Madame Web Review

There is a real film in the outline. A paramedic with no interest in heroism gets a power that shows her only the next several seconds, which is a good constraint because it forces her to act rather than plan, and the 2003 setting gives the picture a texture superhero films rarely bother with. S. J. Clarkson stages the ambulance and diner material like a grounded thriller, and the three young actors, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced and Celeste O'Connor, build a believable rapport through the middle stretch.

It comes apart in execution, and much of that happened before a frame was shot. A large portion of the script was cut immediately ahead of production, and the film carries the shape of that loss: motivations arrive as single lines, the second act is mostly driving, and the climax resolves in a warehouse against a villain the audience has never been allowed to understand.

Dialogue is the most visible casualty. The antagonist's lines were extensively replaced in post, and the replacement never matches the performance on screen, so a character meant to frighten sounds like narration laid over a picture of a man. Several exchanges exist only to state relationships aloud. A soft drink and a Calvin Klein advertisement get more coverage than the villain's plan.

Mauro Fiore lights it flatly and the effects are thinner than the budget suggests. It took worst picture at the Razzies, which overstates the case. This is a film that lost its script, not one that never had a chance, and a D is the honest grade.