MADAME WEB is neither a top tier nor trash, but definitely a mid effort entry into the Spider-Man franchise where its interesting character concepts get overshadowed by its inconsistent execution and sloppy storytelling. A blending of The Terminator / Looper meets The Dead Zone & Final Destination (at one point she even tailgates an 18 wheeler log truck), there's an interesting mix of time bending tropes threaded throughout, and even a few moments worthy of LOLing ("Am I on the right train now?") still manage to find their way into the unevenly attempted psychological thriller tone to give it some genuine laughs. It's not always a pretty picture and a little painful to look at trying to process its sometimes questionable creative choices. At times the consistent, snappy zooming ins and outs camerawork and quick cut editing is reminiscent of the worst visual elements of Reality TV and reflective of the lackluster look of network shows that sub these tired tactics in lieu of some kind of artistic vision. Thankfully the atrocious assault to the eyes is not consistent and actually becomes better for chunks of the film to the point of questioning if two totally different people had their hands in the aesthetic decision making.
Dakota Johnson by nature of Cassie Web is actually an apt casting choice given her characters in the other films I've seen of hers so far and why she works so well in those. In A Bigger Splash her mysteriousness keeps her at a dangerous distance where her intentions are self serving and destructive. In her second collaboration with Luca Guadagnino with his remake of Argento's SUSPIRIA, she's a foreigner out of her element that taps into her element by way of becoming a conduit for female empowerment through self expression as her character literally opens her heart to us as she ascends into becoming a mater of magic. She is quite delightful in How to Stay Single - a title telling yet again of her loner like status. Even in the 50 Shades series, what draws her suitor is her aloof allure - so casting Dakota in another such role seems to make sense given her filmography.
Cassie Web is a child born from murder, and that initial trauma has imprinted an everlasting impact on her existence. Although bitter towards her self-sacrificing mother seemingly placing the chance to save thousands ahead of being alive to parent her own baby, Cassie still instinctually spends her life dedicated to saving others just like she thought her mom was doing. Although an altruistic occupation would imply inherent selflessness, she rather not get entangled in the lives she saves, always choosing instead heroism at a distance. With a need for speed and a penchant for pushing the petal to the metal, Cassie's career choice may even be a mask for her cathartic road rage as she swerves the roads in her racing ambulance adrenaline rush. She may appear to be a cold hearted hero, but like the other characters she plays, her loner emotions keep guarded laying low - in Cassie's case tucked away inside a memory box underneath her bed. But she does keep Julia's stepbrother's drawing and digs into her painful memories of her mother's research journal as she places the boy's token of appreciation with the rest of her mementos - so she's not wholly trying to lock away her memories and throw away the key.
She does still have a part of her heart that cares. As a foster child due to her mom's death, she sees herself apart from others on the outside looking in, which is why she finds comradarie in a fellow stray soul neighborhood kitty that winds up in her window every evening. Another comicbook character adaptation that connects to cats is similarly Catwoman, with her post work walkins into her apartment talking aloud to the feral felines waiting for their milk dish as she divulges the difficulties of her day to the captive audience kitties as they eat. Cassie also confides in her stray cat she's somewhat adopted after a long day's work when she finds connecting easier to a silent listener than human interaction. Dakota plays Cassie's character with what could be claimed as a wooden performance, but as a first responder surrounded by death daily, it would make sense to have a cooly calm and collected demeanor amongst chaos. Her lack of emoting enthusiasm would be in line with the character's struggle with empathy and her inability to emotionally connect with others.
Madame Web's familial nemesis, on the other hand, is a stone cold one note written persona that when combined with Cassie's already lukewarm demeanor makes for a lack of charisma between the two opposing characters. Conceptually this shadow Spider-man prototype has a lot of potential being the first of his kind before Peter Parker but being a bad guy first before New York gets their hero later. Ezekiel's selfishness serves to epitomize the essence of a villain, someone willing to kill others for the sake of saving himself; whereas, Spider-Man and Madame Web both imbue bravery as the embodiment of heroics in their selflessness by casting aside their safety for the sake of saving someone else.
Ezekiel as a villain checks off all the basic bad guy bullets marks, deep menacing voice, perma-scowl plotting and a maniacal single mindedness - but a better use of his screen time would have been subbing Ezekiel's excessively repetitive exposition in place of more action sequences of him stalking the shadows of his nightmares in waking life. A benefit to not giving him a ton of time for character development does draw more focus to Cassie's character arc as well as moments to bond with her adopted band of abandoned adolescents who are ultimately the main storylines to invest time in.
