#IReadsYou Movie Review: MADAME WEB

Madame Web (2024)

Running time:  117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for violence/action and language

DIRECTOR:  S.J. Clarkson

WRITERS:  Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless and Claire Parker & S.J. Clarkson; from a story by Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless and Kerem Sanga (based on the Marvel Comics)

PRODUCER:  Lorenzo di Bonaventura

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Mauro Fiore (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Leigh Folsom Boyd

COMPOSER:  Johan Soderqvist

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/HORROR/ACTION

Starring:  Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O'Connor, Tahar Rahim, Adam Scott, Emma Roberts, Kerry Bishé, Zosia Mamet, José María Yazpik, and Mike Epps

Madame Web is a 2024 superhero fantasy, horror, and action film directed by S.J. Clarkson.  The movie is based on the Marvel Comics character, Madame Webb/Cassandra Webb, that was created by writer Denny O'Neil and artist John Romita Jr. and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #210 (cover dated: November 1980).  This is also the fourth film in “Sony's Spider-Man Universe” (SSU) series.  Madame Web the movie focuses on a NYC paramedic who starts having visions of a shadowy figure hunting three young women.

Madame Web opens in 1973 in the jungles of Peru.  There, scientist Constance Webb (Kerry Bishe) searches for a rare spider deep in the Amazon.  At her side is her assistant, Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim), who has plans of his own.  They are also surrounded by legends and rumors of “Las Arañas,” a secret Peruvian tribe in which its members have spider powers.  In the end, discovery leads to betrayal, death, and birth.

Thirty years later, New York City, 2003, Constance's daughter, Cassandra “Cassie” Webb (Dakota Johnson) is a paramedic.  An accident causes Cassie to start having strange visions, which she comes to believe are clairvoyant.  These visions of the future feature three young women:  Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O'Connor) being hunted by a mysterious figure.  This man wears a costume; he has enhanced strength and speed; and he can crawl on walls and ceilings like a spider.  Forced to confront her past and her psychic abilities, Cassie must safeguard these three young women before this deadly adversary murders them.

Madame Web is fourth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe following Venom (2018), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), and Morbius (2022).  In my estimation, dear readers, Madame Webb is the second best of the quartet behind only the original Venom.

In fact, Madame Webb isn't the “worst film ever,” “absolutely horrible,” or any of the over-the-top things haters and trolls are saying on social media.  It isn't a great film, but Madame Web is quite entertaining.  However, I have ideas about why this new film is getting so much hate.  One reason is that there is a corner of social media that is dedicated to dissing films that are largely led by women characters.  We saw this in the vitriol and invective directed at the 2016 Ghostbusters film and Marvel Studios' recent target, The Marvels.  There are also some structural and narrative reasons that might irritate some viewers, and in order to talk about them, I will have to give you, dear readers, a...

SPOILERS WARNING:  Madame Web is a hybrid of superheroes, dark fantasy, horror, action, and mysticism.  On the superhero end, only the adversary trying to kill the three young women wears a costume.  Sometime in the future of Madame Web's timeline, Julia Cornwall, Anya Corazon, and Mattie Franklin will each be a version of the hero, Spider-Woman, but now they are not.  We only see them in their respective costumes in Cassie's visions of the future.  Still, in the main body of the story, each actress plays her respective character as if she takes her role seriously.  The trio is fun and rebellious, and their energy makes this film hop when it starts to drag.

On the action end, Madame Web has car chases and crashes and eye-crossing fights.  The film's mystical angle comes across as a bit hokey, especially when Cassie talks about her powers.  However, when Cassie's visions kick-in, they are trippy, confusing, and disorienting; they come and go in so many alternate versions with horror movie intensity.

Madame Web certainly could have been a better film had the main male characters had more development.  Screen time isn't the issue.  Adam Scott's Ben Parker, to whom you should pay attention, is more errand boy than friend, and the bad guy often comes across as a stock villain.

That said Madame Web is an entertaining film, and Dakota Johnson is good as Cassie Webb, considering neither her character nor this film in general has the benefit of a strong screenplay.  Madame Webb is a slightly above-average comic book movie, and it should entertain most fans of superhero movies... except those with culture war agendas.

B

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

The text is copyright © 2024 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Movie Review: MORBIUS

Morbius (2022)

Running time:  104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, some frightening images, and brief strong language
DIRECTOR:  Daniel Espinosa
WRITERS:  Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless; from a story by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (based on the Marvel Comics)
PRODUCERS:  Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Lucas Foster
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Oliver Wood
EDITOR:  Pietro Scalia
COMPOSER:  Joe Ekstrand

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/HORROR/ACTION

Starring:  Jared Leto, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Matt Smith, Al Madrigal, Charlie Shotwell, Joseph Esson, and Tyrese Harris and Michael Keaton

Morbius is a 2022 superhero fantasy-horror and action film directed by Daniel Espinosa.  The movie is based on the Marvel Comics character, “Morbius, the Living Vampire”/Dr. Michael Morbius, which was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 (cover dated: October 1971).  This is also the third film in “Sony's Spider-Man Universe” (SSU) series.  Morbius the film focuses on a scientist who tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease but instead turns himself into a new kind of vampire.

