“Creating a Spider-Man universe without Spider-Man? Oh, yes, of course. We think it’s a great idea.” At some point that we don’t quite understand, this conversation took place in Sony’s offices. We were in the midst of the Marvel Cinematic Universe boom, and of course, with so many Marvel character rights at Sony, it was clear they had to do something. But it’s not clear if they took the best possible path.
While they do things like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Sony is carrying out live actions about minor Spidey characters that, well, some of them work at the box office. So now, with the release of Madame Web reaching 16% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, let’s review how these films have fared with critics. From worst to less worse, here they all go.
Morbius
The jewel in the crown. The movie starring Jared Leto was saved, literally, thanks to the memes. But its release on Rotten Tomatoes had a 15% of positive reviews. And I must say they were still generous.
Madame Web
By a narrow margin, the film directed by S. J. Clarkson did not finish last in the ranking. Some of its reviews sell it as “well, it’s not the worst of Marvel Sony”. But the truth is that it has premiered with a 16% positive reviews, just 1% behind Morbius.
Venom
Although it was a box office success, Venom didn’t do very well in its premiere either. It only managed to get a 30% positive reviews, which made it very clear what the standard was going to be in this universe. But, for some reason, they decided to go ahead with everything.
Venom: There Will Be Carnage
Watch out, we have a barely passing grade! The 57% positive reviews of the Venom sequel, a number that would normally make it clear that the movie is a flop, stands as a great triumph in this universe. The bar is set low, for sure, but I’m sure Kraven can do even worse.
