Dumb Things You Can't Ignore In Madame Web
Bad voice dubs, a woeful third act, and the weirdest villain motivation of all time — this movie must have been in the Amazon with Cassie's mom when she was researching spiders right before she died, because it's got some problems.
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00:00 Bad voice dubs, a woeful third act, and the weirdest villain motivation of all time.
00:06 This movie must have been in the Amazon with Cassie's mom when she was researching spiders
00:10 right before she died, because it's got some problems.
00:13 Perhaps the most glaring issue even casual audiences will notice in Madame Webb is the
00:18 poor ADR throughout most of the movie.
00:21 ADR, or automated dialogue replacement, is a routine procedure during the post-production
00:25 of films, in which actors are brought in to overdub lines of dialogue recorded on set
00:30 in a professional studio.
00:31 This is often done to correct mistakes, service script changes, or help sound mixing on a
00:36 loud location.
00:37 In the case of films like Madame Webb, poor ADR can be very noticeable, as actors' mouth
00:42 movements will not match the words they're speaking.
00:44 This is especially the case with Tahar Rahim's performance as the film's antagonist, Ezekiel
00:50 Sims, who, when not shrouded in conveniently placed shadows, clearly did a below-average
00:54 job in properly overdubbing his lines.
00:56 Or perhaps the blame should be placed on the editors who haphazardly allowed those sloppy
01:00 dialogue scenes to flood the finished film.
01:03 In the wake of the film's release, publications such as The Daily Beast tried to find an explanation
01:08 for the poor voice dubbing.
01:09 Critic Nick Shager claims,
01:11 "Rahim is a native French speaker, but that's no excuse for the awfulness of his largely
01:15 ADR'd line readings, which sound as if they've been filtered through an AI voice program."
01:20 However, the likeliest scenario is that the characters' lines were completely rewritten
01:24 in post-production, and rather than reshoot the scenes, the filmmakers opted to take the
01:29 cheap way out.
01:30 Spider-Man
01:31 The very first Marvel comic featuring Spider-Man was published in 1962, and since then, the
01:36 character has become one of the most popular superheroes of all time.
01:40 "Hey everyone."
01:41 Countless comic book characters have taken on the mantle of Spider-Man, Spider-Woman,
01:45 or some other variation on the name.
01:47 With volumes and volumes of Spider-Man comic history to draw from, you'd think Sony wouldn't
01:52 have to bother making up lore that is not only unnecessary but also completely undermines
01:56 the franchise they've built up.
01:58 That's basically what happens early on in Madame Webb, however.
02:01 When Cassandra's pregnant mother Constance is attacked in the Amazon while researching
02:06 spiders, she's rescued by a tribe of Peruvian spider people, who are said to have gained
02:10 superpowers from spiders, allowing them to crawl on walls and see into the future.
02:15 These spider people are essentially responsible for helping a dying Constance give birth to
02:20 Cassie.
02:21 There are a million things wrong with this plot point, the least of which being that
02:24 it completely throws away Peter Parker's own origin story and instead makes him technically
02:28 guilty of cultural appropriation.
02:31 The closest comic book president to this was the South American Spider-Clan, who appear
02:35 in a 2001 comic and kidnap Peter, though the obvious allusions to the Spider-Man costume
02:40 in this tribe from Madame Webb are far from the same thing.
02:43 Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2
02:44 Antagonists are often the most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to making comic
02:48 book movies.
02:49 Sadly, the villain of Madame Webb is perhaps one of its weakest qualities.
02:52 Sims bears few resemblances to his comic book counterpart, and here he's portrayed as a
02:56 successful businessman who has gained similar powers to Spider-Man.
03:00 Audiences are introduced to Ezekiel early on, though his motivations are pretty vague.
03:05 He inadvertently kills Cassie's mother while trying to steal a mutated Peruvian spider,
03:10 because when he's seen later on in the future, he possesses a venomous touch and can crawl
03:14 on walls.
03:15 Ezekiel can also see the future, having constant night terrors of his own death at the hands
03:20 of spider-women, sparing him to hunt a trio of teenage girls down to kill them before
03:24 they get their powers.
03:25 However, audiences may struggle to understand Ezekiel.
03:29 He claims to have come from nothing but never elaborates.
03:32 He's a rich businessman, but his actual profession is unexplained.
03:35 Furthermore, in his visions of his death, he appears as an old man.
