Has a lot of potential

TJ1380

I've been hearing about this show since shortly before the movie was released, and although I was disappointed by the fact that it was going to be completely computer generated, I was pretty excited by the fact that Brian Michael Bendis (the writer of Ultimate Spider-man) was going to be the head writer. After about a year had gone by with nothing on the air, however, I figured that the project probably wasn't going to get off the ground, so I forgot all about it. As anyone could probably imagine, I was pleasantly surprised to turn on MTV last Friday night and find that the premiere episode of "Spider-Man" was about to start.

Overall, I have to say that the show was about what I expected it to be when I first heard about it. It follows the continuity set in motion by the events of the first movie, but the characters, dialog, and overall feel of the movie feels more like the "Ultimate Spider-Man" comic series. Not that I'm complaining (especially since USM is one of my all-time favorite comic book series), but one of the things that I liked about the movie is that it felt like an old-school 1960s comic book story. The series is somewhat of a departure from that. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but some fans of the movie might not approve. Personally, as a huge fan of "Ultimate Spider-Man," I have to give the dialog and portrayal of the characters a big thumbs up.

I found the animation to be quite good. While I don't care much for computer-generated imagery (it just looks too mechanical), the series manages to maintain a sleek, stylized, and very appealing look that suits the character of Spider-Man quite well. The characters all move fluidly and naturally, and the action scenes are all exciting and fast-paced. My only complaint is that some of the backgrounds seem to be a little bland, but that's to be expected from an all-CGI television show (hey, not all CGI can be as good as Pixar).

To sum everything up, I felt that it was a pretty decent show that has the potential to be something truly great. It's a little different from the Spider-Man movie or the Spider-Man television shows from the past, but it's definitely worth a look.

score /10

TJ1380 15 July 2003

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0827127/