\u201cMadame Web\u201d is not the unmitigated disaster that its clunky trailer or its calendar spot in February would suggest.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s\u00a0a low-stakes\u00a0superhero origin story with a thoroughly amusing Dakota Johnson performance at its center. But the feature debut from longtime television director\u00a0S.J. Clarkson\u00a0gets visually chaotic within its (literally) explosive conclusion, and much of the dialogue along the way\u00a0consists of leaden exposition. Sometimes that can be used to comic effect, as Johnson\u2019s Cassie Webb\u00a0must repeatedly\u00a0explain to people the bizarre things that are happening to her, her\u00a0exasperation growing each time.\u00a0But often the information\u00a0dumps\u00a0in the script\u00a0credited to Clarkson & Claire Parker and\u00a0\u201cMorbius\u201d writers\u00a0Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless\u00a0are unintentionally hilarious in their banality.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe that\u2019s\u00a0inevitable, though, when\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0introducing a new character to a wide audience.\u00a0Still, within these oversaturated times for comic book movies, \u201cMadame Web\u201d is blissfully breezy in its pacing, which helps make it a more enjoyable watch than some of the super-serious, end-of-the-world fare\u00a0we often see.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A flashback to the Peruvian Amazon in 1973 reveals an extremely pregnant\u00a0Constance (Kerry\u00a0Bish\u00e9) searching for a rare breed of spider\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0known for its healing properties.\u00a0Flash forward to 2003 and the child she was carrying, Cassie, is now a paramedic in New York City (Queens, specifically, which also happens to\u00a0be the home of one Peter Parker). But\u00a0during a bridge rescue\u00a0with her fellow EMT, Ben (Adam Scott),\u00a0she ends up\u00a0tumbling into the river, triggering her version of a\u00a0Spidey-sense. Now\u00a0her mind is filled with confusing visions as\u00a0she finds she can see the future \u2014 except\u00a0no one believes her.\u00a0(Her name\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>Cassandra, after all.) At one point, she\u00a0literally has\u00a0blood on her hands as she envisions someone\u2019s death but\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0know how to prevent it.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0seen this reliving of events with multiple chances to get it right\u00a0many times before, from \u201cGroundhog Day\u201d to \u201cFinal\u00a0Destination\u201d\u00a0to \u201cHappy Death Day,\u201d\u00a0but\u00a0while the premise\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0exactly novel, \u201cMadame Web\u201d finds some compelling avenues into it.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0sequence in which Cassie fully\u00a0begins to grasp her\u00a0unwanted abilities\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and realizes\u00a0she must use them to save three\u00a0teenage girls\u00a0from being brutally\u00a0attacked on a train waiting to leave Grand Central Terminal\u00a0\u2014\u00a0is legitimately suspenseful.\u00a0Wealthy and obsessed Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim, star of \u201cA Prophet\u201d and \u201cThe Past\u201d) can also see the future and\u00a0knows\u00a0these three\u00a0will end up\u00a0killing him when they get older.\u00a0(His explanation of this nightmare vision to a woman\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0just slept with drew some unintended laughs at a recent press screening.)\u00a0<\/p>\n The constantly on-the-go Cassie must become the reluctant protector of these disparate teens: shy Julia (Sydney Sweeney), bookish Anya (Isabela Merced) and rebellious Mattie (Celeste O\u2019Connor). Johnson has such a way with a blas\u00e9, deadpan one-liner that it makes you wish the entire movie consisted of her dealing with these\u00a0annoying\u00a0kids, her impatience\u00a0increasing\u00a0with their impertinence.\u00a0She brings a refreshing, grounded quality to her superhero vibe.\u00a0Sweeney,\u00a0Merced\u00a0and\u00a0O\u2019Connor are\u00a0mostly\u00a0locked into one-note\u00a0roles\u00a0(and\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0all\u00a0way too\u00a0old\u00a0to be high school students),\u00a0but, together with Johnson,\u00a0the four of them have\u00a0a\u00a0decent\u00a0amount of\u00a0chemistry.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cMadame Web\u201d is not the unmitigated disaster that its clunky trailer or its calendar spot in February would suggest.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s\u00a0a low-stakes\u00a0superhero origin story with a thoroughly amusing Dakota Johnson performance at its center. But the feature debut from longtime television director\u00a0S.J. Clarkson\u00a0gets visually chaotic within its (literally) explosive conclusion, and much of the dialogue along …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[36,35,51],"class_list":["post-1324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action-movies","tag-action","tag-adventure","tag-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}