The latest installment of SONY’s attempt to create their own universe of Spider-Man adjacent characters has not been received as well as they may have hoped. As of the writing of this review, the film has a 16% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, just one percent above their last entry, the infamous Morbius from 2022. Meanwhile, it has a suspiciously high audience score of 65%.

But is it really as bad as they say it is? Is it just a misunderstood masterpiece by the critics? Can only audiences understand its true beauty? Or is it tangled up like a fly in a spider’s web? Let’s find out.

ATTENTION: THE FOLLOWING SECTION WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

The film follows Dakota Johnson as the titular Madame Web, known as Cassandra Webb, beforehand. Her mother was pregnant with her while researching a special breed of spiders in Peru. She wanted to use their venom to aid in curing diseases. Instead, she was betrayed by her partner, Ezekiel, and left for dead. Then, a group of “spider people” bring her to their dwelling and save her daughter from dying. Now, years later, Cassandra is a paramedic in New York City when she unlocks her dormant powers gifted by the spider people that give her possible visions of the future.

Ezekiel now has visions of his future self being killed by Julia Carpenter, Mattie Franklin, and Anya Carazon, who become powerful spider-women in the future. He sets out on the hunt for them, but by chance, Cassandra meets the women in the subway and, seeing their deaths in a vision, rescues them and takes them into hiding.

After a few near-death experiences, Cassandra travels to Peru to learn of her past. She meets with the leader of the Spider people and she unlocks the secrets of her past and learns more of her powers. 

During the film, Cassandra will end up more like how she is in the comics, but as a much younger version.

ANALASYS: 

Within the first few minutes of the film, we immediately see the clumsy editing and bad acting. Dakota Johnson, while a decent actress, was not very believable here. The three teenagers were constantly arguing with each other, which got annoying, and Ezekiel was not a very memorable villain. There are even instances where you can see his lips do not match the audio, indicating that he re-recorded his lines with new dialogue.

It should be pointed out that Cassandra was a paramedic partner with a young Ben Parker, who is looking after his sister-in-law Mary, who is pregnant with Peter. They play little to no importance in the story other than to say, “Look, see, we’re connected to Spider-Man“. They never call the baby “Peter,” possibly due to an agreement with Disney.

When compared to the comics, the characters are vastly different. Not just with the typical race swaps, but their powers and even their origins are altered in a way that is unrecognizable from the originals.

The visuals and editing are extremely obnoxious, especially whenever Cassandra uses her visions to see possible futures. You keep seeing instances of events that try to make you think it’s really only to reveal that it was a vision, leading to multiple events happening on repeat. You feel like someone sat on the remote and accidentally hit rewind. 

OVERALL RATING: 3/10

Bland protagonists, cheap visuals, poor editing, and a story that’s all over the place give an overall poor experience. At points, you wish that you could just fast forward as you keep watching certain events on repeat.

During the screening for this review, there was a total of six audience members in an auditorium that could fit 80 – 100 people. That is not a sign of a good future for this film or any other upcoming Sony-produced Marvel films.

If you are still curious enough to want to see it, wait for it on home media or streaming.

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