film itself evokes old Bond movies more than anything else, specifically the weaker ones that tended to throw in lots of elaborate action set pieces and gadgetry in an attempt to disguise the fact that they didn’t have much of a story to offer. The film is chock-full of kinetic action throughout—ranging from car chases to elaborate fight scenes to the last-minute discovery that the NSA tech guy is also a crack sniper—and while director Fede Alvarez stages them in a slick and efficient manner, they don’t really seem to have any connection to the elements that attracted people to the Lisbeth Salander stories in the first place—do you know anyone who emerged from “Dragon Tattoo” raving about the fight choreography? On the bright side, they do serve as distractions for the genuinely terrible story that is dribbled out in between them. This is the kind of tension-free thriller that requires even the most seemingly intelligent of characters to act like absolute morons in order to get from one clumsy plot point to the next. When audiences cringed at “Dragon Tattoo,” it was in response to some nasty business. When they cringe here, it's the result of yet more ham-handed storytelling.

However, the worst thing about “The Girl in the Spider’s Web”—the element likely to enrage most fans of the franchise—is how it betrays its central character by eradicating almost every aspect that made her so initially fascinating. Once a character who refused to be reduced by her multiple sexual traumas and who became a feminist icon for her continuing battles against all aspects of a misogynistic society, Lisbeth has now been reduced to a nondescript female action hero. Her rage, feminism and sexuality have all been dialed way down (the latter to practically nothing), and so she becomes a non-entity in her own story—this is bad enough on its own but when you consider that this is the first Salander film to emerge in the #MeToo era, it somehow feels even more offensive. (For her part, Foy throws herself into the part but since she has virtually nothing to play with, her efforts are in vain.)

“The Girl in the Spider’s Web” is essentially the cinematic equivalent of a clip-on version of the nose ring that its central character famously sports throughout—a simulacrum that tries to evoke the edge and danger of the real thing without betraying even the slightest amount of genuine commitment. Seemingly made only so that it can one day wind up in constant rotation on basic cable, it is the kind of meaningless product that may win a weekend or two at the box office but which will barely be remembered by most people only a few weeks from now. Of course, there is always the hope that both the character and franchise can one day resurrect themselves as the Bond films have done repeatedly over the years. However, based on the evidence here, I suggest you don’t hold your breath.

Peter Sobczynski

A moderately insightful critic, full-on Swiftie and all-around bon vivant , Peter Sobczynski, in addition to his work at this site, is also a contributor to The Spool and can be heard weekly discussing new Blu-Ray releases on the Movie Madness podcast on the Now Playing network.

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The Girl in the Spider's Web movie poster

The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018)

Rated R for violence, language and some sexual content/nudity.

117 minutes

Claire Foy as Lisbeth Salander

Sverrir Gudnason as Mikael Blomkvist

Sylvia Hoeks as Camilla Salander

LaKeith Stanfield as Edwin Needham

Stephen Merchant as Frans Balder

Vicky Krieps as Erika Berger

Christopher Convery as August Balder

Claes Bang as Jan Holster

Fede Alvarez

Writer (based on characters by)

Stieg Larsson

Writer (based on the book by)

David Lagercrantz
Steven Knight

Cinematographer

Pedro Luque
Tatiana S. Riegel
Roque Baños

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Madame Web Review: A Campy Good Time Tangled In A Tired Franchise Web

The premonition sequences are some of the most inventive in a recent superhero blockbuster
Outside of that, any enjoyment is of the "so-bad-its-good" variety — but you will have fun, at least!
All the ties to the wider Marvel universe are deeply embarrassing
Too focused on setting up future installments to stand on its own
The villain is an underwritten threat

By now, you probably already know that the viral line of dialogue from the first "Madame Web" trailer — "he was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died" — doesn't actually appear in the finished film. The robotic line reading became the easiest thing to mock about a film that arrived fully formed as a cultural punching bag, latched onto largely because it appeared to suggest that the actors in superhero films were as fatigued by the genre as audiences were. And yet, not only does it not appear in director S.J. Clarkson's film, but it retroactively sounds like it was awkwardly stitched together from several separate lines of dialogue, which when placed in tandem, makes it sound like star Dakota Johnson has no enthusiasm to offer.

