On Feb. 14, a highly anticipated movie, Madame Web, premiered globally in theaters. The movie left many fans disappointed as many thought the movie was missing a piece from its story. The film was a spin-off for the popular Marvel series, Spider-Man, but there were no actual connections between the two other than the similarity of their names and the storyline with the use of spiders.
Madame Web is a fictional character that was initially introduced in the Marvel Comic, The Amazing Spider-Man No. 210. In the comic, she is portrayed as an elderly woman who helps Spider-Man find a looting victim and is killed by her mother However, before she dies she passes her powers off to a young girl, who then becomes the next Madame Web.
In the 2024 movie, Madame Web, or Cassandra “Cassie” Webb (played by Dakota Johnson) works as a paramedic in New York City. Webb was a relatively normal girl who lives downtown and works alongside her co-worker, Ben Parker (played by Adam Scott). The duo spends their day following safety calls they receive from police .
During one of their safety calls, Webb and Parker are on a popular New York bridge helping to save a man from an overturned car that was about to fall off the bridge into the river. While Webb jumps into the car to help the man unbuckle his seatbelt, the car door closes on her and her body weight pushes the car into a river where she finds out she has powers. Webb discovers her special powers allow her to see into the future, but only when someone is about to die.
Not long after Webb discovers her powers, she encounters a man by the name of Ezekiel Sims (played by Tahar Rahim) who is a villain trying to kill young teenage girls. Sims had a dream that the girls tried to kill him. These girls are Julia Cornwall (played by Sydney Sweeney), Mattie Franklin (played by Celeste O’Conno) and Anya Corazon (played by Isabela Merced).
The first encounter between Webb and Sims is in a subway where they, including the three girls, are all pinpointed. Webb invisions the man on the train murdering these three young girls. She screams at the girls to get off the train, startling them and confusing them, but somehow manages to usher them out before Sims can get to them. However, that does not stop Sims from attempting to kill the girls again as he gets off the train and climbs on the ceiling where he strives to get the girls once again, but fails.
Webb informs the girls about who Sims was and what he was attempting to do by explaining that she can see into the future, but the girls do not believe her. However, Webb does not stop there, she leaves the girls in a forest and drives to her apartment in New York to figure out who Sims is and why he was attempting to kill the girls. She comes across her mothers old work and photographs of her and Sims.
This intrigues her, wondering why her mom was friends with him, but finds out he and her mom were in the Amazon Rainforest in Peru researching spiders. Sims killed her mom while searching for an Amazonian spider that had abilities to make him stronger than the average person along with staying younger for longer.
The continuation of Sims trying to kill the teenagers goes back and forth, but the last sight of him happens when Webb is not there. As soon as Webb envisioned Sims’ attempt at killing the girls once again, she rushes over as Sims chases them throughout New York City. Webb overall is a stronger person giving her an advantage, so she uses her powers to figure out tactics to get him away from the girls and in the end kills Sims.
Madame Web continues to receive unsatisfactory ratings from viewers as it is Sony’s lowest cinematic universe according to Rotten Tomatoes—rating at 57 percent. As more viewers watch the movie, it becomes clear that the writing of the story was not implemented properly throughout the film. Many thought the characters were missing parts from the plot as they did not make complete sense. Continuing on through the movie, Why Madame Web Is Officially The Worst Spider-Man Movie Ever Made claims that many were left unsettled with the plot as there were many gaps in the characters’ stories as far as the scripting.
The movie left people with questions about Cassie and what she entails for New York as she can read minds, but the movie never went as far to express it in the end. According to 10 Valid Reason Fans Didn’t Like Madame Web , Madame Webs’ superpowers were alarming towards viewers as they were left confused on what her actual abilities were and the benefits she could have on the city. The choices on how to convey Web’s powers were proven to be distracting to the audience as they were placed in the movie with no warning of when it occurred and when she connected back to reality.
The movie left viewers wondering if the script was developed and thought through, due to the weak dialogue and unintentional comedy that occurred throughout the movie. Marvel advertised the movie to be similar to Spider-man, but left fans confused since there was little resemblance to the storyline with the intent of spiders.
The movie has surprised many viewers due to the high anticipation, but many were left overwhelmed as there were gaps in the plot line and was repetitive. The movie was rated PG-13, but many thought that the exposition took away the viewer’s intelligence. Throughout, the scenes were over-explained, leading to more confusion on the purpose of the movie.
