NS: Mighty Morbin’ Power Strangers

[deh_tommy]

SONY’s Madame Web is out in cinemas now! Have you seen it yet? Are you planning to? What are your thoughts? Feel free to discuss below, and as always be wary of spoilers.

Comments

[zachbeacon]

Just based on Kraven rumors, Venom 2, Morbius, and word of mouth RE this one...

...it really feels like Sony is doing some sort of "make them bad on purpose" Producers scam.

Actually, that's probably exactly what they're doing, given that Spider-Verse 3 is delayed indefinitely and they need to do SOMETHING to keep the Spider-Man rights.


Also I understand that the movie is set in 2002 for no reason. Is there at least some Evanescence music? Dakota Johnson is 34 so if I add 22 years to take us to the present...she's still way too young to be playing Madame Web.

[tcampbell1000]

I think Hanlon's razor applies here.

[beyondthefringe]

I've gotten this far managing to skip all of these weird Spider-Man-adjacent films, so forgetting to see this one won't be hard either.

MAYBE I'll check it out when it hits a streaming service, if I'm really bored one day.

And honestly I would have thought Dakota Johnson was playing the current Julia Carpenter version of Madame Web but there's also a Julia Carp--er Cornwall in this so... young and hot instead of old and paralyzed is certainly a marketing choice.

(And if it's set in 2002 why would you throw so MANY usable characters into the murky depths of a period piece at this point? That's them basically saying they don't really have any plans for Julia, Anya, or Mattie in a contemporary setting.)

I just remain dubious about this effort to create a Spider-Man Cinematic Universe that doesn't have Spider-Man. What's next, a Sinister Syndicate heist film with Hypno-Hustler, Rocket Racer, Big Wheel, White Rabbit, Boomerang, and Jack-O-Lantern, where they go up against Silvermane's Maggia?

SHUT UP I'D WATCH THAT IN A HEARTBEAT

[bravest_spinja]

Not saying the movie is good or doesn't overall make bewildering choices but knowing the summary you can sort of squint and see the reasoning it being set twenty years ago and why they've made the choices they did vis a vis casting.

[beyondthefringe]

I just read a Wiki summary of the whole thing and I can see where some choices make sense now and others make less sense.

(i.e. making literally every Spider-Girl older than/more experienced than Peter, by sheer virtue of the year in which it's set, assuming they survive to present day...)

Still, the entire idea of making a SMCU that doesn't actually have Peter, by doing movies about everyone from Venom to Madame Web to Kraven... *shakes head* I do enjoy super-hero movies and obscure characters but while some efforts are good, Sony's approach feels a lot more like just throwing stuff at the walls and hoping for success, while contributing to that whole "superhero fatigue" thing people like to complain about. It's not like they're apparently making GOOD movies...

[knight_moves]

I would be up for them even saying "hey, random auteur, wanna make a Rhino movie? Okay, go nuts!" But this half-assed cinematic universe thing where the Vulture and Morbius have teamed up for some reason and the movies are consistently hamstrung by studio notes trying to make them all vaguely cohere... what's the point? Just to be the MCU's annoying little brother? I think the modern-day MCU has that covered.

[zachbeacon]

"I've gotten this far managing to skip all of these weird Spider-Man-adjacent films, so forgetting to see this one won't be hard either."

The back half of the first Venom movie is fun in a way that I'm not sure was intentional. Superhero movies don't usually do romance well and Eddie and the symbiote are the best couple I've seen in one in a while.


Sony seems largely oblivious to what people want from a live action Spider-Man, though. I've seen enthusiasm for a fourth Rami movie, a third Garfield movie (hopefully with a director that knows what they're doing this time), and Miles. Instead we get talk of Young Aunt May and El Muerto.

Your pitch for a Deadly/Lethal/Superior Foes of Spider-Man heist movie sounds a lot more fun than Sony's constant attempts to gather the big guns for a Sinister Six movie.

(I mean, No Way Home was just one guy short)

[icon_uk]

I genuinely enjoyed Venom (The sequel not so much, but I didn't stop watching it, which is a good-ish sign), it embraced the insanity of it's core conceit and made it a suitably weird love story and I can absolutely respect that.

Plus it was nice to see a movie where the hero and his ex are on pretty good terms years after the breakup, and Eddis even likes her new boyfriend

[zachbeacon]

I think the second movie is trying to deliberately go for the same energy as the first one but when you're actively going for "so bad it's good" it is very easy to just end up with "so bad it's terrible".

(It's like how Riverdale season one was an exciting train wreck and season two was so bad I didn't finish it)

The new boyfriend is the best, love that guy. Any other movie would paint him as the bad guy and have Eddie get back with his ex. Dr. Dan covers for Eddie when he is clearly in distress.

(Before Venom I really only knew Reid Scott from Veep, where he plays a monster...also named Dan. Granted most characters on that show are monsters)

RE Cletus: What is it with superhero media and terrible wigs?

[cyberghostface]

I think a lot of the execs are just idiots and they’re throwing whatever they have at all and seeing what sticks. The leaked emails showed they have no idea what they were doing. It’s not just with their Spidey stuff either.

[zachbeacon]

Executives being idiots gets you a Black Widow movie five years too late and a DC movie universe that ... well, regardless of how you feel about the early Snyder movies, I think it is fair to say no one was happy with most of the movies after because they simultaneously kept too much of the directors divisive sensibilities while not keeping the director.

The Sony movies are feeling more like weaponized incompetence.

"Sorry, Kevin Feige. We're just no good at this Spider-Man stuff. You better make the next Spider-Man. We're keeping the money though"