Now, I'm not going to suggest that "Madame Web" deserved much better than having its fate sealed by such a clumsy marketing campaign — hell, I'm not even going to argue that it's particularly good — but there are sparks of creativity and a sense of ambition in "Madame Web" that this genre has been lacking for a while, which at least makes for an intriguing curio in places. It stumbles far more than it takes off, but it doesn't deserve to be written off as a whole, despite the various embarrassing faults that, alongside those moments of genuine inspiration, frequently derail the movie.

At least it's better than Morbius!

After a prologue introducing villain Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim, having the time of his life hamming it up in an underwritten role), who was in the Amazon researching spiders with Cassandra Webb's mother right before she died, we flash forward to 2003, where we get to meet Dakota Johnson's anti-social paramedic. Following a near-death experience after she plunges into the Hudson River trying to save a man trapped in a car, her perception of time begins to shift. She frequently witnesses premonitions of pivotal moments before they take place. When on the subway, she has the most vivid one yet, as three teenage strangers (Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O'Connor, and Isabela Merced) are torn limb from limb by a man in a spider suit. This is Ezekiel, who has been experiencing his own premonitions every night, witnessing his death at the hands of these three girls who don't yet know each other, let alone know they're going to become a super-team — Cassandra steps in to save them, and suddenly, they're on the run.

In interviews promoting the film, S.J. Clarkson has tended to describe it as a "psychological thriller," more stripped-down than the typical comic book movie due to the relatively grounded nature of clairvoyance as a superpower. When "Madame Web" fully leans into this, it proves more arresting than anticipated, each subsequent set piece built around one of these premonitions more ambitious and hallucinatory than the last. The aforementioned subway sequence is best at placing us within a warped headspace, weaponizing the familiarity that comes with the incessant repetition of events to create a nightmare that only continues to fracture and fold back in on itself.

When utilized in a more conventional fight scene, such as a diner brawl scored to Britney's "Toxic" — some points deducted here for the fact that the song was released a year later than the film is set, in 2004 — there are earnest thrills built around the way Cassandra refines plans of action that didn't work out the first time, like a more grounded take on "Edge of Tomorrow" or "Source Code." Unfortunately, the film itself doesn't seem to acknowledge that these moments are the obvious highlights, and so we trudge into a third act that avoids utilizing this unique power in favor of a cliched, thrill-free showdown at an abandoned Pepsi factory, a hilarious climax considering the surely record-breaking amounts of Pepsi product placement in the two hours preceding it.

Before I pivot into outlining the film's numerous missteps, I do need to make one thing clear: "Madame Web" is significantly better than "Morbius" for the crucial reason that, while it is often as howlingly bad, it is at least entertaining to watch. "Morbius" had to be transformed into a meme to obtain a certain kitsch factor absent from the snooze of a movie itself, whereas "Madame Web" is endearingly stupid at face value, which may be why the critical knives feel sharper this time. I'm of the belief that a fun-bad movie is of higher artistic worth than a boring-bad movie, so despite everything I'm going to say about it now, do know that it is practically "Citizen Kane" when placed next to Jared Leto's anti-hero outing.

Origin story fatigue

Within the first 10 minutes, via Ezekiel's nightmares, we see the three girls in their superhero costumes, appearing to set up their transformation by the film's end. It is less of a spoiler and more of a word of warning to say that this does not happen within "Madame Web," as this premonition instead appears to be pre-empting their eventual evolution in a later franchise entry, one it's safe to assume will not happen. Even within a superhero movie purposefully designed to be stripped-down from the bloat plaguing Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC efforts of late, it can't help but tease either the establishment of a wider universe or its fundamental place within a pre-existing one. That proves every bit as egregious in "Madame Web" as it was in the recent Marvel series "Echo," which was trumpeted as a standalone effort just to spend the first episode recapping "Hawkeye."

