‘Madame Web’ Is a Fun Time Capsule That Still Gets Your Spidey Senses Tingling
3/5 Early '00s Bops
The Sony-verse of Spider-Man movies tells us stories of some of our favorite Spidey-adjacent characters without really getting into the spidey senses of it all. At least with Madame Web we’re getting some more spider bites and characters we know as heroes instead of the villain standalone films.
S.J. Clarkson’s superhero flick takes us into New York in 2003 when Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) is suddenly coming into her powers: When Cassie crashes into the Hudson in a car she had just rescued someone from (as a paramedic), she realizes in her “near death” experience that she has powers that allow her to see into the future. Filled with the cheesy dialogue we’re used to in comics, Madame Web recognizes the origin story that it’s trying to tell. In the Spider-Man comics, Madame Web is a character who is there to give advice to Peter Parker when the time comes.
While Madame Web does not bring Spider-Man into the Sony-verse, it still does make nods to a world in which Peter Parker could come to her for advice if needed—mainly because the film is set in 2003 and we get to watch as Cassie gets to know Ben Parker (Adam Scott) as her coworker. But what is actually fun about Madame Web is completely rooted in Johnson’s approach to Cassie as a character.
She’s thrown into a situation that she has no control over. Once she gets her powers, she is on a train and sees the imminent brutal death of three girls and fellow passengers: Anya (Isabela Merced), Julia (Sydney Sweeney), and Mattie (Celeste O’Connor). Being someone who saves lives for a living as a paramedic, she ends up helping them fight off Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim).
Ezekiel Sims, who was working with Cassie’s mom in the Amazon (famously), ended up betraying her mother and taking a magic spider that with healing properties for himself, letting it bite him and give hims spider-like reflexes and abilities like climbing on walls—much like Spider-Man. But he also has a recurring dream that shows these 3 teenage girls, with spider powers of their own, trying to kill him.
This setup puts Cassie in the role of a reluctant hero who has to take care of a group of people she really doesn’t want to—odd given her career choice, but still, it works because of how Johnson plays Cassie.
With great power comes a movie that is just kinda fun to watch
On paper, this movie would 100% not work. But as you’re watching Johnson’s dry sense of humor shine through, you can’t help but love Cassie, and it irons out the parts of the movie that don’t make a lot of sense—like a Pepsi factory just having a bunch of fireworks, or taking a trip to the Amazon and back in a week’s time, or Cassie feeding a cat milk in 2003 when we knew that wasn’t an okay thing to do.
As someone who was watching movies set in Spider-Man’s New York way back when in 2003, I will say that Madame Web reminded me how fun and cheesy this universe can be. Yes, some of the moments of power come across as superhero cringey, but it doesn’t feel like a movie that wouldn’t fit in with the over-the-top comic book stories we loved back then.
Did I love when a song that was released in 1993 played as Cassie walked into a baby shower she probably wouldn’t have been invited to? Yes. I did.
Reluctant mother Cassie Webb
Getting to see different characters in the Spider-Man universe show how their powers can differ from Spider-Person to Spider-Person is part of the fun of the movie. The core of the movie comes from Cassie being forced to take care of the three teenagers when Ezekiel Sims decides he wants to kill them before they even get their powers. With Mattie, Anya, and Julia acting like kids, not listening to Cassie when they should, and just trying to stay alive, the movie does work to show how Cassie still cares and wants to do the right thing even when she is cracking jokes.
The more I think about this movie, the more I wonder how these characters would interact with other Spider-Man characters. Sure, it is far from a perfect movie, but there is joy to be found in Cassie’s dynamic with people in her life, the situations that these girls find themselves in, and the Spidey-ness of it all.
Sometimes, you just want to watch Spider-People do their thing, and that’s what Madame Web was for me. And hey, I am woman enough to admit that maybe this was the kind of movie that was made for Spider-Man fans like I am who just love to exist in a New York that Peter Parker knows and loves. But honestly? Madame Web is fun to watch. It has “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes in it and Adam Scott! What else can a girl ask for?
(featured image: Sony Pictures)
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