Marvel misses the mark again. After Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania and the Marvels we were hoping it wouldn’t be another disappointment. With Dakota Johnson, Adam Scott and Mike Epps in the mix, we thought there’d be more engrossing material to keep our interest. Unfortunately there are some definite missteps with story, characterizations, relationships, backstory and precognition along with the underdeveloped villain. There’s plenty of action, but it just goes nowhere. The flashes of special effects plus building to super cheesy product placement didn’t help.
This is the first feature for Director S.J. Clarkson who has 20 years of directing quality episodic TV on her resume. (Succession, Orange is the New Black, Marvel Netflix shows Jessica Jones and The Defenders). There are lots of spiders here, but no Spiderman heroes. This one, suited up in a black spider costume, fails to impress as villain Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim).
The plot covers events starting with Cassie’s Mom’s backstory in the Amazon in 1973 where she discovered a spider with a venom that could kill or heal. But then gets into gear with Cassie careening through the streets with her her NYC EMT partner Ben Parker (Adam Scott – Severance), to save a woman who’s been in a car crash. Cassie placidly leaves while the family is trying to thank her.
Cassie’s precognition begins to reveal itself when she goes to take the New York subway. She sees danger for 3 teen girls before they even walk onto the train. When they enter the car, she realizes trouble is coming and springs into action. That’s when Sims in his black getup goes after the girls. The rest of the film is Cassie with Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Amy Corazon (Isabela Merced) and Maddy Franklin (Celeste O’Connor) trying to elude the murderous villain. At first they don’t know if Cassie wants to kidnap or protect them.
Cassie keeps one step ahead of the frustrated Sims which makes him put pressure on his IT specialist Zosia Mamet (Molli and Max in the Future) to keep tabs on their whereabouts. Mamet is wasted in this film basically just sitting in front of a bank of monitors.
Script by committee doesn’t always work. This screenplay by Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Claire Parker, with Director S.J. Clarkson is hard to follow. And the editing doesn’t help. We also found the use of flash frames and quick cuts with special effects more confusing than eye catching. And we think Clarkson’s direction didn’t give the characters enough emotion, especially from Johnson and Scott. Johnson is gorgeous, but both seem to go through the movie with vacant expressions. And Johnson’s makeup is always picture perfect, even after nearly drowning.
There are a couple of scenes that seem so out of place. The one where the girls disobey Cassie and go to a diner ending up dancing on a table rimmed with drooling teen boys is one in particular. And the product placement is blatant during the climactic fight scene with the girls and Sims on top of a building bearing a huge neon lit Pepsi Cola Sign. We didn’t know it the logo would be foreshadowed with Cassie drinking a can of Pepsi with the logo perfectly placed earlier in the film.
In every battle, Cassie gets to use her newfound power of seeing things before they happen, good at giving specific orders to run, duck, stop, jump, and even pulls a piece of sheep metal off a wall to use as shield at the very last moment. It’s Marvel taking you down the rabbit hole of inane action sequences again. Although the gorgeous Johnson provides important lessons in how to administer CPR, this messy film couldn’t save itself. This Spidey spinoff spins no well-constructed web.
Sony/Marvel 1 hour 57 minutes PG-13
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