“When you take on the responsibility, great power will come.” Something off with that line? You bet. It also sums up exactly what is wrong with Madame Web, which hangs around the Spider-Man galaxy in a milky way, hoping we will make the connection, but not quite.
Having jumped several loops on the way to the screen itself, including years in planning and rewrites, the uncertainty of this Dakota Johnson-starrer of its place is evident. The franchise is just one part of it, Madame Web of the comics too might find it hard seeing herself here.
In the comics, she is a blind, disabled old woman, seated on a chair shaped like a round whiskey decanter, weaving her tangled webs.
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Johnson, on the contrary, is the kind of star whose shine is difficult to hide, whether she is saving lives or getting saved. So, it is entirely misplaced to put the dreariness of this effort – directed by S J Clarkson, who is getting out of her TV zone with this film – on Johnson.
Watch | The trailer of Madame Web featuring Dakota Johnson
It is all that is happening around her which is difficult to fit in, starting with the era in which the film is set. Johnson’s paramedic Cassie Webb character, who works for the New York Fire Department, in her mix of largely white-red-black combination clothes (reminding you of a certain Spidey), looks very much like the It girl of the moment.
The moment being the present, surely, with the US having at its disposal all-the-world’s snooping powers.
However, Peter Parker a.k.a Spider-Man – it is hinted – is as of now just a foetus in his mother’s womb, with uncle Ben (Scott) already around as a quasi-father.
One day, in a fire-and-rescue operation, Cassie survives near death, is out for three minutes, has a vision and, is soon having flashes from the future. These are discordant bits, some repeating themselves, others not, and not coming back to her entirely in sequence – making it rather confusing, and not just for Cassie.
The plot thickens when one of those flashes shows her that three teenage girls she has happened to run into on a train are facing danger from a man dressed like a black Spider-Man. But, no, no one says that word still. That man is the very limp villain, as villains go, by the name of Ezekiel Sims (Rahim).
Years ago, when he worked with Cassie’s mother as she trekked the deep Amazonian jungles while in the last stages of her pregnancy, he stole from her a spider with magical powers. Cassie was saved by a tribe that had harnessed those powers, and who also spoke amazingly good English – enough to come up with phrases like “To see the future, one must go to the wounds of the past”.
Hence, Ezekiel’s powers; and hence Cassie’s, with her mother’s extremely detailed diary of notes are a big help. The teenage girls (who are so generic as to be offensive, including the otherwise eye-catching Sweeney) fit into the entangled webs of these two.
How? You can watch this to find out. Or not.
Madame Web movie cast: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Adam Scott, Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor, Tahar Rahim
Madame Web movie director: S J Clarkson
Madame Web movie rating: 2 Stars
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