Take Cassie's co-worker, played by Adam Scott, whose name has been purposefully left out of the marketing even as it's revealed within the opening 10 minutes (other reviews have spoiled it, but I'll play fair and talk around it). He's a fundamental figure within the lore of another Marvel hero, but in attempting to minimize ties with that looming franchise, the film tries to have its cake and eat it, consciously alluding to recognizable names and iconography linked to Spider-Man without actually saying them outright. It's fan service straining not to be regarded as something so cheap despite its inherent laziness, which is why you don't get to hear, for example, the name of the woman Scott's character has started dating, or the name of the son his sister (Emma Roberts) is heavily pregnant with, even as one moment is built around a baby-shower name-guessing game designed to get audiences so frustrated they start screaming it at the screen. By the time Cassandra goes on a pilgrimage to the Amazon, where she meets a man who tells her, Yoda-style, "with great responsibility, great power comes," you can almost hear the final nail being placed in the coffin of superhero origin stories.

Every moment of campy enjoyment is punctured by the death rattle of the franchise machine it's been forcibly placed within, which only makes its graver narrative flaws harder to overlook. I want to be able to recommend "Madame Web" as a good time at the movies — which is, to be clear, different from being a "good movie" — but the mechanics of the wider cinematic universe undercut its inspired silliness at every turn. It's a frustrating case of a film neither living up to its potential as an uncomplicated so-bad-its-good romp nor capitalizing on its unique moments to become something that transcends the franchise it's encased in.

"Madame Web" swings into cinemas on February 14.

Madame Web Review

Early on in Madame Web — the latest superhero film to be based on a Spider-Man-adjacent comic series — Dakota Johnson’s Cassie Web rejects a thank-you gift from the child of a woman whose life she just saved. From this, you can probably surmise that firstly, she’s awkward around kids, and secondly, she will eventually end up having to protect some kids. Like many heavily telegraphed moments in this film, you won’t need psychic powers to figure that one out — even if Cassie herself does, in fact, shortly develop such powers.

But if you did have psychic powers, you might have wanted to use them to gently warn the cast away from this film, which manages to be both over-written and underwritten at the same time. Most of the actors here are wonderfully talented, but there’s only so much they can do with the material. A Prophet ’s Tahar Rahim, so often a blistering presence, is left to thankless grumpy villain duties here; Adam Scott, fresh off his unimprovable turn in Severance , takes on a curious incarnation of Spidey’s Uncle Ben; Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced and Celeste O’Connor, as Spider-Women, have very little to do here.

Where the dialogue needed wit and spark, it has the kind of will-this-do one-liners.

There is, perhaps, a bit less digital mulch sloshing around in Madame Web than in some recent superhero films. This is the result of a smaller and more self-contained story, involving the kind of nifty time-loop dilemmas familiar from small-screen sci-fi. But where the dialogue needed wit and spark, it has the kind of will-this-do one-liners (“Hope the spiders were worth it, Mom!”) and tired backstories you get when the characters are too flat to flesh out with rounded personalities. (Some unconvincing ADR smacks of a last-minute attempt to fix things in the edit.)

Like the last remnants of a lost civilisation poking through the wreckage of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, hints of classical storytelling survive. The fateful legacy of a birthright inherited from a dead parent gives Cassie’s arc a Freudian motif, while the villain attempting to wipe out the next generation due to a premonition that they will cause his own downfall is a more interesting and personal motivation — at least on the page — than another bad guy wanting to destroy the universe. And instead of Chekhov’s gun, we get a new twist on an old favourite in the form of ‘Chekhov’s CPR’. It’s not enough to offset the creeping sense that, when it comes to the franchise sometimes known as the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters (SPUMC), the word ‘Marvel’ is synonymous less with a sense of awe than with a shrug.

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In the 1970s, a pregnant Constance Webb (Kerry Bishe) and her colleague Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) are in the Amazon forest, looking for a rare species of spider that could cure many diseases. However, Ezekiel betrays Constance, leaving her harmed in the jungle. The members of Las Arañas help Constance give birth to Cassandra/Cassie (Dakota Johnson) while she dies during childbirth. The story then shifts to 2003, where Cassie works as a Paramedic.

