Madame Web

 While we wait for another Spider-Verse film, it's time to give the cinematic spotlight to another character in Spidey's web. That would be Madame Web, the clairvoyant memorably voiced in Spidey's 90s cartoon by none other than Stan Lee's wife, Joan. Longtime TV director SJ Clarkson's theatrical debut gives Web the superheroine origin story nobody knew they needed ... or wanted. 

It's not that bad, though.

In 1973, biologists Constance Webb (Kerry Bishe) and Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) procure a rare spider specimen in the Peruvian jungles. Ezekiel betrays the research team and claims the spider for himself. Constance is left mostly dead, and later dies delivering her daughter, Cassandra. 

In 2003, "Cassie" (Dakota Johnson) is an EMT partnered with Ben Parker (Adam Scott), the future Uncle Ben himself. During a bridge rescue, Cassie gets trapped in a car when it falls into the river. When she comes through, Cassie soon discovers that she can see the future. These future visions, as edited by Leigh Folsom Boyd, are as perfectly disorienting to the audience as they are to her. These future visions feel real until the film rewinds back a few minutes. One such vision in a diner is the only suspenseless vision, partially because that was the lead-up to the film's one and only trailer.

What about the plot? Well, Ezekiel's been foreseeing his own death at the hands of three costumed Spider-Women. He identifies them as teenagers Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie Franklin (Celeste O'Connor) and Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced). He goes off to kill them dressed like an evil Spider-Man. Cassie gets the three to safety when Spidey-Sims shows up at Grand Central Station. Ezekiel won't quit until the girls are dead, which looks like a job for Madame Web. That's basically it.

One of its weakest aspects is its villain. Ezekiel is anything but a good guy, something we know once he kills his research partners, but we know little about him. We don't know what he's been up to for the past thirty-years. He doesn't necessarily need a sympathetic goal, but he needs a goal, nonetheless. We don't even know why the three Spider-Women want to kill him in the future (off-screen villainy, perhaps?). It's a shame because Rahim is fine in the role. He just needed a better script.

The writing is slightly better for the three future Spider-Women. They have such likable quirky personalities that, when Cassie leaves them in the woods, you can't blame them for running off to the aforementioned diner. They have great chemistry with Johnson and have a few great scenes with her. One is when Cassie leads them out of Grand Central Station and the other is when they reveal their broken homelives to her. Their personalities sell them as teenagers even though their actresses aren't. They only don their Spider-Women costumes in future visions, perhaps saving their real super heroics for a sequel the film thinks it's getting. Still, the costumeless final battle with Spidey-Sims is a good display of ingenuity.

Johnson is fine in the title role. She's quite awkward, before and after she gets her powers, which leads to some hilarity. As I said, we also feel her disorientation with her future visions throughout the film. A pivotal one is when she saves a pigeon that she foresaw smashing into her window by opening it. Her leaving the girls in the woods is somewhat irresponsible, but she gets better later on. Her best scene is when she reconciles with her mother in a vision. It's such a nice moment. She gets some great chemistry with Scott's Uncle Ben and Emma Roberts's Mary Parker (Spidey's future mom).

What else can I say about it? Madame Web's visions and her climactic ability to appear in multiple spots are quite nifty effects even if the CGI isn't perfect. Trust me, you will notice plenty of obvious CGI in the climax. The future Spider-Womens' costumes are practically pitch-perfect recreations of their comic book appearances. It's a pity about their limited screentime. Finally, Disney should hire composer Johan Soderqvist once they hear his soaring score for this film. His main theme would fit perfectly for Spidey himself.

Overall, this film isn't perfect, but it's not a complete catastrophe. Let's see how Sony's live-action Spider-Verse improves when Kraven the Hunter finally prowls in theaters this August. But until then, here's hoping Beyond the Spider-Verse gets going soon.