Thus far, Sony’s “Spider-Man” spinoff films have been
some pieces of work. Starting with “Venom” in 2018, the film may have taken
quite a critical thrashing, but that didn’t stop it from having a crazy
impressive box office hit that reached over $800 million worldwide. Three years
later, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” also received quite a bad reception, but
still brough in $500 million worldwide. However, when it came to the third
film, “Morbius,” things didn’t turn out very well, not only having terrible
reviews, but also a disappointing box office. This brings us to the latest in
the spin-off franchise, “Madame Web,” another attempt to introduce some new
characters trying to once again find great success as they had previously with
the “Venom” films.
Starting in the ‘70s, we follow the mission in the
jungles of Peru led by Ezekial Sims (Tahar Rahim) and his colleague Constance
Webb (Kerry Bishé), who happens to be pregnant. When they find a rare species
of spider that has special healing abilities, Ezekial turns against the team,
steals the spider, and shoots Constance. However, thanks to the help of a local
tribe, she is able to give birth shortly before she dies.
Thirty years later, we find Cassandra Webb, played by
Dakota Johnson) working as a medic in New York City. After surviving a
near-death experience on a particularly rough call, she begins having visions,
which she slowly finds out are giving her looks into the future. Meanwhile,
Ezekial has been having dreams where Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie
Franklin (Celeste O’Connor), and Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced) kill him, causing
him to do everything he can to find them. Cassandra’s visions bring her into
the situation, leading her to find the girls first so she can protect them from
Ezekiel, who will stop at nothing to save him from his demise.
If the first three films in this spin-off franchise is
any indication, it would appear that the goal of these films were never really
to create a film that would get praised by critics and audiences, but rather to
make films that might be able to compete with the true comic book franchises at
the box office, and as we’ve seen, it’s been somewhat successful so far, at
least as far as the “Venom” films go. Jeff Beck said in his review, “The
trouble has been trying to find something else in the limited number of
characters they have access to that could achieve a similar level of
prosperity.”
Sadly, just like “Morbius,” “Madame Web” has proven
not to be that film either, from either a critical or financial point of view.
Beck noted, “As a comic book film, it falls prey to the same pitfalls that many
of these films have fallen into of late, including featuring a
bland/uninteresting plot with sub-par writing and flat/unengaging characters
that you end up not caring about in the least. On that basis, the film never
stood much of a chance, not if the goal was to make an entertaining experience
that comic book fans could get excited about, one that would have them riveted
to the screen with impressive action and a compelling plot. Anyone who read the
screenplay well before production commenced would've been able to tell you as
much.”
That said, while many audiences have had fun
criticizing on the film over the last few months, the strange thing is that it’s
really not worse than any of the other subpar comic book films we’ve seen over
the last couple of years, like “Shazam: Fury of the Gods,” “Aquaman and the
Lost Kingdom,” “Black Adam,” or “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” all of
them share those similar traits listed prior. Beck said, “"Madame
Web" is merely another entry in a continually growing line of
disappointments in the genre, a line that shows a clear, unfortunate lack of
effort from the filmmakers behind these unremarkable outings.”
If anything, these films, and the disappointing box
office numbers they’ve made, have shown that audiences aren’t going to work for
averageness anymore. They want fun and excitement, along with engaging
characters and storylines that give them a fun experience, not something that
puts them in the position of sleeping or just simply shrugging wen everything
is done. Beck suggested, “Perhaps it's simply time to go back to the drawing
board with these spinoffs, much like DC is doing with their entire collection.”
One thing’s for sure, it’s true that changes are most definitely needed, for if
things simply stay the same, the list of criticisms will just continue to grow.
“Madame Web” is just another addition to the
continually growing list of average comic book films that show a simple lack of
effort being put into their stories and characters, leaving viewers with just
another entry that gives a little more than a shrug, other than the fun and
exciting time these films should be giving.
As you might have guessed, which is universal, this
film doesn’t make any sense. Things just seem to be all over the place and it’s
hard to connect everything together. You just wonder why certain things are
done, especially when it starts borrowing pages from “Doctor Strange.” I don’t
recommend this because of how it doesn’t make sense, but then again, this is
one of those films that is bad, you start to laughably enjoy it.
Thank you for joining in on this review tonight. Stay tuned
next Friday for the finale of “Liam Neeson Month.”
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