We get it. Madame Web isn't a cinematic masterpiece. It's far from the best of the superhero films but, unlike what many reviews would tell you, it's also far from the worst. Instead, it's a wild, campy, supernatural teen thriller that seems destined to become a legendary sleepover movie.
When I was young, the films that made recurring appearances at sleepovers and on friends' TVs at movie nights were far from the most well-reviewed. In fact, as I thought about the films that watching Madame Web reminded me of, I was impressed to learn that every single one (many that my generation deem as classics) were all rated "Rotten" on Rotten Tomatoes. Tank Girl, Empire Records, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Craft, Return to Oz, and Final Destination 2 all hold that distinction, just like the latest Sony Spider-Man movie, which sits at a rough 13% at the time of this writing.
Unlike the overly serious boredom of Morbius, Madame Web is an adventurous and often odd mix of a found-family adventure and a setup for a sequel that will never come. That makes it a perfect future cult movie that will surely be revisited again and again by both audiences and critics – for different reasons. I, for one, can't wait to write or read the oral history of the "Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters," which is also known by the fantastic acronym SPUMC.
It's been a mess since its outset, but it's also been an interesting lesson in corporate misunderstanding of what fans want from these films, even if they’ve blessed us with extremely camp superhero movies like both Venoms (also both rated Rotten) and now Madame Web. But while Venom's campiness has been celebrated as a so-bad-that-it's-good legend of modern superhero cinema, the teen girl-focused Madame Web has been slammed. But teen girls deserve corny, funny, "bad" superhero movies just as much as every other audience.
Like the aforementioned teen movies, Madame Web features "it girl" casting. In Empire Records, it was Liv Tyler, Renée Zellweger, and Robin Tunney. In I Know What You Did Last Summer, it was Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Love Hewitt. In Tank Girl, it was Lori Petty and Naomi Watts. Madame Web follows that tradition with Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O'Conner. There's also the incredible soundtrack that to millenials is nostalgic and to younger viewers is decidely retro.
Director S.J. Clarkson is deeply aware of where the film sits among its peers, with the girls in the film even watching I Know What You Did Last Summer and using a music queue from the film. We also get a direct visual homage to the Final Destination 2 logging truck moment that traumatized a generation of cinema viewers. There's much fun to be had as our heroic group of central teens dance on diner tables to Britney Spears' "Toxic" while hiding from a man who can literally poison them with his magically toxic blood! That's funny! And silly! And they're having fun doing it too!
In an age where audiences are already tired of superhero movies, it's understandable that Madame Web hasn't found its audience yet. The film is a part of the comic book movie cycle that is now inevitable, where after the peak of the genre's success we begin to get saturated with tie-ins, spinoffs, and corporate attempts to grab the popular trend before it slips away. It happened after the game-changing success of the X-Men and Spider-Man films in the '00s, with movies like Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Daredevil, Elektra. And it usually means a breaking point before a cool-off period that then leads to someone presenting a new game-changing take like The Dark Knight or Iron Man.
Sometimes we get "bad" movies during the boom too like the much-maligned Halle Berry Catwoman film (currently 8% at Rotten Tomatoes, a rare lower score than Madame Web). That latter movie is relevant here as it has rightfully been reconsidered in the years since as a classic of camp cinema, and Madame Web owes a lot to it. Both films reimagine entirely new supernatural origins for their main heroines, ignore pretty much all comic book canon, and play with the expectations of what a superhero movie is.
Catwoman was a Razzie-winning bomb and Berry added to the camp factor by actually going to the ceremony and picking up her award. In an age where superhero movies are made by auteurs and some of the biggest names in Hollywood, it's harder to accept the fact that B-movies have their place in the genre too. In fact, in the era before the MCU and even the beloved DC Animated Universe, B-movies are where superheroes found their feet. Stan Lee's first cameo was in a made-for-TV Hulk movie, Spider-Man's feature debut was on CBS a 90 minute CBS special, and Captain America used to be an artist who lived in a van — if you're old enough to know, you know.
All of those vintage superhero flicks are also currently Rotten, despite having a growing fandom. And obviously these films didn't cost $80 million like Madame Web, but they are part of the legacy of on-screen superhero storytelling that led to the blockbuster comic book movie world we're living in. Madame Web, whether unintentionally or not, fits into that tradition and could easily be part of a double bill with Catwoman at the Alamo Drafthouse or, ironically, at a teenage sleepover. And yes, as many folks have asked me since it released, the silly supernatural romp could definitely be a future contender for MST3K too.
In 2024, when we're living through a Twilight renaissance and a reconsideration of films that were once maligned, I'm here to say that, sure, it cost way too much money and no one needed a sexy young version of the oldest, crochetiest hero in Marvel Comics. But now Madame Web is here and there's joy to be found in it. Not every female superhero movie has to be important; some can just be weird and delightfully fun to watch with friends. And while it might not be our generation who finds something to love about it, I feel almost certain those to come will. This is especially true thanks to the fact that, at its core, Madame Web is about some teenage girls — played by some of the best actors of their generation —finding their way in a weird, topsy-turvy world that just so happens to be filled with magical "spider-people." What's not to love about that?
Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.