Zosia Mamet as his hacker for hire geek squad gone rogue is serviceable in the role, but only has the same reminder of Ezekiel's plan to respond to - perhaps a missed opportunity to play into more of a mixed morality in the storyline with her character if she had flipped sides by gaining a conscience and betraying the man plodding to punish a bunch of teens. That twist could have maybe justified the amount of times the audience is reminded how important it is for Ezekiel to find and put an abrupt end to the girls, as each time her character hears it, it seems less appealing to be a part of. Instead Ezekiel's side kick seems to all together disappear in the story after her boss clocks out early.
The storylines and characters do hold some conceptual cinematic weight when analyzing the arcs intersecting between hero and villain. Ezekiel has wasted his whole life trying to avoid a fate he cannot escape while failing to see the true threat which he self actualizes by stealing the spider, shooting her mom and bringing all the girls together because of them trying to escape his hunt. By pursuing the path he plotted in which to avoid his fate, much like Oedipus, Ezekiel provokes his own prophecy into fruition, though ironically it is Cassie who ends up blinded even though she can see more clearly than he ever could.
There is an intriguing play on the Sophocles story of Oedipus Rex between both opposing characters. The blind prophet of the stage play reveals the truth to Oedipus about his past actions and prophesizes his self induced blindness. Ezekiel holds the key to Cassie unlocking the truth behind her mother's motives and murder, but if he who is blind to her transformation into Madame Web. Like Oedipus's pride blinding him to the consequences of his own actions , Ezekiel's anger and fear of inevitable death becomes his own grave in the making. He sees incorrectly as if he were blind, whereas Cassie becomes literally blind by the end, unlocking an ultimate sight seer ability. The irony is, as a self accepted loner, she didn't see herself in the position of a matriarch to misfits nor assuming the unwanted title of superhero; and simultaneously, her antagonist misses seeing Madame Web coming either.
Cassie Web has an almost inverted twist of fate, in that she doesn't escape her inevitability - instead of dissolving into self destruction in an act of avoiding a doomed destiny, she embraces what's to come and the change with it which ultimately leads to self empowerment. Cassie discovers she was always meant to be paralyzed from her prenatal diagnosed disease, and that her seemingly overly selfless mother secretly had a more personal motive for seeking uncovered medicinal potential in the dangers of the jungle, which weren't responsible for her death as believed but rather by the hand of the man now out for her own blood. Despite her mother's efforts to protect her child, she puts herself in the position to be shot and pays the price, while her daughter still inevitably becomes paralyzed; however, now instead as a result of fighting the same man linked to her from inside the womb.
CONTINUE READING FULL REVIEW ON LETTERBOXD: find me on there! RollTide1931.
Dakota Johnson by nature of Cassie Web is actually an apt casting choice given her characters in the other films I've seen of hers so far and why she works so well in those. In A Bigger Splash her mysteriousness keeps her at a dangerous distance where her intentions are self serving and destructive. In her second collaboration with Luca Guadagnino with his remake of Argento's SUSPIRIA, she's a foreigner out of her element that taps into her element by way of becoming a conduit for female empowerment through self expression as her character literally opens her heart to us as she ascends into becoming a mater of magic. She is quite delightful in How to Stay Single - a title telling yet again of her loner like status. Even in the 50 Shades series, what draws her suitor is her aloof allure - so casting Dakota in another such role seems to make sense given her filmography.
Cassie Web is a child born from murder, and that initial trauma has imprinted an everlasting impact on her existence. Although bitter towards her self-sacrificing mother seemingly placing the chance to save thousands ahead of being alive to parent her own baby, Cassie still instinctually spends her life dedicated to saving others just like she thought her mom was doing. Although an altruistic occupation would imply inherent selflessness, she rather not get entangled in the lives she saves, always choosing instead heroism at a distance. With a need for speed and a penchant for pushing the petal to the metal, Cassie's career choice may even be a mask for her cathartic road rage as she swerves the roads in her racing ambulance adrenaline rush. She may appear to be a cold hearted hero, but like the other characters she plays, her loner emotions keep guarded laying low - in Cassie's case tucked away inside a memory box underneath her bed. But she does keep Julia's stepbrother's drawing and digs into her painful memories of her mother's research journal as she places the boy's token of appreciation with the rest of her mementos - so she's not wholly trying to lock away her memories and throw away the key.
