[6.2/10] All this for that? I can appreciate the base level epicness of a fight on the resurrected, junkyard helicarrier. But everything here was so basic and kiddie. The cackling villain, the raft of cheesy one-liners, the shallow “this is what a real team is” message. For a big final confrontation, and culmination of everything the show’s setup this season, this was pretty meh.
I liked the conception of some of the tacks the episode take. I particularly like the idea of Spider-Man trying to talk his teammates back to sanity using the spotlight episodes he shared with each of them this season. Some were more committed than others (he pretty much breezed by Nova’s) but it’s at least the show using its history for character and emotion.
The problem is that the Goblin-ized versions of the Shield cadets were so boring. We’ve played this “Spidey needs to defend himself, but doesn't want to hurt people he cares about” game so many times already. Their taunts and pod people-esque invitations to join them, arguing that power would let him save the people he cares about, was really over the top and unconvincing. And his whole conflict with Goblin over whether teams can function based on power rather than trust (with the occasional throwdown) was repetitive and on-the-nose.
We’ve also done the whole “we have to sacrifice ourselves, it’s the only way!” routine multiple times before, and season finale or no season finale, we know how it ends. I do appreciate the oblique reference to the comics with Goblin forcing Peter to choose a fight or to save a young woman he cares about, and the ensuing Nova save is solid. But overall, this episode is just a bunch of generic combat, with an underwhelming “fight your friends” conceit and a tepid thematic culmination of all the “learning to trust your team” stuff the show has done for so long.
Overall, I’m probably underrating this one a bit just because it’s disappointing relative to expectations, but “Ultimate” definitely botches the attempt to put a capstone on two seasons’ worth of adventures, which makes its attempts to do so all the more wanting.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2019-01-12T05:29:17Z
[6.2/10] All this for that? I can appreciate the base level epicness of a fight on the resurrected, junkyard helicarrier. But everything here was so basic and kiddie. The cackling villain, the raft of cheesy one-liners, the shallow “this is what a real team is” message. For a big final confrontation, and culmination of everything the show’s setup this season, this was pretty meh.
I liked the conception of some of the tacks the episode take. I particularly like the idea of Spider-Man trying to talk his teammates back to sanity using the spotlight episodes he shared with each of them this season. Some were more committed than others (he pretty much breezed by Nova’s) but it’s at least the show using its history for character and emotion.
The problem is that the Goblin-ized versions of the Shield cadets were so boring. We’ve played this “Spidey needs to defend himself, but doesn't want to hurt people he cares about” game so many times already. Their taunts and pod people-esque invitations to join them, arguing that power would let him save the people he cares about, was really over the top and unconvincing. And his whole conflict with Goblin over whether teams can function based on power rather than trust (with the occasional throwdown) was repetitive and on-the-nose.
We’ve also done the whole “we have to sacrifice ourselves, it’s the only way!” routine multiple times before, and season finale or no season finale, we know how it ends. I do appreciate the oblique reference to the comics with Goblin forcing Peter to choose a fight or to save a young woman he cares about, and the ensuing Nova save is solid. But overall, this episode is just a bunch of generic combat, with an underwhelming “fight your friends” conceit and a tepid thematic culmination of all the “learning to trust your team” stuff the show has done for so long.
Overall, I’m probably underrating this one a bit just because it’s disappointing relative to expectations, but “Ultimate” definitely botches the attempt to put a capstone on two seasons’ worth of adventures, which makes its attempts to do so all the more wanting.