It’s been a rough go for the Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU apparently being the understood acronym?) since its inception with Venom in 2018. Each of their four films has been met with anywhere from middling admiration (both Venom films) to absolute disdain (Morbius and now Madame Web). The results have not been what Sony hoped for, and it feels like the crumbling nature of this makeshift universe may be on its last legs if there’s no juice in any of the films still anticipated to release in 2024.
But luckily, those films are the third Venom movie and Kraven the Hunter, which is directed by J.C. Chandor (of Triple Frontier and A Most Violent Year fame). The ladder of these two movies might actually be the one that really matters as it feels like a doomed project to build a Sinister Six team-up movie around a handful of villains with disastrous solo setup movies. J.C. Chandor has directed a handful of really effective dramas in the past, and we’ll see if he’s able to translate that into a successful Spider-Man spinoff film.
Now that there’s four of these movies in this universe, I thought it would be fun to rank them. There’s a stark difference between the best two and the worst two. I genuinely like both Venom movies, and I’ll be seated on opening night when the third comes out. Tom Hardy’s interactions with his symbiote half are some of the best moments to come out of recent superhero fare, and I find the gloopy and gory visual effects actually quite fun and exhilarating. When comparing the two Venom movies to other superhero projects that are actually fundamentally bad (including nearly all of the DC Universe, which pales in comparison to Venom), I find them way more entertaining and strikingly similar to the roots of ridiculous action pieces and popcorn flicks.
I’m cautiously optimistic about the Sony Spider-Man Universe still, especially if they’re able to convince Andrew Garfield or Tobey Maguire to come back and reprise their role as Spider-Man. That seems less likely with each passing movie that fails, and we may be looking back on this group of movies as a flawed concept put together with exceptionally poor execution. They’re batting 50% right now in my book, and it could tilt either way by the end of 2024.
But for now, here’s how I’d rank the Sony Spider-Man Universe movies:
4. Morbius (2022)
Morbius doesn’t offer many highlights, and fails to deliver the thrills or excitement that general superhero movies should offer. Jared Leto (Fight Club, Panic Room, Blade Runner 2049) and Matt Smith (House of the Dragon, Last Night in Soho) seem to be operating in completely different movies, and the horror elements are shaky at best and dumb at worst. Often meme-ed more than genuinely ridiculed, Morbius lives on in a weird spot in culture; rejected completely, but oddly beloved for how bad and incompetent it is. Morbius review
3. Madame Web (2024)
There might be a fun, oddly interesting, “so bad that it’s good” movie with Madame Web, but it’s marred by so many technical errors and misfires that it makes the film hard to take seriously on any level. Dakota Johnson (Suspiria, The Lost Daughter) and Sydney Sweeney (Reality, Immaculate, Anyone But You) are a strange pairing for a superhero movie setting up further adventures down the line. Madame Web review
2. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
1. Venom (2018)
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