Madame Web – Movie Review
Director: S.J. Clarkson (Succession)
Writer: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Claire Parker, S.J. Clarkson (Screenplay)
Writer: Kerem Sanga, Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless (Story)
Cast
- Dakota Johnson (The Lost Daughter)
- Sydney Sweeney (Anyone But You)
- Isabela Merced (Instant Family)
- Celeste O’Connor (Ghostbusters Afterlife)
- Tahar Rahim (A Prophet)
- Mike Epps (The Hangover)
- Emma Roberts (We’re the Millers)
Plot: Cassandra Webb develops the power to see the future. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women bound for powerful destinies, if they can all survive a deadly present.
Runtime: 1 Hour 57 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Madame Web starts when emergency service driver Cassandra Webb (Johnson) is involved in an accident, she learns about a new power. She starts to see into the future but doesn’t understand why. Elsewhere, Ezekiel Sims (Rahim) suffers horrendous nightmares of being killed.
Ezekiel has set up a system to track the three girls who killed him, Julia (Sweeney), Anya (Merced) and Mattie (O’Connor). However, when he arrives to kill them, Cassandra arrives to rescue them. She starts to learn more about her powers, as he looks to protect the teenagers from Ezekiel.
Verdict on Madame Web
Madame Web is an action sci-fi superhero movie following the origin of the titular character. She learns about her new powers as she looks to protect three teenagers. However, to learn her powers, she must risk more of her life against a deadly enemy.
For an origin story, this movie really struggles to make a big impact. It does the whole confusion about what is going on, including a few funny moments other movies did as well. On the villain side, it is confusing, what Ezekiel does with his power in the first place, or has he spent 30-odd years hunting these girls? The teenagers are annoying more than anything else. There are a host of jarring edits to symbolise seeing the future. The saving grace is the final act, which kicks off with a cool entrance. It has a solid fight which unleashes more of the powers Cassandra possesses.
Final Thoughts –Madame Web is a messy origin story.
3 replies on “Madame Web (2024) Movie Review”
Wow, the superhero genre really fell off a cliff! After the high water mark of Endgame, there has really been a struggle to find new stories to tell that resonate – and the filmmaking itself has gotten so sloppy! Thanks for watching so I don’t have to!
I like that they want to create new ones that aren’t connected. and it has a trimmed less that 2 hour runtime. it also feels more restrained like an older Spiderman
I agree with those goals to be sure but as your review and others point out, they have lost the storytelling touch