'Madame Web' review: Dakota Johnson's superhero is  unusual, appealing

How much juice can one studio squeeze out of Marvel’s Spider-Man? If you’re Sony Pictures, the answer is: Quite a lot. Its Spidey movies with Tom Holland have made about $4 billion, its animated “Spider-Verse” installments made another $1 billion and a handful of tenuously connected titles -- such as “Venom” and “Morbius” -- have earned another bill-and-a-half. Disney-Marvel and Warner-DC may dominate the superhero market, but Sony has staked out a lucrative niche.

What’s more, Spider-Man is looking like the only superhero we can depend on. Some of Marvel’s recent blockbusters have fizzled (last year’s “The Marvels” was the studio’s lowest grosser yet), while DC’s latest “Aquaman” sank like a stone. If ever there was a moment for Sony to expand its footprint, this is it.

Enter “Madame Web,” starring Dakota Johnson as Cassie Webb, a New York City EMT with the DNA of a rare Peruvian spider within her. It’s a none-too-original but surprisingly lively entry that has two things going for it. One is director and co-writer SJClarkson, making a confident feature film debut. The other is Johnson, who makes for an unusual and appealing superhero: female, hip and single.

Though her major roles have been few, Johnson is a rare talent. (For retaining her intelligence and dignity in the “Fifty Shades of Grey” films, she is arguably a candidate for Greatest Actor Who Ever Lived.) Here, she pulls us in as Cassie, an adrenaline junkie whose foster-kid upbringing has left her with attachment issues. (Adam Scott plays her one-time beau and loyal EMT partner, Ben Parker.) A hardened cynic, Cassie is the last person to believe in clairvoyance – yet after a near-fatal accident, she begins seeing, or perhaps even living, the future.

Cassie’s visions lead her to three teenagers: Neglected rich girl Mattie (Celeste O’Connor), latchkey kid Anya (Isabela Merced) and timid runaway Julia (Sydney Sweeney, quite convincing given that she just played a sexually confident adult in “Anyone But You”). A cute theme emerges: three motherless girls and the non-maternal Cassie, all bonding together as they flee from a mysterious spider-powered killer named Sims (a scenery-chewing Tahar Rahim).

To say more would spoil the way the plot threads itself together. Clarkson toys cleverly with Cassie’s visions – is this reality, or just a possibility? – and there’s great fun in watching her learn to alter the future on the fly. Even when “Madame Web” gets a little goofy (Cassie somehow makes it to Peru and back in a matter of hours), it’s thoroughly entertaining.

Marvel fans may disagree, but I found Cassie’s final transformation a little disappointing. And while her three young charges are likeable, I’m not sure I want to see them carry the franchise that this movie promises. In the Marvel universe, though, that future was probably inevitable.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman