Review: 'Madame Web' an awful flick

Zero out of Five Stars

By Abby Cowels (She/her)
Staff Writer

“Madame Web” is a 2024 superhero action film, and the fourth of the Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. Find it on Prime Video or Apple TV to rent for the low price of $19.99. No, you cannot just see it in theaters for the same price, because it is not showing anywhere.

Directed by S.J. Clarkson and starring Dakota Johnson as the lead role Cassandra “Cassie” Webb (Madam Web), the movie takes you on a dangerous adventure of a New York paramedic who begins to have visions.

She follows her visions, and her mother’s research back into the Amazon, so she can find the ancient tribe of people who use the spider bite's ability to “like do crazy stuff, like climb like spiders.”

Her clairvoyance leads her to supervillain Ezekiel Sims, who warns Cassie about a prophecy, and possibly her undoing. She eventually runs into to this prophecy; three teenage girls who will eventually gain powers of their own and become superheroes.

As far as the creative aspects of the plot, Sony writers changed the original story of “Madame Web,” and instead of developing her blindness from a degenerative disease in her late years, she is rendered blind and paraplegic during a battle with Ezekiel Sims.

I do not have too many strong feelings about this plot change, but I have many questions. Most of them are, “Why?” And that same question could be asked through the entirety of the film. Why did they feel the need to give Madame Web “spider” powers? Her clairvoyance is what connects her to the Web of Life.

 My final critique has to do with the Amazonian tribe of people that Cassie Webb’s mother was studying. This forced connection was not only unnecessary, but it was novelty to explain Cassie’s super spidey-sense. The portrayed mysticism, or exoticism of the tribal people, is downright prejudice.

Madam Web might be the worst movie I have ever seen. I suggest waiting for it to stream for free, so you can at least laugh at it without the regret of having to pay for it.