03:39 So why is he in such a rush to kill off this trio of spider-women?
03:43 Early on in Madame Webb, a title card reads "2003," indicating that the film takes place
03:48 in that year.
03:49 However, the film is apparently not entirely confident in the impact of that title card,
03:54 because the rest of the movie is filled with overbearing pop culture references that allude
03:58 to its setting.
03:59 The first of these comes during Cassandra's high-speed ambulance drive through Queens
04:03 at the start of the movie, where one shot lingers on a passing blockbuster video store.
04:08 "Wow!"
04:09 "Wow!"
04:10 "Wow!"
04:11 Another reference to the film's 2003 setting occurs during one action scene set to Britney
04:15 Spears' "Toxic" from her 2003 album In the Zone.
04:19 Mid-fight, Cassie's car radio is interrupted by a DJ who actually straight-up explains
04:24 that Britney Spears is going to be huge.
04:26 Besides the fact that Britney Spears had already put out two of the best-selling albums of
04:30 all time by 2003, this actually complicates the Madame Webb timeline even more.
04:35 Although In the Zone was released in November 2003, Toxic wasn't sent to radio until January
04:40 2004, meaning that this DJ was playing a deep-cut album track that hadn't been made an official
04:46 single yet.
04:47 Now that's clairvoyant.
04:49 It's not every day that a child is born after her pregnant mother is shot in the Amazon
04:53 and rescued by Peruvian spider people.
04:56 The more interesting story in Cassie's life, however, might be how she went from a mystical
05:00 cave in Peru to becoming a paramedic in Queens.
05:03 Sadly, that's never examined in Madame Webb.
05:06 The film immediately jump-cuts from her birth to an adult Cassandra driving an ambulance
05:10 with Ben Parker, of all people.
05:12 Cassie later clarifies via exposition-heavy dialogue that she grew up in the foster home
05:16 system, raising further questions as to how these Peruvian spider people got her there.
05:21 On the bright side, Cassie has an affection for her experience as a foster child, which
05:25 serves no purpose but to bond her with the other future spider women.
05:29 And if you thought it couldn't get more confusing, you'd be wrong.
05:32 Cassie later learns that, prior to her birth, Constance learns that Cassie would be born
05:36 with myasthenia gravis, the condition that paralyzed the comic book version of Madame
05:40 Webb.
05:41 Constance nevertheless resumed her research in the Amazon despite her unborn child's illness,
05:46 but it was Cassie's birth by spider people that apparently cured her of the disorder
05:50 anyway.
05:51 The Sony Spider-Man universe is a confusing cinematic endeavor, to say the least, as the
05:56 company has lent the rights to the character, played by Tom Holland, to Marvel Studios and
06:00 the MCU.
06:01 As a result, Sony's own productions don't include Peter Parker at all, instead pulling
06:05 supporting characters and villains from the comics as their central focus.
06:09 However, Madame Webb is the exception.
06:12 As compared to Morbius or Venom, it holds a more direct connection to the story of Peter
06:16 Parker.
06:17 In fact, Madame Webb goes to drastic lengths to clue the audience in on the impending fate
06:21 of Peter Parker.
06:22 Adam Scott appears as Cassie's paramedic partner, Ben Parker, whose death will later motivate
06:27 his nephew Peter's superhero adventures.
06:29 Ben's heavily pregnant sister Mary, Peter's mother, also appears.
06:33 When Mary is first introduced, she apologizes to Cassie after her baby kicks, not-so-subtly
06:38 claiming "he keeps leaping around in there."
06:40 Get it?
06:41 "I understood that reference."
06:43 And then, of course, the film's entire final act also revolves around Mary going into labor
06:48 and needing to get to the hospital.
06:50 It's quite a mind-bending experience when Ezekiel, wearing a Spider-Man costume, nearly
06:54 kills them.
06:55 Had either Mary or Ben survived to see Peter's Spider-Man suit in the future, they'd likely
07:00 have all sorts of questions for him.
07:03 If Madame Webb isn't going to flex a strong villain, the least it could do is give its
07:06 protagonist an interesting character arc.
07:09 Sadly, that's not really present in Sony's film, either, as Cassandra suffers some weirdly
07:13 contradictory characterization.
07:15 When she's introduced in the present day, Cassandra is a paramedic in Queens, and despite
07:20 some awkward interactions with patients, she seems genuinely good at her job.
07:24 However, her desire to save others apparently only goes so far.
07:28 Once Cassandra coincidentally ends up on the same train as Julia Cornwall, Mattie Franklin,
07:33 and Anya Corazon, and experiences a vision of the three being killed by Ezekiel Sims,
07:37 she immediately leaps to action.
07:39 However, once they all escape, Cassandra acts persistently annoyed by the girls' bickering
07:44 and expresses a desire to drop them off at their parents' homes.
07:47 Most likely, Cassandra's ambivalence towards the safety of these girls speaks to the filmmakers'
07:52 desire to recreate a moral revolving around responsibility.
07:55 It still feels unlikely for a professional paramedic to be so careless and cavalier when
08:00 it comes to three teenage girls in danger, however.
08:04 Madame Webb should be a triumphant moment in the history of Spider-Man movies, as it
08:07 features the live-action debut of not one, but three Spider-Women.
08:11 The first trailers showed glimpses of the actresses in spider suits, giving some fans
08:15 a hope of at least some connection to the comics.
08:18 Those fans' hopes were likely dashed upon seeing Madame Webb, in which these costumes
08:22 only appear for a few minutes of screen time at most, first at the very start of the movie
08:27 and again at the very end.
08:28 Furthermore, by the end of the film, the trio of future Spider-Women hasn't even gotten
08:33 their powers, though it's implied that Cassandra can see into the future far enough to know
08:37 that they will still become superheroes.
08:39 And Cassandra's own red superhero jumpsuit, shown in promotional images for Madame Webb,
08:44 doesn't make an appearance until the final moment.
08:46 At least comic book fans get to see Cassandra in a wheelchair with glasses at some point,
08:51 as a small nod to Madame Webb's appearance in the comics.
08:54 The phrase "with great power comes great responsibility" is the flagship motto of the Spider-Man character,
09:00 dating back to the very first appearance of the character in 1962.
09:04 It has since become a thematic throughline of most Spider-Man stories, whether it be
09:08 comics, video games, or movies.
09:10 "With great power comes great responsibility."
09:14 "With great power, there must also come great responsibility."
09:18 "With great power comes great responsibility."
09:20 "Don't you dare finish that sentence.
09:23 Don't do it.
09:24 I'm sick of it."
09:25 The line's emotional resonance with fans cannot be understated, so it makes sense that Madame
09:29 Webb would try to reinterpret it.
09:31 However, like many things in this film, it doesn't do a great job.
09:34 In Cassandra's meeting with Santiago, the Peruvian Spider-Person, she is told that when
09:39 she takes on responsibility, "great power" will come.
09:42 This is not the same thing as "with great power comes great responsibility," of course.
09:46 As Madame Webb seems to imply, it's only after Cassandra accepts responsibility that she's
09:51 granted power.
09:52 That's the exact opposite of the original message, which is that those who are lucky enough to
09:56 have power should know how to use it for good.
09:58 For a line that's been so cleverly interpreted in the various Spider-Man films made by Sony,
10:03 it's weird that this reversal completely ignores the pathos behind the original proverb.
10:09 After her brief excursion to Peru, Cassie has no trouble getting back to New York City
10:13 in time to stop Ezekiel's plan to kill Julia, Mattie, and Anya.
10:17 The girls end up stuck in traffic with Ben Parker and Mary on the way to the hospital
10:21 to give birth to Peter Parker, as Cassie steals an ambulance to catch up with them.
10:25 Desperate to stop Ezekiel, Cassie ends up driving the ambulance through a well-placed
10:29 piece of Calvin Klein product placement and hitting Ezekiel in midair, knocking him out
10:34 of the way of Ben's car.
10:35 As Ben and Mary escape to the hospital, Cassie takes the three girls to a fireworks warehouse,
10:39 where they hold off Ezekiel by blowing up fireworks and escape to the rooftop to meet
10:44 with the rescue helicopter.
10:45 The problem here, though, is that Cassie's visions guide her through saving the girls
10:49 and herself, spoiling the audience on each stage of this climactic final battle and totally
10:53 removing any tension.
10:55 It's obvious that Madden Web is a huge mess of an action movie, whether it's through nonsensical
11:00 plot decisions or poor filmmaking choices.
11:02 At the very least, though, the final battle contains the film's one sorta-cool moment,
11:07 when Cassie astral projects herself to save all three Spider-Women at once.
11:11 (outro)