A superhero film panned by one viewer as “so bad” that it’s “funny” is streaming now in the UK. Madame Web (2024) is the fourth film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) and depicts the origin story of Cassie Webb (played by Dakota Johnson), a paramedic in Manhattan who after a near-death event gains special, arachnid-based powers that allow her to see into the future.

Cassie, a character from Marvel Comics, must use her new abilities to protect three young women Julia, Anya, and Mattie (played by Sydney Sweeney, Isabella Merced, and Celeste O’Connor, respectively) from a mysterious villain who believes they will one day kill him, and is hunting them down.

It was directed by S. J. Clarkson, who co-wrote the screenplay with Claire Parker alongside the writing team of Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.

The film, which was largely panned by critics, and picked up a trio of Golden Raspberry Awards, which recognise the worst films and performances of the year, including: Worst Picture, Worst Actress (for Johnson), and Worst Screenplay.

IndieWire offered praise for Johnson’s performance in the lead role, but suggested it wasn’t enough to redeem the film.

Writing for the outlet, David Ehrlich said she “is one of the most naturally honest and gifted performers to ever play the lead role in one of these things, and while that allows her to elevate certain moments in this movie way beyond where they have any right to be, it also makes it impossible for her to hide in the moments that lay bare their own miserableness”.

Viewers took to Rotten Tomatoes to offer their takes, many of which are negative. One described it as “so ridiculously bad it’s funny”.

Another said: “Overall, this movie was a grating and boring experience that only had mere moments of something worthwhile or slightly entertaining, but not something I could recommend watching unless you like bad film.”

A third gave it half a star out of five, writing simply: “Well, that was embarrassing.”

However, some were more positive, with one fan writing: “I honestly liked it, thought it was a pretty interesting concept, would recommend if you’re interested in the concept of the spiderverse. It’s probably not for everyone but if you think you may like it then try seeing it.”

Another said they were “driven away from this movie until now because of bad reviews”, but added the movie is “entertaining”. “Definitely critical reviews are very misleading,” they added.

A third even gave it five stars, saying: “The acting is great. And the whole movie is great. Why is everyone hating on this movie. Madame web was the best Marvel Sony movie ever.”

The film has a poor 10% score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer (reflecting the percentage of approved critics who gave it a positive review).

It scores noticably better among general audiences, with a score of 53%.

The film has a 12 certificate and contains moderate violence, threat, language, and brief bloody images.

Madame Web is streaming now on Netflix.