[7.3/10] Spidey and Doc Ock having a team-up (or a temporary professional partnership, depending on how octopodi your parlance is), is lots of fun. Making this version of Doc Ock high-strung, officious, and above all convinced of his superiority to anyone and everyone makes for a good dynamic juxtaposed with “woe is me” Peter Parker.
We sort of blow through Otto becoming Doc Ock, but I like how his “transformation” is a consequence of his own hubris (thinking no one else can defuse the power rods like him), and that the same sense of inflated self-worth extends to him thinking he can save the day as a superhero. But even there, his turn toward masked adventuring comes after Peter Parker convinces him that his life has worth and value despite his accident. There’s a sense of Peter hating his uptight teacher, but coming to understand him better, and a “superior” scientist learning something from one of his measley students that gives the episode a little thematic balance.
I also found myself unjoying Crimson Dynamo to an unexpected degree. I’m only faintly familiar with the character, and the whole “lost my family” backstory is a little generic, but the big red cosmo-bot makes for a neat enemy, and there’s some nice setpieces of her vs. Spidey and Doc Ock. Much of that comes from the awkward but amusing team-up between Doctor Octpous and his new “sidekick” -- a pairing of two different kinds of giant nerds, but it’s all still good.
Overall, the titular credit-hogging character’s dynamic with Spider-Man and Peter Parker does a lot of the work here, but a unique baddie and some entertaining back-and-forth makes the episode enjoyable.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2019-05-23T21:46:16Z
[7.3/10] Spidey and Doc Ock having a team-up (or a temporary professional partnership, depending on how octopodi your parlance is), is lots of fun. Making this version of Doc Ock high-strung, officious, and above all convinced of his superiority to anyone and everyone makes for a good dynamic juxtaposed with “woe is me” Peter Parker.
We sort of blow through Otto becoming Doc Ock, but I like how his “transformation” is a consequence of his own hubris (thinking no one else can defuse the power rods like him), and that the same sense of inflated self-worth extends to him thinking he can save the day as a superhero. But even there, his turn toward masked adventuring comes after Peter Parker convinces him that his life has worth and value despite his accident. There’s a sense of Peter hating his uptight teacher, but coming to understand him better, and a “superior” scientist learning something from one of his measley students that gives the episode a little thematic balance.
I also found myself unjoying Crimson Dynamo to an unexpected degree. I’m only faintly familiar with the character, and the whole “lost my family” backstory is a little generic, but the big red cosmo-bot makes for a neat enemy, and there’s some nice setpieces of her vs. Spidey and Doc Ock. Much of that comes from the awkward but amusing team-up between Doctor Octpous and his new “sidekick” -- a pairing of two different kinds of giant nerds, but it’s all still good.
Overall, the titular credit-hogging character’s dynamic with Spider-Man and Peter Parker does a lot of the work here, but a unique baddie and some entertaining back-and-forth makes the episode enjoyable.