Madame Web, the latest installment of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, hit theatres in India on 16 February. The film, starring Dakota Johnson in the lead, is being praised for the lead actor’s performance but has also led to some scathing reviews (is it really ‘worse than Morbius’?). Here is what critics have said about Madame Web (and it’s a fairly mixed bag).
“From its lack of stakes to its absence of style, and from its laughable CGI to its palpable discomfort with the rhythms and tropes of its genre, “Madame Web” is a superhero movie that feels like it was made by and for people who have never seen a modern superhero movie. In theory, that might have been a blessing in disguise. In practice, only (Dakota) Johnson is able to make it seem that way.”David Ehrlich, Indie Wire
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"Still, within these oversaturated times for comic book movies, “Madame Web” is blissfully breezy in its pacing, which helps make it a more enjoyable watch than some of the super-serious, end-of-the-world fare we often see."Christy Lemire, RoberEbert.com
“It could make for an interesting exercise, pitting someone with knowledge and foresight but no physical gifts against Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim), a proto-Spider-Man villain who can climb walls, punch hard, and poison with his touch. But Madame Web, helmed by prolific British TV director S. J. Clarkson, can’t come up with a remotely exciting way to pit these two against each other.”Alison Willmore for Vulture
“At times, the movie has the moody feel of a supernatural suspense thriller, not a comic-book-style showdown. (By the way, that’s not a complaint.)....“Madame Web” is no blockbuster, but in its own quiet way, it manages to break down a few barriers.”Michael O'Sullivan, The Washington Post
“Superhero films are not dead (just today the trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine broke a YouTube record) but the age of superhero films like Madame Web surely is – soulless boardroom product made by no one who seems to care for no one who wants to watch.”Benjamin Lee, The Guardian
“(Dakota) Johnson and (Sydney) Sweeney bring an endearing irreverence to their characters that could be read as camp, if needed. There are signs (loose ends, really) that “Madame Web” wanted to be more ambitious and eccentric than it turned out.”Peter Debruge, Variety
“(Susan) Sontag wrote that to talk about camp is to betray it, and she’s right. It’s impossible to persuasively describe the bad-good charms of “Madame Web,” an appreciation of which requires the kind of sensibility that celebrates the unnatural, the artificial, the exaggeratedly “off.” Johnson gets it, and for those who do as well, it’s kind of a thrill to get tangled in her web.”Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times
“...the movie is marginally competent at its best, and at its worst, it’s an incoherent mishmash populated by slumming movie stars who make little effort to disguise the dawning realization that they’ve made a terrible mistake. It’s a travesty, a disaster, a blight on the history of superheroes and cinema itself. I enjoyed the hell out of it.”Sam Adams, SLATE
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