Madame Web

With all the financial woes that has befallen Marvel Studios, they certainly need a hit. Since Disney owns Marvel, I'm not quite sure why this was made in conjunction with Columbia Studios. With all that Marvel has produced, the premise of "Madame Web" certainly has a captivating story, however each scene has a tendency to be a bit predictable. 

In a switch from the typical genre, this story tells the standalone origin story of one of Marvel publishing's most enigmatic heroines. The suspense-driven thriller stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, a paramedic in Manhattan who, after a life-threatening situation, develops the power to see the future...and realizes she can use that insight to change it. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women, Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced) and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O'Connor) bound for powerful destinies...if they can all survive a deadly presence in the form of Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim).

Others to round out the cast are Mike Epps as O'Neil, Emma Roberts as Mary Parker, Adam Scott as Ben Parker, Kerry Bishe as Constance, Zosia Mamet as Amarla and Jose Maria Yazpik as Santiago.

This was directed with grit and adrenaline by SJ Clarkson ("Toast" (TV movie) '10) plus a plethora of TV. Considering that this filmmaker has only a TV movie under her belt (as far as a movie is concerned), is amazing that she was able to capture the emotions from her actors as well she did. Definitively, having the huge amount of TV experience only served her well, and with this, created a suspenseful feel of this project. She will receive more film work. It was effectively written by Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Claire Parker and SJ Clarkson, based on a story by Karen Sanga, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. Really, with the amount of experince the two writers, Sazama and Sharpless have, they could've solely written this screenplay. As I've mentioned in prior reviews, typically when there are more than two writers on any given film, it can become bogged down and somewhat disjointed--hence, too many chefs in the kitchen. So, since there was a bit of disjointedness and it being a bit long-in-the-tooth, less writers only could've improved this. Mind you, it wasn't a wash, but simply needed a bit more polish. And, the visual effects predominantly designed by Digital Domain and Outpost VFX were seamless and basically assisted in the telling of this story. 

If you are a Marvel fan, you'll love this. I'm not particularly an avid fan however the premise of this definitely saved this film. There were a couple of areas of predictability, but not so much that one could mouth the actor's words. And Dakota Johnson was also a great choice of Cassandra. This is the quintessential popcorn film, so go and enjoy.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                      Rated: PG-13                                    116mins.