Cassie is alone and living carelessly, until her psychic abilities as a clairvoyant bother her. It becomes her mission to save Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced) and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor) from Ezekiel. In those 2 hours, we see how Cassie understands her powers and how she saves the three girls from the big threat.

Madame Web Movie Review: Script Analysis

Madame Web has a decent start as it builds up the curiosity about Cassie’s world. You enjoy seeing her in work mode and feeling confused with the visions she keeps getting. However, when the villain Ezekiel is reintroduced, and the three girls come into the picture, it felt like screenwriters Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Claire Parker, and S.J. Clarkson needed help figuring out how to move ahead with the story

The superhero saga lacks seriousness and dedication. The villain has no motive. You just have to believe Cassie will save those three girls, and Ezekiel will do anything to stop them. But why? We are never told what Ezekiel was doing all these years. Why is he the “big threat” that needs to be killed? Why are those specific 3 girls chosen? All we know is everything that happened in the last hour is frustrating—the narrative moves with a lot of convenience. The bad guy gets whatever he wants easily. Cassie, who becomes a wanted person, can drive from one place to another or fly from one country to another without getting caught even once.

We have seen the issue happen with a lot of MCU movies. However, even Sony Pictures resorted to this level of simplicity to turn everything in the favour of their superheroes. The entire fight sequence in the end is a big mess and comical. The absence of determination is seen in the execution and the actors’ performances.

Madame Web Movie Review: Star Performance

Every actor in the movie lacked conviction in their performances. Dakota Johnson as Cassie is her weakest performance. Dakota’s expressionless face and lack of depth and emotions in “revelation” scenes make you wonder if the actor herself takes the movie seriously or not. Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced and Celeste O’Connor play girls because of whom the entire film runs for another hour. But none are striking on screen or delivered a “wow” moment. Tahar Rahim, as Ezekiel had all the potential to be a threatening villain. The actor is decent in whatever average writing his character had. Still, he deserved better.

Madame Web Movie Review: Direction, Music

S. J. Clarkson’s superhero directorial feels empty. There’s so much noise on the screen, but what we’re left with in the end is a feeling of dissatisfaction. Lately, superhero movies are struggling to convince us that they’re up for big challenges and worthy of being called a “Superhero”. Here, Cassie is reduced to delivering silly dialogues and babysitting the girls. I thought no other villain would be given poor treatment like The Marvels’ Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) until I saw Ezekiel. We never get to see his full potential or purpose. The movie felt like a hide-and-seek game between him and the four ladies.

The music has little impact on the story. I only enjoyed listening to Britney Spears’ Toxic in one scene.

Madame Web Movie Review: The Last Word

Overall, the film is a big mess with boring and one-dimensional characters. It feels like watching a snoozing spider for hours, hoping it will start weaving its web soon. But all you can do is wait until you run out of patience to see anything exciting.

One and a half stars!

Madame Web Trailer

Madame Web releases on 16th February, 2024.

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Madame Web Movie Review: Dakota Johnson’s Superhero Film Spins A Messy Web With Characters As Uninspiring As A Snoozing Spider

The superhero saga lacks seriousness and dedication..

Star Cast: Dakota Johnson, Tahar Rahim, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor, Adam Scott, Emma Roberts, Kerry Bishe

Director: S. J. Clarkson

What’s Good: The build-up

What’s Bad: Boring characters, weak script

Loo Break: You can take as many as you want, and the story will still struggle to make good progress

Watch or Not?: Only if you love Dakota Johnson blindly and are okay with watching her perform poorly

Language: English

Available On: Theatrical release

Runtime: 116 minutes

In the 1970s, a pregnant Constance Webb (Kerry Bishe) and her colleague Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) are in the Amazon forest, looking for a rare species of spider that could cure many diseases. However, Ezekiel betrays Constance, leaving her harmed in the jungle. The members of Las Arañas help Constance give birth to Cassandra/Cassie ( Dakota Johnson ) while she dies during childbirth. The story then shifts to 2003, where Cassie works as a Paramedic.

