MADAME WEB (2024)

MADAME WEB has a relatable protagonist and enough energy to make the story fly by, but it's formulaic, the characters hastily move on from all the tragedies (past and present) they go through, and there are instances where a cast member has been obviously dubbed over. Also, the camera angles used in certain scenes don't seem to have a real purpose. If anything, they're as distracting as the Pepsi product placement. The title character has to protect 3 young women, and while their dynamic is fun, it's not that well-developed as a relationship. Part of the reason is that they meet around the 40-minute mark (most movies would've done it 20 minutes earlier), so the obligatory scene where the adult reprimands the teenagers for never listening, which merely happens a little later, doesn't feel earned. There are individuals that are revealed to be characters we've seen in other SPIDER-MAN movies in very forced ways. The actors might as well have stared at the camera while holding signs with the names.

5/10