She does still have a part of her heart that cares. As a foster child due to her mom's death, she sees herself apart from others on the outside looking in, which is why she finds comradarie in a fellow stray soul neighborhood kitty that winds up in her window every evening. Another comicbook character adaptation that connects to cats is similarly Catwoman, with her post work walkins into her apartment talking aloud to the feral felines waiting for their milk dish as she divulges the difficulties of her day to the captive audience kitties as they eat. Cassie also confides in her stray cat she's somewhat adopted after a long day's work when she finds connecting easier to a silent listener than human interaction. Dakota plays Cassie's character with what could be claimed as a wooden performance, but as a first responder surrounded by death daily, it would make sense to have a cooly calm and collected demeanor amongst chaos. Her lack of emoting enthusiasm would be in line with the character's struggle with empathy and her inability to emotionally connect with others.
Madame Web's familial nemesis, on the other hand, is a stone cold one note written persona that when combined with Cassie's already lukewarm demeanor makes for a lack of charisma between the two opposing characters. Conceptually this shadow Spider-man prototype has a lot of potential being the first of his kind before Peter Parker but being a bad guy first before New York gets their hero later. Ezekiel's selfishness serves to epitomize the essence of a villain, someone willing to kill others for the sake of saving himself; whereas, Spider-Man and Madame Web both imbue bravery as the embodiment of heroics in their selflessness by casting aside their safety for the sake of saving someone else.
Ezekiel as a villain checks off all the basic bad guy bullets marks, deep menacing voice, perma-scowl plotting and a maniacal single mindedness - but a better use of his screen time would have been subbing Ezekiel's excessively repetitive exposition in place of more action sequences of him stalking the shadows of his nightmares in waking life. A benefit to not giving him a ton of time for character development does draw more focus to Cassie's character arc as well as moments to bond with her adopted band of abandoned adolescents who are ultimately the main storylines to invest time in.
Zosia Mamet as his hacker for hire geek squad gone rogue is serviceable in the role, but only has the same reminder of Ezekiel's plan to respond to - perhaps a missed opportunity to play into more of a mixed morality in the storyline with her character if she had flipped sides by gaining a conscience and betraying the man plodding to punish a bunch of teens. That twist could have maybe justified the amount of times the audience is reminded how important it is for Ezekiel to find and put an abrupt end to the girls, as each time her character hears it, it seems less appealing to be a part of. Instead Ezekiel's side kick seems to all together disappear in the story after her boss clocks out early.
The storylines and characters do hold some conceptual cinematic weight when analyzing the arcs intersecting between hero and villain. Ezekiel has wasted his whole life trying to avoid a fate he cannot escape while failing to see the true threat which he self actualizes by stealing the spider, shooting her mom and bringing all the girls together because of them trying to escape his hunt. By pursuing the path he plotted in which to avoid his fate, much like Oedipus, Ezekiel provokes his own prophecy into fruition, though ironically it is Cassie who ends up blinded even though she can see more clearly than he ever could.
There is an intriguing play on the Sophocles story of Oedipus Rex between both opposing characters. The blind prophet of the stage play reveals the truth to Oedipus about his past actions and prophesizes his self induced blindness. Ezekiel holds the key to Cassie unlocking the truth behind her mother's motives and murder, but if he who is blind to her transformation into Madame Web. Like Oedipus's pride blinding him to the consequences of his own actions , Ezekiel's anger and fear of inevitable death becomes his own grave in the making. He sees incorrectly as if he were blind, whereas Cassie becomes literally blind by the end, unlocking an ultimate sight seer ability. The irony is, as a self accepted loner, she didn't see herself in the position of a matriarch to misfits nor assuming the unwanted title of superhero; and simultaneously, her antagonist misses seeing Madame Web coming either.
Cassie Web has an almost inverted twist of fate, in that she doesn't escape her inevitability - instead of dissolving into self destruction in an act of avoiding a doomed destiny, she embraces what's to come and the change with it which ultimately leads to self empowerment. Cassie discovers she was always meant to be paralyzed from her prenatal diagnosed disease, and that her seemingly overly selfless mother secretly had a more personal motive for seeking uncovered medicinal potential in the dangers of the jungle, which weren't responsible for her death as believed but rather by the hand of the man now out for her own blood. Despite her mother's efforts to protect her child, she puts herself in the position to be shot and pays the price, while her daughter still inevitably becomes paralyzed; however, now instead as a result of fighting the same man linked to her from inside the womb.
CONTINUE READING FULL REVIEW ON LETTERBOXD: find me on there! RollTide1931.
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