A Madame Web Clip Is Going Viral For All The Wrong Reasons

The internet was absolutely roasting the first "Madame Web" trailer as soon as it dropped online. Most notably, users on X, formerly known as Twitter, couldn't stop mocking a "Madame Web" trailer quote in which Dakota Johnson's character Cassie tells her friends that she recognizes villain Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) from his time working alongside her mother, who was researching spiders in the Amazon shortly before her death. This viral attention all but guarantees that "Madame Web" will be a proper successor to "Morbius," Sony's prior hit with irony-poisoned posters. Contributing to this phenomenon even further is a short preview clip shared on X of a scene in which Madame Web first develops her clairvoyant superpowers.

One of the most popular tweets about the clip on the X platform, with more than 19,000 likes, is by @GroundhogJay_. He wrote, "The awkward cut makes it look like Dakota Johnson is rushing to the car to save Dakota Johnson who's already in the car."

He's referring to the fact that, at the clip's start, a shot of Cassie entering an overturned car is followed immediately by a shot from an angle positioning her on the opposite side of the camera, breaking the so-called 180-degree rule. "I know directors who use the 180 degree rule and they're all cowards," wrote @andrew12la in one among many tweets mocking the clip.

Reviews for "Madame Web" went public concurrently with this viral clip hitting the internet on February 13, the day before the film's wide release. Early impressions of "Madame Web" were so negative that its critical score on Rotten Tomatoes dipped down to 17 percent based on more than 50 reviews. The reception to the clip of Madame Web gaining her superpowers, then, is clearly not some sort of anomaly but likely portends an altogether poor reception by the moviegoing public.

In another tweet mocking the viral clip, @PostCredPod, posted, "First clip from #MadameWeb truly defies belief, plays like a bad SNL sketch."

Another one of the most popular reposts of the clip, meanwhile, is by @JADENMOVIES. His tweet amassed more than 29,000 likes and simply consists of 280 question marks, maxing out the X platform's character limit. "They let a 7 year old into the editing bay," he wrote in a follow-up tweet.

Maybe it's true that there's no such thing as bad publicity, and this clip is, at least, successful publicity for "Madame Web." But based on just how harshly pretty much everyone to weigh in is mocking the footage, it's hard to imagine a worse omen on the day before the movie premieres.