Review Detail
9.3 6 10Overall rating
9.5
Audio/Video Quality
9.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
9.0
Quality:
SD source. Looks more or less as good as my DVD. I actually watched the Carnage episodes on Disney Plus afterwards and it looked a lot worse... I'm assuming maybe they did a quick upscale or something? Really doesn't look good. Spider-man's suit is a blur of red that smothers the black web-lines.
Anyway... I digress. The quality here is good considering the source. I didn't see any of the random coloured rectangles that another reviewer mentioned.
Video editing:
Nothing stood out as off to me beyond some jittery animation and quick cuts, but I think that's just the nature of the way the series is animated and edited. I checked the cut-list and nothing indicated to me that what I saw was as a result of the cuts.
Audio editing:
Didn't notice any transitions. Nice work.
Narrative:
As mentioned above, the series has a "rushed" feel to it generally, so it's not really something that's fair to criticise. I do think that it gets a bit tiring when the episode is an hour long rather than 20 minutes, but that's the nature of the beast.
There were, however, two moments that stood out to me as particularly quick and they were moments that were cut by the editor. One was the meeting of the buyers with the Kingpin, and the other was Jameson and Spidey's meet-up prior to rescuing Jameson's son. It's been too long since I've seen the original to know whether the difference is negligible or not, I just know that it felt over-quick and that the cut-list shows changes were made there. These are pretty minor qualms though and these moments can still be argued to be in line with the way the series generally presents its narrative.
No narrative issues were observably introduced. A couple of observations below, neither of which affect the rating:
- The attempt to cut Brock's hatred for spider-man seems superfluous. It's apparent that he's out for revenge, and other moments allude to that. I don't think the line that was removed achieved what was intended.
- I kinda find it funny that select quips were cut, presumably in reducing silliness or cheese. Boy, this show is drenched in cheese, silly lines and terrible puns - this edit included, despite trims. It's kinda just the nature of the show, so trimming some and not others again seems superfuous.
Enjoyment:
This was a very enjoyable nostalgia trip. I used to watch this on the telly a lot back in the day and I would often rewatch the venom-related episodes on my DVD. I always favoured those episodes since it leans into more space, aliens and science fiction, which is very much my bag.
Subjectively, I was sad to see the opening sequence in space go, but I understand the reasoning for it being cut. I would also have liked to have seen the Carnage episodes incorporated, which I think is possible, though would require quite a bit more narrative tweaking.
All in all: Well put together with plenty of tweaks and trims that I didn't pick up on and I can only assume improved things in most cases. Having watched other episodes of the show recently, I can confirm that there are some pretty laughable and dodgy moments with the animation, and I hardly noticed that kind of thing here. Great job!
SD source. Looks more or less as good as my DVD. I actually watched the Carnage episodes on Disney Plus afterwards and it looked a lot worse... I'm assuming maybe they did a quick upscale or something? Really doesn't look good. Spider-man's suit is a blur of red that smothers the black web-lines.
Anyway... I digress. The quality here is good considering the source. I didn't see any of the random coloured rectangles that another reviewer mentioned.
Video editing:
Nothing stood out as off to me beyond some jittery animation and quick cuts, but I think that's just the nature of the way the series is animated and edited. I checked the cut-list and nothing indicated to me that what I saw was as a result of the cuts.
Audio editing:
Didn't notice any transitions. Nice work.
Narrative:
As mentioned above, the series has a "rushed" feel to it generally, so it's not really something that's fair to criticise. I do think that it gets a bit tiring when the episode is an hour long rather than 20 minutes, but that's the nature of the beast.
There were, however, two moments that stood out to me as particularly quick and they were moments that were cut by the editor. One was the meeting of the buyers with the Kingpin, and the other was Jameson and Spidey's meet-up prior to rescuing Jameson's son. It's been too long since I've seen the original to know whether the difference is negligible or not, I just know that it felt over-quick and that the cut-list shows changes were made there. These are pretty minor qualms though and these moments can still be argued to be in line with the way the series generally presents its narrative.
No narrative issues were observably introduced. A couple of observations below, neither of which affect the rating:
- The attempt to cut Brock's hatred for spider-man seems superfluous. It's apparent that he's out for revenge, and other moments allude to that. I don't think the line that was removed achieved what was intended.
- I kinda find it funny that select quips were cut, presumably in reducing silliness or cheese. Boy, this show is drenched in cheese, silly lines and terrible puns - this edit included, despite trims. It's kinda just the nature of the show, so trimming some and not others again seems superfuous.
Enjoyment:
This was a very enjoyable nostalgia trip. I used to watch this on the telly a lot back in the day and I would often rewatch the venom-related episodes on my DVD. I always favoured those episodes since it leans into more space, aliens and science fiction, which is very much my bag.
Subjectively, I was sad to see the opening sequence in space go, but I understand the reasoning for it being cut. I would also have liked to have seen the Carnage episodes incorporated, which I think is possible, though would require quite a bit more narrative tweaking.
All in all: Well put together with plenty of tweaks and trims that I didn't pick up on and I can only assume improved things in most cases. Having watched other episodes of the show recently, I can confirm that there are some pretty laughable and dodgy moments with the animation, and I hardly noticed that kind of thing here. Great job!
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched
Digital