Sydney Sweeney distances herself from ‘Madame Web’ failure
Sydney Sweeney has spoken out about the failure of her most recent movie, Madame Web. The film has been received poorly by critics and audiences alike.
Directed by S. J. Clarkson, Madame Web stars Dakota Johnson as the titular Marvel character, who exists within the Spider-Man universe. Alongside supporting roles from Emma Roberts and Adam Scott, Sweeney took on the role of Julia Cornwall, a teenager set to become a Spider-Woman.
Madame Web was released earlier this year on February 14th, earning $96 million at the box office. Since then, the film has been highly criticised and mocked for elements such as writing and production. The film’s Rotten Tomatoes score stands at 12%, while it has an IMDb rating of just 3.7.
During a conversation with the Los Angeles Times, the actor commented, “I was just hired as an actress in it, so I was just along for the ride for whatever was going to happen.”
Sweeney isn’t the only Madame Web star to have commented on the film’s failure. Her co-star Johnson recently spoke out about the film, suggesting that she was unsurprised by the reaction it elicited.
Speaking with Bustle, Johnson suggested that she wouldn’t be willing take on a similar project in future. “I had never done anything like it before,” she acknowledged, “I probably will never do anything like it again because I don’t make sense in that world. And I know that now.”
Though the star deemed the film a “real learning experience,” she admitted that 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.”
The negative reaction to the film certainly reflects its quality, but perhaps it also shows a growing fatigue with superhero films more generally, which have become increasingly stale and uninventive over the last decade. While studios continue to prioritise profits over creativity, churning out spin-offs and sequels of existing comic book characters, audiences long for something more original and meaningful.
Madame Web certainly doesn’t mark the end of the superhero genre — Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine and DC’s Joker: Folie à Deux are both set for release this year — but perhaps it demonstrates a decline in interest, and an opportunity for something new. Potentially, audience dissatisfaction and fatigue that is showing in box office numbers will force studios to rethink their processes and priorities.
Watch the trailer for Madame Web below.
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