Don’t get me wrong. I was one of the few people who was genuinely looking forward to seeing Madame Web after the first trailer dropped in November. It’s still so rare to get superhero movies that have a majority female cast, that I was ready to fight for this movie against all odds. After watching Dakota Johnson’s incredible takes during the Madame Web press tour, however, it seems like this may be a movie that not even the cast is very interested in fighting for.
Johnson’s carefree attitude Madame Web’s press jaunt is rarely a surprise given her iconic performance on the Ellen DeGeneres show, where the host jokingly asked why she wasn’t invited to Johnson’s birthday party, a big mistake. by Ellen. “Not really, “That’s not the truth, Ellen” has become a full-blown meme and has proven that Johnson will speak his mind, no matter what it looks like (as he deserves). If Harrison Ford can say what he needs in interviews, Johnson deserves it too.
But that is not the point. The thing is, while Johnson has every right to tell the truth about him about filming Madame Web, his comments about the film hilariously overshadowed any goodwill the film may have had at the start of its marketing campaign. .
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Johnson said filming in front of a blue screen was an “absolutely psychotic” experience. Although he had full confidence in the film’s director, S. J. Clarkson, Johnson said he spent a lot of time thinking, “I have no idea if he’s going to be smart!I hope I did a smart job! »
And things went off the rails even further (in the most productive way imaginable) from there. In the week leading up to the film’s release, we had more shots of Johnson than we knew what to do with. When asked who she’d like to see her character Cassandra Webb team up, she talked about the sets of forces that would complement Cassie’s before replying, “I don’t know who those heroes are, but I’ll take them. “
She also demolished a Huffington Post query about the trailer’s famous line that went viral on social media: “He in the Amazon with my mother when she was researching spiders just before he died,” simply replying that she didn’t understand. why other people were so obsessed with it. ” Why did it go viral?Isn’t that a phrase out of context, out of context?What nonsense,” he says emphatically. That turns out to be a fundamental situation for me. Maybe I’m right underneath.
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While chatting with Seth Meyers about what audiences want to know before seeing Madame Web and whether or not to join Sony’s Spider-Verse, he said, “You don’t want to know anything [about seeing this movie], it’s wonderful for America. ” . And honestly, a “no thoughts, just vibes” movie doesn’t sound so bad right now.
In that same interview with Meyers, Johnson also talked about running with her Gen Z co-stars Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O’Connor, saying, “I love them. And they’re going for me,” which is hilarious considering Gen Z is surely one of the main target audiences for this movie (otherwise, why would they use Billie Eilish’s “Bury a Friend” in the trailer?). As on the cusp of Gen Z/millennial, I at least appreciate Johnson’s honesty (I place us bored at times too).
On a more serious note, Johnson also used the press outing to call out streaming facilities and the industry as a whole for not trusting creatives to take risks. It’s up to the artists to know what’s going to work, and that’s just going to make us implode. Continuing, he said: “It’s heartbreaking. It’s fucking difficult. It’s very difficult to achieve something. Everything I need to achieve it is different, unique and very progressive in any way. ” stuff”.
Based on everything Johnson has said in interviews so far, it doesn’t feel like Ms. Web fits completely into the “different,” “unique,” and “edgy” categories that she’s really passionate about, which doesn’t necessarily bode well for the film. As it turns out, Madame Web is taking risks, but as Morbius proved, that’s not smart in Sony Spider-Verse. Will I still watch this movie? Absolutely, but even more so in the tone of “it’s a shipwreck and I can’t look away”, rather than with the sheer excitement I possibly would have felt before.
Madame Web opens in theaters on Feb. 14.