Marvel’s latest film, “Madame Web” was released this month on Valentine’s Day. This standalone origin story focuses on a heroine from the original Marvel comics that can see the future. The film puts a modern twist on the actual storyline, changing a blind, old lady into a young, attractive woman working as a paramedic in NYC.
The cast for this film was stacked! Names like Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Emma Roberts and Adam Scott (Ben from “Parks and Recreation”) were all featured in this film. Unfortunately, despite the loaded cast, the hype for this film leading up to the release was not met.
The one hour, 56-minutes was filmed in parts of Worchestor, Mass., Palenque National Park in Mexico and the heart of New York City. The film had a budget of $80,000,000, but opening weekend gave a very poor performance, with it earning $15,335,860 in the U.S. and Canada.
This film received a 13 percent from Rotten Tomatoes and a 3.7/10 from IMDb. Personally, the film should earn a 2/10, but that is just based on all the cringe-worthy moments and lines that made no sense. That brings up the question though, especially with the publicity surrounding this film, of what went wrong?
One of the main issues was the huge rewrite the movie script went through. This was mentioned by “Madame Web” herself, who was played by Dakota Johnson, as she said that the movie script underwent significant changes after she signed on to play the role. She didn’t offer much about the changes, but the story that made it to screen was drastically different from the initial writing. This led to the weakening of the script, and the overall downfall of the movie.
Another thing that led this movie astray was just the overall acting. To the viewer, it seemed like none of the actors or actresses wanted to be in this movie based on the seemingly lack of effort and passion. The weak script led to awkward interactions between the characters, and the second-hand embarrassment felt by the audience in many of the dialogues was a product of the lack-luster acting.
The film also had a very sloppy editing job. There were quite a few missed mistakes and goofs, and the effects were not up to date. It was a little disjointed, which could be attributed to the large amount of scenes cut out of the film. This was the cherry on top of all the other things, as some of the editing choices made it a bit comical.
There are numerous harsh reviews online , but many of them fail to address that the potential of this storyline was amazing but unfortunately was not executed effectively. It’s disappointing because this could’ve been a great addition to the Marvel Universe, but it didn’t end up that way. There are good aspects to the film that were overshadowed by the drawbacks of it, but it’s not enough to redeem the overall film. It’s not something that I would see again, but if you’re looking for something to do to kill the time, seeing this movie could provide some entertainment.
Photo Credits: IMDb
