Madame Web (#519)

This was a strange movie but one I could not stop watching even though it was just about two hours long and I didn’t know what was going on half the time.  Maybe more than half the time.  MADAME WEB stars Dakota Johnson, whoever she is, as a paramedic in New York City named Cassie Webb whose mother, pregnant with Cassie, is shot in the jungle somewhere searching for a rare spider whose venom offer a cure for many diseases and ailments. Somehow Cassie, who incidentally is a Marvel superhero—another I never heard of—possesses the ability to see the future and to alter it, perhaps because of the locale where her mother was shot.  Somewhere along the way Cassie rescues three teenagers and other passengers from something she perceives as dangerous on a train, and the teenagers and she are pursued by a creature who can climb walls and prance about spastically on ceilings.  I won’t reveal more other than to say this film is punctuated with light flashes and bursts of loud noises over and over again and at the end, there is more than a hint that there will be a sequel featuring not only Cassie but the three teenagers who appear to be portrayed by actresses who are in their mid-twenties or older.  I don’t know what this one would be classified as—action? thriller?  sci fi? paranormal? Your guess is as good as mine.  Only 13% of critics gave it a thumbs up along with 55% of audiences.  Frankly, I can’t decide in which direction my thumb should point on this one.