The funny thing about watching audiences calm down after big-budget comic book adaptations in recent years is how, if you lived through the early years, it almost seems like things are going back to the way they used to be. After years of Marvel big-box stores dominating the box office, it's been easy to forget how blatantly unserious these types of projects tend to be outside of the handful that put the gender in the map.
But before the rise of the MCU, Bad Comic Book Movies (projects that didn't take themselves or their source material all that seriously) were generally the rule rather than the exception. And while they might not have been great, they were the kind of movies that audiences knew how to have fun with.
It's only since Multiverses became the hottest new thing in Hollywood. that studios have even felt comfortable acknowledging (and tapping into people's nostalgia for) those halcyon days when Spider-Man's web was organic. But unlike other recent Sony products Spiderman features that have focused more on bringing in specific characters and actors from past franchises, director SJ Clarkson lady web is much more interested in revisiting a specific moment in comic book movie history, one defined by dubious costumes, baffling plots, and a palpable sense of on-screen embarrassment.
Set in a curious pocket of the larger Spider-verse of Sony movies, where it's still 2003 and Spider-Man himself doesn't exist. lady web tells the story of Cassandra Webb, a sharp-tongued paramedic whose life takes a series of strange turns one day when she (briefly) dies while saving a man's life. As an adult orphan whose mother died in the Amazon while researching spiders, Cassandra has difficulty connecting emotionally with anyone other than her colleague Ben Parker (Adam Scott), or the stray cat who regularly wanders into her apartment in the city of NY.
But after a routine emergency rescue leads Cassie to plummet to her death, she awakens to find herself imbued with an ill-defined set of precognitive powers, and though she has no idea what to do with her alarming visions, she soon finds herself imbued with an ill-defined set of precognitive powers. It becomes clear that Everyone is leading her toward a trio of young girls.
Disorienting exposition changes in a film's opening act are almost always a warning sign, but the way lady web Clumsily juxtaposing a flashback to Cassandra's past with glimpses of her charges' future almost makes it seem like the filmmakers are trying to prevent you from understanding what's going on. Although his motivations are unclear, it is quite simple to understand them. lady webIn the opening minutes, perpetually barefoot explorer Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) is eager to kill three masked women wearing spider-themed superhero costumes. He is empty lady web wants you to wonder who the Sims' targets are and why they don't use their powers to stop him in his tracks.
But instead of revealing their identities, the film simply dumps Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie Franklin (Celeste O'Connor), and Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced) into Cassandra's lap for about half an hour at a time when they already There are many other things happening.
Sony's plan to build an entire cinematic universe just with the Spider-Man IP I've always felt a little doubtful, but in lady webWith the younger protagonists, you can almost see how the plan works. could work. Like Cassandra, all the girls have been orphaned (at least emotionally) and need someone to guide them through the craziness of being a teenager.
You can also see how the girls' underdeveloped personality quirks could one day make them an interesting Spider-Women team, and how lady webIt's really a story about Cassandra taking on her role as mentor to a fun new generation of heroes. But as present as that narrative intention is, the film doesn't really prepare its characters to feel like true actors in a cohesive story, and the girls end up being relegated to the background, first when they are presented as something out of the ordinary. -The extras focus on the periphery of Cassandra's story, and later when she takes the girls under her wing to protect them from the Sims… abandoning them in the woods.
Between its frenetic scenarios in which the camera lens never seems to decide where it wants to focus and the way in which lady webThe script jumps quickly between scenes, it's obvious that the filmmakers are trying to make you feel some of the deep confusion that Cassandra herself is experiencing. Although the execution is a little off, it's a smart idea, and to the film's credit, Cassandra's visions of being killed by a Spider-Man knockoff are clearly disturbing. But as long as lady web happens to tell you that Cassandra is terrified of her and the girls' lives, you'd be hard-pressed to get that impression from Johnson's deadpan performance and the way she portrays her character as someone who approaches most situations with a pronounced sense of apathy. .
when you look lady web As a modern comic book movie, made knowing how much money these things can make, it's hard to understand many of the decisions that were made. But the movie makes a hell of a lot more sense when you consider it not just as a movie set in 2003, but as one that attempts to evoke the comic book movie vibes of that era. The signs are there practically from the jump, but it's not until Mis-Teeq's “Scandalous” appears during an action sequence that it becomes shockingly obvious how much lady web has in common with 2004 catwoman starring Halle Berry in terms of both films feeling like doomed failures from the start.
Instead of any of the previous Sony Spiderman derivative movies, the confusing way lady web The reworking of Julia, Mattie, and Anya's origins makes the film feel much more like something outside of the era that the first one gave us. Reckless movie and Fantastic four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer. People like to look back fondly on that point in superhero movie history because enough time has passed for those movies to move into cult classic territory. But the simple truth is that, for quite some time, big-budget cape projects failed as often as they succeeded, and with lady web being technically a continuation of morbium and a precursor of Kraven the hunterIt's fair to say that Sony definitely returned to that era.
lady web It also stars Mike Epps, Emma Roberts and Zosia Mamet. The film is already in theaters.
