Dakota Johnson, who’s routinely taken semi-reserved pot-shots at her ill-received superhero movie Madame Web, is taking off the gloves. Speaking with Bustle, the Fifty Shades of Grey actress described her nightmarish experience while making Madame Web, saying the end product was nothing like what she and the team set out to make.
“It was definitely an experience for me to make that movie,” Johnson told Bustle. “I had never done anything like it before. I probably will never do anything like it again, because I don’t make sense in that world. And I know that now. But sometimes in this industry, you sign on to something, and it’s one thing and then as you’re making it, it becomes a completely different thing, and you’re like, ‘Wait, what?’ But it was a real learning experience, and of course it’s not nice to be a part of something that’s ripped to shreds, but I can’t say that I don’t understand.”
“It’s so hard to get movies made, and in these big movies that get made — and it’s even starting to happen with the little ones, which is what’s really freaking me out — decisions are being made by committees, and art does not do well when it’s made by committee,” she added. “Films are made by a filmmaker and a team of artists around them. You cannot make art based on numbers and algorithms. My feeling has been for a long time that audiences are extremely smart, and executives have started to believe that they’re not. Audiences will always be able to sniff out bullshit. Even if films start to be made with AI, humans aren’t going to fucking want to see those.”
Unfortunately, Dakota’s assessment of Madame Web is spot on. The movie is abysmal, and I say this as a die-hard fan of superhero cinema. The casting ingredients are there, with Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor, and Adam Scott being actors capable of delivering stand-out performances. Madame Web fails to take advantage of their talents, presenting a lackluster snoozefest of a film, resulting in arguably the worst superhero film of recent memory, certainly in Sony’s live-action Spider-Verse. Yes, it’s worse than Morbius.
Dakota Johnson is clearly aware of how fans have received Madame Web. She’s also keen on the “gotcha” headlines (see above), framing her reaction to the blowback as outrageous. I don’t believe that’s the case. It’s refreshing to hear an actor talk about their disappointment in the failure of what was supposed to be a franchise-launching film. Johnson poked fun at the stories hitting news sites after the film’s release during her chat with Bustle, saying, “Like, ‘Dakota Johnson Breaks Her Silence On Madame Web’s Fucking Box Office Failure,'” she said, laughing. “It’s like, ‘No, I’m not breaking any silence. I’m just talking.'”
I’m confident Johnson and her co-stars can recover from Madame Web, though I’m not sure we can say the same about Sony’s live-action Spider-Verse. I think Venom 3 will put asses in seats, but what about Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Sergei Kravinoff. It’s been months since the red-band trailer for Kraven dropped, and we’ve not heard a peep since. It will be interesting to see how Sony presents that part of its plan in the wake of Morbius and Madame Web.