Morbius introduces Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto).  He is a genius, a scientist, and has a talent for fabricating technology.  He is also suffering from a rare blood disease and has spent his adult life looking for a cure to that disease which often kills those afflicted with it at a young age.  Michael is 35-years-old, and he recently refused a Nobel Prize.

Michael is currently engaged in illegal experiments involving vampire bats that he stole from a cave in Costa Rica.  Although she is critical of him for these experiments, Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona), Michael's fellow scientist and girlfriend, works with him.  Once he believes that he has finally created the cure for his rare blood disease, Michael injects himself with the formula.  Michael's body is transformed into that of an Olympic-level athlete, but the cure also turns him into a vampire – one with a powerful blood lust.  Now, the bodies of people with the blood drained from their bodies are being found all over the city.  Is Morbius the killer … or is Morbius responsible?

Morbius is about Morbius.  The only other character that this film allows any traction is Martine Bancroft.  It isn't that the screenplay is shallow; I find that it attempts a serious contemplation of both Dr. Michael Morbius' character and Morbius the vampire's dilemma.  I wish the film's story had taken more time with the two FBI agents hunting Morbius, comic relief Alberto “Al” Rodriguez (Al Madrigal) and the really serious Black man, Simon Stroud (Tyrese Gibson).

Morbius may be Jared Leto's best performance in a film in years.  I prefer Leto's Dr. Michael Morbius to “Rayon,” the drug addicted, HIV-positive trans woman he played in the 2013 film, Dallas Buyers Club.  Leto won a “Best Supporting Actor” Oscar for playing Rayon, a character I found shallow.  In Morbius, Leto's good looks, his vanity, his obvious acting talent, and his imaginative approach to fashioning characters and performances serve both him and film, quite well.  I found both Dr. Michael Morbius and Morbius the vampire to be endlessly fascinating characters and not at all shallow.

It feels weird for me to recommend this film for Jared Leto's performance, but I am.  Morbius is officially part of a superhero film universe.  Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Michael Keaton) from the 2017 film, Spider-Man: Homecoming, even makes an appearance in Morbius in order to solidify some connections between Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).  That connection thrills the fanboy in me.  I like Morbius, and I am giving it a higher grade than I probably would.  And that is because of Jared Leto's outstanding work in Morbius

B

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Movie Review: SPIDER-MAN: No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Running time: 148 minutes (2 hours, 28 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of action/violence, some language and brief suggestive comments
DIRECTOR: Jon Watts
WRITERS: Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (based upon the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko)
PRODUCERS: Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mauro Fiore (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Leigh Folsom Boyd and Jeffrey Ford
COMPOSER: Michael Giacchino

SUPERHERO/DRAMA/ACTION/ROMANCE

Starring:  Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx,Willem DaFoe, Alfred Molina, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, Angourie Rice, Arian Moayed, Hannibal Buress, Martin Starr, J.B. Smoove, J.K. Simmons, Thomas Hayden Church, Rhys Ifans, Charlie Cox, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire

Spider-Man: No Way Home is a 2021 superhero film and drama from director Jon Watts.  It is the eighth film in Columbia Picture's Spider-Man film franchise, and it is the third entry in a film trilogy that began with 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming.  No Way Home is also a co-production between Columbia and Marvel Studios, making it the 27th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  In No Way Home, Peter Parker turns to fellow Avenger, Doctor Strange, for help in making the world forget that he is Spider-Man, with disastrous results.

Spider-Man: No Way Home opens one week after the events depicted in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).  Peter Parker's (Tom Holland) identity as Spider-Man has been revealed to the world, and Spider-Man has been framed for the murder of Mysterio/Quentin Beck, whom some in the public see as a hero and a warrior.  Although his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) takes the news better than expected, Peter is stilled concerned with how the news is affecting the lives of his girlfriend, Michelle “MJ” Jones-Watson (Zendaya), and his best friend, Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon).

Peter turns to Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help.  He asks Doctor Strange to cast a mystic spell that will make the world forget that he is Spider-Man, but Strange's mentor and friend, Wong (Benedict Wong), warns him about casting such a spell.  Strange casts the spell anyway, but Peter damages it by constantly asking for changes in who can remember him, which destabilizes the magic.  That in turn destabilizes the multiverse, causing cracks in reality.  Yes, the multiverse is real, and now, people from other universes who know that Peter is Spider-Man start showing up in Peter's world.  And that includes some dangerous villains who have previously engaged Spider-Man in death matches.  Peter does not know any of them, but he is determined to save them from their fates.  Is our young hero willing to pay the costs and make the sacrifices that it will take to make everything right in this world and in the wider multiverse?

Sony Pictures is determined to keep social media and media in general from spoiling the many surprises contained in its film, Spider-Man: No Way Home.  The film does a number of things very well, but it does two things particularly well.  Talking about the first could reveal spoilers, so what I will say is that this film gives us the appearances by certain characters and actors that many of us have wanted since we first heard the rumors that this film would deal with the multiverse.  Most of the character appearances are not cameos, and they contribute significantly to No Way Home.  The audience which with I saw No Way Home this past evening cheered with gusto for each special appearance.  They cheered as much as I ever heard an audience cheer during a superhero film.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is a joint production between Sony Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures' Marvel Studios.  One of the many things that Marvel's films do well is character development and drama.  No Way Home is the first film in the Sony/Marvel Spider-Man trilogy in which Peter Parker is confronted with the high costs of being Spider-Man.  Until this film, he has been relatively unscathed., but now, he learns that the decisions he makes can have ruinous consequences.  He suffers humiliations, setbacks, and heartbreaking loss.  He learns that with great power there must come great responsibility, and he learns that true heroes often make tremendous personal sacrifices for the benefit of others.  In No Way Home, Spider-Man becomes a man.

Don't get me wrong.  Spider-Man: No Way Home is certainly a true crowd-pleaser, and it is also one of the best films that I have seen this year.  As Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Tom Holland gives a wonderful performance in a film that requires him to express a wide range of emotions, sometimes from one extreme to another.  Holland, in layers, with textures, and with art, shows us the evolution of Spider-Man and especially of Peter Parker.  Spider-Man: No Way Home is one for the ages, and it is a great way to end one Spider-Man trilogy … so that the next one can come home.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Movie Review: VENOM: Let There Be Carnage

Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

Running time:  97 minutes (1 hour, 37 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some strong language, disturbing material and suggestive references
DIRECTOR:  Andy Serkis
WRITERS:  Kelly Marcel; from a story by Kelly Marcel and Tom Hardy (based on the Marvel Comics)
PRODUCERS:  Avi Arad, Amy Pascal, Matt Tolmach, Tom Hardy, Kelly Marcel, and Hutch Parker
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Robert Richardson (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Maryann Brandon and Stan Salfas
COMPOSER:  Marco Beltrami

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/ACTION

Starring:  Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Reid Scott, Stephen Graham, Peggy Lu, Little Simz, Jack Bandeira, Olumide Olorunfemi, and Woody Harrelson

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is a 2021 superhero fantasy-action film directed by Andy Serkis.  The film is based on the Marvel Comics super-villain/anti-hero characters, Eddie Brock/Venom, to which several comic book writers, artists, and editors contributed in the creation, most especially artist Todd McFarlane and writer David Michelinie.  This film is a direct sequel to the 2018 film, Venom, and it is also the second film in “Sony's Spider-Man Universe” series.  In Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Eddie Brock and Venom face a new symbiote, a violent monster more powerful than Venom.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage opens in “St. Estes Home for Unwanted Children,” circa 1996.  There, young Cletus Kasady (Jack Bandeira) watches helplessly as his love, young Frances Barrison (Olumide Olorunfemi), is taken away.  She will be placed at the “Ravencroft Institute,” where she will be experimented upon because of her special power, her ability to emit a sonic scream.

In the present day, police Detective Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham) contacts Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), who is attempting to revive his journalism career.  Mulligan asks Brock to speak to Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson), now a serial killer who sits on death row and awaits execution.  Kasady refuses to talk to anyone other than Brock.  Kasady invites Brock to attend his execution, but Brock uses the visit to benefit himself.  Kasady sees Brock's actions as betrayal.

Meanwhile, Brock and the symbiote, Venom, have hit a wall in their relationship.  Each believes that the other does not really appreciate what he brings to the relationship.  Plus, Brock's ex-fiancée, Anne Weying (Michelle Williams), tells him that she is now engaged to Dr. Dan Lewis (Reid Scott).  This news and his cantankerous relationship with Venom lead Brock into being careless when he visits Kasady a second time, which leads to the creation of a monstrous new symbiote named “Carnage.”  Meanwhile, the adult Frances Barrison (Naomie Harris) is still imprisoned and, in her new identity as “Shriek, she still pines for her man, Cletus.

