: (Johan Söderqvist) Sony's
struggles to monetize their various "Spider-Man" comic book properties
have become alarmingly acute in the 2020's, and the early 2024 disaster
may represent the worst of the lot. With diminishing
box office returns and ever-worsening critical and popular responses,
these "Spider-Man" spin-offs have become eye-rolling, artistically
devoid spectacles of empty action and poor character development, the
magic of these concepts completely stripped away by a studio eager to
maximize profits. In the case of
, first time director
S.J. Clarkson has butchered Sony's journey into the "Spider-Woman"
realm, telling an origins story of the Madame Web character while also
striving to set up opportunities to follow the three Spider-Women
prominent on the printed page. The titular blind clairvoyant is the
alter ego of Cassie Webb, who is shown discovering her own past in the
movie while eventually suffering her destined state as she works to save
the three women who would become heroes themselves. There is a villain
who also has a major hand in the past of Webb, and he's about as
two-dimensional as they come. There was clearly an attempt by the
production to appeal to female audiences with
, but the
immense failure of the picture shows that such targeting is irrelevant
if you cannot build a decent product. Among the many production elements
that underwhelmed with this movie is the score by veteran Swedish
composer Johan Söderqvist, for whom this assignment represented a
mainstream breakthrough despite being active in the field for decades.
Söderqvist carried over to this film due to a prior television
collaboration with the director, and despite his spattering of
impressive work through the years, it's clear that the superhero genre
is a step too far for him at this time. The result of Söderqvist's
toil is better than the mind-numbingly awful genre music for
Frustratingly, Söderqvist assembles a score with all
the right ingredients but just can't express them in an effective genre
sound. The full orchestra is there, and some of the orchestrations are
really quite good, assuming you can hear them over the more oppressive
layers. The synthetics provide the required haze, suspense, and
techno-thrill, and their insertions utilize typical post-production
editing effects that listeners tired of long ago. Strings strike away as
expected, brass blasts high and low, and a piano fights mightily to
infuse some character sensitivity but usually loses. Ethnic flutes and
throat singing are explored for the story's Peru location origins, but
they don't provide much memorability. Electronic sound effects sometimes
emulate Danny Elfman's
Spider-Man library but distractingly stray
towards mid-1990's Hans Zimmer works like
Crimson Tide. The score
is actually more tonally steady than one might expect, a cue like
"O'Neil" striving for much needed warmth. Even the confrontational fight
and chase music remains accessible in many parts, the material in "The
Fight" symbolic in that it's not unlistenable but also not very
exciting. Therein lies the overarching problem with Söderqvist's
execution in
Madame Web; it's minimally adequate at all times and
will rarely annoy you to the extent that you just have to seek a James
Horner drama to recover. But it also has absolutely no genuine passion,
no intrigue, and no thrill. That mundane trait is compounded by the
composer's handling of his themes. In this regard, Söderqvist again
has the right general idea for each concept, providing a main identity
for Cassie Webb that also carries the film as a whole. Secondary motifs
for the villain and Webb's sensory powers are also employed. All three
are heard in an extensive variation of guises throughout the work.
Secondary characters rarely receive memorable thematic development, and
in cues that could have used some such support ("Anya's Story,"
"Aftermath"), the composer leaves listeners with material too general to
serve more than a basic emotional purpose. Still, the main theme does
try to bring everything together, even if its usage is never clear
enough to define or highlight the main character's distinct powers.
The main theme for Cassie Webb in
Madame Web is
nebulous and insufficient for the genre, most notable for its rising
pairs of chords in its latter portions. Söderqvist uses slurring
pitch techniques and progressions similar to the main theme from the
Aquaman scores, almost to the level of distraction. The theme is
barely hinted by pairs of notes early in "Peru-73" but is nicely teased
by piano and strings in "Forgiveness/The Weaver, No. 1" before a big
performance at the end of that cue shows some promise. It's subtle at
0:27 into "Cassie Walks Home," shifts to different ascending phrasing
for an appealing moment in "O'Neil," and is reduced to solo piano and
woodwind contemplation of its extended open phrases in "Box of
Memories." The idea is folded into the frenzy of "The Fight," slowly
builds strength in "Drowning" until an electronically anthemic statement
at the end, and is ushered in by the sensory motif during the last ten
seconds of "Glimpses of the Future." It turns suspenseful in the latter
half of "Alone in the Woods" while its underlying chords inform the
transitional ethnic opening to "Going to Peru." After barely touching
the action about a minute into "Getaway," the main theme briefly grows
some muscularity at 0:31 into "The Cave," moves to fragmented cellos in
the middle of "We Have to Go," offers subtle shades of its progressions
to aid the agony of "The Message," and tries to form some confidence
throughout "Code Thirty." In the climax of the film, the theme really
struggles to enunciate its heroic inclinations at 0:45 into "Fireworks,"
barely consolidates near the end of the cue but instead dropping off. It
does return to anthemic form with thumping percussion in "The Weaver,
No. 2," and some listeners may find merit in the full performance in
"Madame Web" even if the composer clouds the progressions too much
during this sleepy performance, diminishing what's supposed to be the
idea's most impactful moment. The instrumental layers in that cue are
too murky and lack the
Aquaman anthemic clarity to achieve the
same purpose. Among the various superhero identities to roll out of
these Marvel-related films, this one is about as pleasantly unremarkable
as anything heard before, which is obviously not ideal.
Meanwhile, Söderqvist dabbles in some secondary
motifs for
Madame Web, but expect none of them to be memorable in
the least. The villain's material for Ezekiel is split between a handful
of structural identities and instrumental techniques. Most prominent is
the composer's use of extremely rapid note formations, usually on brass,
to denote his presence and evil intentions. Sometimes, brass is also
applied in pitch-slurring effects to achieve a less exciting version of
the same effect. Along with that use comes a secondary phrase of twisted
menace that tries hard to establish compelling depth early in "Poisoned"
and the second half of "Encountering Evil" on low strings. Otherwise,
however, it's the staccato acceleration of notes that represents the
baddie here, from the electric guitar crescendo late in "Poisoned" to
the stabbing in the middle and end of "Ezekiel," with terrible
manipulation of reverb by the latter performance. These strings pulse in
"Ezekiel Hunts Them Down" with a few brass bursts while the trumpets
blast away at the figures early in "The Ambulance" and the same
technique carries over to all of "Ezekiel and Cassie." More palatable
but sadly nebulous is a subset of material that Söderqvist seems to
access whenever suggesting Cassie Webb's sensory powers. Best described
as a swirling effect, this motif sometimes becomes a string ostinato for
action cues. It stews about at the beginning of "Peru-73," serves as a
piano backdrop for "Cassie Walks Home," flutters tonally in the middle
of "The Bird," and guides the main theme in "Glimpses of the Future"
with significant woodwind activity. It becomes slight by "Cassie is
Leaving" but manages a resurgence during the opening of "The Cave" and
engages in battle with the other motifs in "Fireworks." Like the main
theme, expect little of this music to stick in your memory, as
Madame
Web ultimately wastes its competently assembled components in the
process of sucking all the life out of the superhero genre. Perhaps most
devastating is that there's absolutely no sense of coolness in this
music, no pizazz or sass to bolster the main character even when her
powers mature. On album, the reasonable presentation is instantly
forgettable, and some listeners may object to the tracks being
cross-faded. In the end, the highlights from this score could form a six
to eight-minute suite of anonymously easy superhero listening, but
that's a damning way to treat this genre.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