Madame Web Movie Review: Script Analysis

Madame Web Movie Review: Star Performance

Every actor in the movie lacked conviction in their performances. Dakota Johnson as Cassie is her weakest performance. Dakota’s expressionless face and lack of depth and emotions in “revelation” scenes make you wonder if the actor herself takes the movie seriously or not. Sydney Sweeney , Isabela Merced and Celeste O’Connor play girls because of whom the entire film runs for another hour. But none are striking on screen or delivered a “wow” moment. Tahar Rahim, as Ezekiel had all the potential to be a threatening villain. The actor is decent in whatever average writing his character had. Still, he deserved better.

Madame Web Movie Review: Direction, Music

The music has little impact on the story. I only enjoyed listening to Britney Spears’ Toxic in one scene.

Madame Web Movie Review: The Last Word

One and a half stars!

Madame Web Trailer

Madame Web releases on 16th February, 2024.

Share with us your experience of watching Madame Web.

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Madame Web labeled 'A Crime against Cinema' as reviews paint a harrowing picture

S ony's Madame Web hit theaters on February 14, 2024, and left viewers disappointed, if reviews are to be believed. Both moviegoers and critics have quite negative reactions to the movie. While fan sites give out scathing reviews, the critics from various media houses are no better, albeit more technical.

Unfortunately, Dakota Johnson's character was unable to reach her full potential, even though she managed to bypass some of the criticism given her undeniable acting prowess. The other actors are also accused of giving lackluster performances that match the choppy movie.

Directed by S. J. Clarkson, the screenplay is written by Clarkson along with Claire Parker, Burk Sharpless, and Matt Sazama. The writers are known for scripting the 2022 movie Morbius , based on the same Spider-Man universe. While many reviewers compare Madame Web to Morbius, which bombed at the box office as well, one reviewer has called the movie "a crime against cinema."

Disclaimer: This article may contain spoilers and advises the reader's discretion.

Brutal reviews for Madame Web in the first reactions

The Sony Pictures and Marvel combination movie, Madame Web , seems headed for a box-office disaster. The initial reactions from moviegoers and critics are out, and they are not positive. The jury is out, and there are some scathing terms used for the movie, from "weak dialogue" to "worst film of 2024," including one comment that considers the movie "the death of the superhero genre."

Movie critics from various media houses have not been kind either, although they are more technical and objective in their reasoning. While The Hollywood Reporter calls it "an airless and stilted endeavor," USA Today called it the "worst superhero movie since Morbius."

Slashfilm, another media house, tries to analyze Madame Web as the "pre-origin story" of all Spider-Women. However, 3C Films considers it "an embarrassing mess" where talented stars were wasted due to "atrocious dialogue, awkward editing, and all-around laughable structure."

How is Madame Web 's review score?

IMDb has rated Madame Web with a 3.8/10 from 5.8K ratings. Rotten Tomatoes has given it a 14% positive aggregate out of 146 reviews, with an average rating calculated to be 3.4/10. On the other hand, using the weighted average, Metacritic looked at 48 reviews to score the movie 29 out of 100.

CinemaScore, another rating platform, offered audiences an A+ to F scale to rate the movie. Based on that, the movie received an average grade of C+ on the scale. The movie, set in the Spider-Man universe , was released in 4000 theaters across the US with a six-day opening timeframe. It made $6 million on its opening day and is projected to gross $20–25 million in all.

What is Madame Web movie about?

The premise of the movie follows Cassandra "Cassie" Webb, who is a New York-based paramedic with psychic powers. As she begins to show signs of clairvoyance, she finds her mission in safeguarding three young women.

Cassie, played by Dakota Johnson of Fifty Shades of Grey and Jessica Jones fame, not only develops the power to foresee the future but also uses the knowledge to change it. While she tracks down and befriends the three women with powerful destinies, she also has to confront her own past.

Both paths of action zero in on a dangerous present that must be fought to protect the future for all. While Cassie has dreams about the oncoming danger, Tahir Rahim's Ezekiel Sims, the obsessive villain , has dreams about his death by three women. His attempt to change his future, as he dreams, is the premise for the action in the movie.

Madame Web was released in theaters on February 14, 2024, and there is no information about the movie's release on any of the streaming platforms as yet.

Madame Web labeled 'A Crime against Cinema' as reviews paint a harrowing picture

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