Studios: Sony-Columbia/Marvel Entertainment/TSG Entertainment/Di Bonaventura Pictures
Plot: Cassandra Webb is a NYC paramedic who starts to show signs of clairvoyance after an accident. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she must protect three young women from a mysterious adversary who wants them dead.
Cast
Dakota Johnson - Cassandra Webb
Sydney Sweeney - Julia Cornwall
Isabela Merced - Anya Corazan
Celeste O'Connor - Mattie Franklin
Tahar Rahim - Ezekiel Sims
Mike Epps - O'Neill
Emma Roberts - Mary Parker
Adam Scott - Ben Parker
Kerry Bishe - Constance
Zosia Mamet - Amaria
Jose Maria Yazpik - Santiago
Writer(s): Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (Morbius; Netflix's Lost in Space; Power Rangers; Gods of Egypt)
Claire Parker
S.J. Clarkson
Director: S.J. Clarkson
Rated PG-13 for violence/action and language (117 minutes)
The Spider-Man universe that doesn't feature Spider-Man that Sony has been slowly building up has been a really mixed bag lately. Venom and its sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage were decent (even though the 2018 movie is kinda better than the sequel). The 2022 movie Morbius ... well let's just say the less I saw about that movie the better.
When I saw the trailer for Madame Web, I first thought the story seemed okay but the trailer was just meh. So, I kept thinking that when I saw a second trailer, the movie could look better. Well, there was no new trailer and so I kept thinking alright I'll still give it a shot. And, all I can really say is congrats Morbius you are no longer the worst entry of this Spider Man-less franchise!
Now, usually I try to come up with some positive aspects even if the movie isn't that great ... hell I even managed to do that with Morbius. And Madame Web might be one of those rare movies that I can't really think of anything positive about it.
There are quite a few moments that had potential but it was wasted. The acting is really bland and even the action sequences featuring the villain aren't the greatest. Honestly, some of them even looked bored during some of their scenes. I never thought I would see a comic book movie that didn't have exciting action scenes. I am just hoping that the studio figures out what's going on with this franchise - especially since the studio still has Venom 3 and Kraven the Hunter coming up later this year.
Here are some tidbits for Madame Web (that may be more interesting than the movie itself)!!
According to Dakota Johnson in an interview with The Wrap, the screenplay underwent extensive rewrites to the point that it no longer resembled the movie that she signed for. The original screenplay, which was described as darker and "very Terminator inspired," would've seen Madame Webb and the Spider-Women trying to protect a pregnant Mary Parker from Ezekiel Sims, who wants to kill her to prevent the birth of Peter Parker. *** HONESTLY THEY STUDIO SHOULD'VE STAYED WITH THIS!!! SOUNDS A LOT BETTER THAN WHAT THEY RELEASED!!!***
Johnson left her agency WME in favor of CAA less than a week after the first (and only) trailer for this movie dropped. According to Variety, this "raised industry eyebrows," and generated rumors that Johnson didn't like the movie, especially after she made fun of it while hosting SNL.
It was reported in January that box office projections estimated that the movie would have the worst opening weekend for Sony's Spider Man Universe.
It's the fourth overall movie of Sony's Spider-Man Universe of movies, following Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Morbius.
After their work on the Marvel Comics based film Morbius, Sony Pictures hired Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless in September 2019 to write a script centered around the Marvel character Madame Web.
Sony described the film as a "standalone origin story" and a "suspense-driven thriller" that diverged from the typical superhero movie genre, while producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura said that it would present a fresh take on the character and her origin.
In January 2024, journalist Jeff Sneider reported that Sony had performed reshoots for the movie to remove references to the originally planned 1990s settings of the movie, which was intended to have Andrew Garfield's version of Peter Parker/Spider-Man from The Amazing Spider-Man universe within this movie's continuity, but not appear, before the studio decided to instead have this be Tom Holland's character from the MCU. This resulted in the timeline needing to be adjusted to align with that character's age. At this time, it's STILL unknown which Spider-Man this universe will be featuring!
Ahead of the movie's release, Sony pivoted TV spots to focus on the movie's thriller tone rather than connections to the Spider-Man franchise. The studio spent $60 million promoting it, with 75% of the campaign spent on social media ads.
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