From what information I have gathered, the general consensus seems to be that the sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, is better than the first film, Venom.  As entertaining as I found the sequel, I think the original is the better film.  Yes, Venom: Let There Be Carnage has a lot going for it.  Its main cast:  Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, and Woody Harrelson have all received Academy Award nominations for their acting – Williams and Harrelson more than once.

Yes, the sequel's special effects are excellent.  It is quite an achievement to create multiple scenes featuring not one but two shape-shifting, morphing CGI characters.  Venom and Carnage transmute at the same speed and frequency with which the late actor and comic legend, Robin Williams, blabbed and babbled – every chance he got.

Yes, I will give Venom: Let There Be Carnage credit for attempting to be something more than just a superhero film.  [Venom considers himself a hero.]  The film offers themes related to romance, fractured relationships, troubled friendships, jealousy, unrequited love, and love triangles.  In fact, I have to credit Tom Hardy for sharing so much of what is essentially his film with another actor.  Much of this film is about the story of Woody Harrelson's character, Cletus Kasady.

However, the first film seemed more sure of its plots and story points.  As eye-popping as Carnage is in this sequel, I think the original film's human/symbiote villains, Carlton Drake (played by Riz Ahmed) and Riot, were … deliciously evil.  Carnage is needlessly homicidal, and the character takes away from the subtle notes that Woody Harrelson tries to play as Cletus Kasady.

So, in the end, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is entertaining and often funny.  The supporting characters get to play, even fifth wheel Dr. Dan, and I'm always happy to see Naomi Harris, who makes the most of her time as Shriek.  But Venom: Let There Be Carnage feels like a placeholder.  It is as if Sony Pictures offered this sequel in order to satisfy demand while it takes time to develop a really good follow-up to the original Venom, instead of this merely good one.

B

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Movie Review: VENOM

Venom (2018)

Running time:  112 minutes
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for language
DIRECTOR:  Ruben Fleischer
WRITERS:  Scott Rosenberg and Kelly Marcel; from a screen story by Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg (based on the Marvel Comics)
PRODUCERS:  Avi Arad, Amy Pascal, and Matt Tolmach
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Matthew Libatique (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Alan Baumgarten and Maryann Brandon
COMPOSER:  Ludwig Göransson

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/ACTION

Starring:  Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott, Jenny Slate, Melora Walters, Peggy Lu, Ron Cephas Jones, Stan Lee, and Woody Harrelson

Venom is a 2018 superhero fantasy-action film directed by Ruben Fleischer.  The film is based on the Marvel Comics super-villain/anti-hero characters, Eddie Brock/Venom, to which several comic book writers, artists, and editors contributed in the creation of, most especially artist Todd McFarlane and writer David Michelinie.  It is also the first film in the “Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters” series.  In Venom the film, a troubled television reporter gains superpowers after bonding with an alien entity that is part of an invasion force.

As Venom opens, a space exploration probe belonging to the bio-engineering corporation, Life Foundation, discovers a comet covered in strange lifeforms.  The probe returns to Earth with four samples of these lifeforms, but one escapes.  Later, Life Foundation CEO, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), has realized that these lifeforms are “symbiotes,” and that they cannot survive without human hosts.  However, soon after the symbiotes bond with humans, the humans' bodies start to reject the aliens.  Drake is obsessed with finding the perfect human hosts for these symbiotes, even if his experiments lead to the deaths of many humans.

Six months later, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is a failed television reporter and former star of “The Brock Report.”  He previously had a run-in with Drake, but fate has given him the opportunity to infiltrate the Life Foundation.  That is how Eddie has an unfortunate encounter with a symbiote that calls itself “Venom.”  Eddie struggles to adapt to what he calls the “parasite” inside his body and is shocked to learn that there are millions more like Venom out in space.  But Eddie will need Venom's help to stay alive when Drake and Life Foundation discover his strange union and come after him to retrieve their property – the symbiote Venom.

Except for his early comic book appearances, I have never been a fan of Venom, but I am a fan of Venom the movie.  He is one of those characters whose potential reveals itself in the movement that television and film offers.  The visual-effects crew of Venom does excellent work in creating Venom as a fascinating and alluring CGI character; noisy, chaotic, obnoxious, inconsistent, and aggressive work for this character.  In fact, there are many inconsistencies in what is supposed to be the nature of human-symbiote relationship, especially in what are the rules of Eddie Brock and Venom's merger, but I found this movie to be too much fun for me to pay attention to logic.

Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and Riz Ahmed as Carlton Drake make the most of two characters that are not that well developed, and the characters make a good adversarial pair.  Even acclaimed actress and multiple Oscar nominee, Michelle Williams, manages to make Eddie's ex, Anne Weying, seem like something more than an obligatory female character.  But still, the gold in Venom is the special effect that is Venom the character.  I like Venom enough to watch a sequel...

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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