You think Morbius was a movie of all time? Sony made the decision to green-light this movie….
Overview
RELEASE: 14 February, 2024 (Australia)
DIRECTOR: S. J. Clarkson
WRITER: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless
CAST: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor, Tahar Rahim
GENRE: Superhero / sci-fi / action-adventure
SYNOPSIS: When New York paramedic Cassandra Webb discovers she has clairvoyant abilities and constantly relives moments over again, she soon uncovers a dark secret from her past which threatens the lives of three unknowing teenage girls. Determined to face her background and protect these girls from the dark enemy stalking them, Cassandra slowly learns she holds the key to the future’s power and that the teenage trio themselves may have untapped potential.
Review
As someone who avidly keeps up with the latest pop culture, I am very familiar with the current discourse on superhero movies. You can’t deny everything following Avengers: Endgame in the MCU has been either a quality decline or rarely good. The DCEU resulted in chaos that James Gunn was assigned to erase it. And Sony’s universe of Spider-Man characters hasn’t done too well either, as evident by the meme-spawning viral sensation of 2022’s Morbius. But overall, I am too familiar with the recent reactions to this year’s Madame Web – and have only watched it’s entirely days ago.
Where to start? Well, the acting seemed to lack much or zero effort, with Dakota Johnson’s delivery as paramedic-turned-clairvoyant Cassandra Webb coming off as rather bland – although given her viral status on this movie’s press tour, it makes sense she may have done a Cassie and foreseen the outcome during filming. Although the trio of supporting main heroines – Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor) – deliver slightly more giving performances (Sweeney in particular), they still cannot save the dialogue given to them.
Other supporting characters like paramedic Ben Parker (Adam Scott) and pregnant sister-in-law Mary (Emma Roberts) aren’t given much room to judge by the script, but they seem to fall into that same category. Tahar Rahim as Spidey-villain Ezekiel Sims gives a rather forgettable performance too, although the character’s role in the storyline actually paints him as more sympathetic than the four main females (he just didn’t want to get murdered, is that so hard?).
Doing a little research, you’ll find a telling reason as to why Madame Web‘s quality is on a different level. Director S. J. Clarkson is rather more experienced with directing television episodes, rather than a big-budget superhero flick connected to its own universe where great content and a plausible story are the necessities. Screenwriter duo Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless aren’t known for positive reception by critics, also being the team behind Morbius, with their story lacking the action or characterisation it needs.
This is clear through the substitution of a team of pre-female superheroes rather avoiding their threat than facing it head on. Their actual team-up is only ever seen as rushed clairvoyance every now and then. The main character of Cassandra Webb doesn’t come off as likeable, constantly berating the girls or anyone who tries to show a hint of niceness (telling a story of your mother dying in childbirth at a baby shower is really out-of-touch).
To complete this all-over-the-place storyline, the dialogue is either cringeworthy explanation or simple lines made to seem as important hard-hitting moments (“The best thing about the future? It hasn’t happened yet.” Cassie quips in the last five seconds, before The Cranberries’ Dreams kicks in for the credits). Had the duo written some coherent dialogue and satisfactory plot elements, this could have had potential. Instead, it feels like it was written by an AI bot. The CGI doesn’t really seem top-quality either, but neither does any these days, so that was most likely to be expected.
In conclusion, Madame Web doesn’t promise much for the future of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, especially since it didn’t manage to apologise for the result of Morbius (in fact, it spawned it’s own “It’s Morbin’ time” – “My mother was researching spiders in the Amazon before she died”). It doesn’t look too positive for the future of this franchise during the already-unpopular era of superhero flicks – but hopefully, Deadpool & Wolverine may give a last hope in July……
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