Ugh. After last week's excellent episode, this was a major step down and makes me reconsider following this series. The writing was atrocious, with every other character quipping at the worst of times. (Worst offender: Sharon Carter quipping "Blam" after blowing Happy's head off.) Not only that, but the third act turn hangs on a supremely illogical and shitty character decision.
This, to me, is an example of what happens when the MCU "formula" is handled by bad writers. You get this illogical mess that thinks it's way funnier than it is. Hope this is the low point of the series and not a sign of things to come.
Hearing Chadwick say "In my culture, death is not the end. They are still with us, as long as we do not forget them" was such a gut punch.
Once again, comedy ruins it all. This was the second worst chapter. I think the big problem here is the fact that they show us an interesnting idea, a dark premise and then they say fuck it, lets make stupid jokes and make the worst characters survive. I already said i hate Ruffalo Hulk, but Scott in this chapter? damn he was sooooo anoying and dumb. Spiderman was surely better than MCU one, i think the only good moment was that uncle Ben reference, the rest was crap.
[8.0/10] I am a sucker for a good zombie tale, so this is catnip for me. What I like about this episode is that it’s framed as the anti-Endgame in some ways. You have Okoye and Ant-Man and Hulk present, but for the most part, it’s a “Save the World” story involving several heroes who weren’t there post-Snap. It made for a different sort of Avengers Team, and it was cool to see.
I also love how straight they played a lot of the traditional zombie movie tropes (with Peter Parker commenting on them as they went), while mixing in the natural superhero exaggerations. Inevitably in zombie tales, you get some member of the group who’s infected but hasn’t succumbed yet. That being Hope, and having her make the sacrifice play by going giant to get our heroes to safety, is a nice way to blend a familiar beat with the larger-than-life world of the MCU.
Likewise, undead stories often involve some character who cannot quite let go of a loved one, even though they’re infected. Having that be Vision and Wanda is not only a cool twist, but it has extra resonance after the events of WandaVision.
Plus, if nothing else, it’s just cool to see zombies using superhero powers. Zombie Cap fighting Bucky on a train and getting sliced through the middle with a shield is badass as hell. Zombie Wanda using her witch powers to feed is scary beyond words. And even zombie Happy wearing a cap arm and saying “Blam!” in both his human and undead form is a laugh. There’s some inherent spark to the gimmick, and this What If? takes full advantage of it. (See also: Ant-Man as a head in a jar moving around via the use of Doctor Strange’s cape.)
There’s even plenty of fun Spider-Man business in this. His orientation video is a ton of fun on its own and feels very on-brand. There’s ballast in his explanation that he’s able to keep his chin up and “keep smiling” through all of this since he “has practice” when it comes to loss. And I even like how this one reverses the dynamic from Endgame, where it’s Peter lamenting that he doomed “Mr. Stark” and the rest of the Avengers because he wasn’t there to save them after he turned down membership in Homecoming, the negative image of Tony blaming himself for Peter’s death by dragging him into the Avengers.
All in all, this one makes great use of its central conceit with inventive set pieces and some cool remixes of both zombie movies and MCU escapades.
Oh, this one stings. Marvel Studios' first lackluster piece of television ends up being the Marvel Zombies adaptation, which is easily the biggest tragedy of the whole thing. The original comic, as cliche as much of it is in terms of zombie movies and stories, was a thrilling, violent, and grim tale, and while this extremely loose adaptation is certainly violent (much more so then expected considering), the thrills just aren't here and it rotates between the same grim, hopeless tone as the comic while also taking cues from Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead in terms of humor and it just doesn't work. MCU humor isn't for everybody and while I normally like it more then most, here was the time that even I tuned out and just wanted the jokes to stop for once. Combine that with rushed, frenetic pacing that has zero breathing room and an ending that leaves nothing resolved and you have a mess of a time - this should have been a full hour frankly.
There is good stuff here though in midst of the lackluster storytelling though. Peter and Hope are MVPs for sure, and their relationship is heartfelt and tragic, and I love the idea of Vision and Wanda's roles being reversed in the midst of all of the chaos of the zombie apocalypse. The animation also remains as great as ever with some truly striking imagery, particularly during a train station sequence. Overall though this one was a disappointment, which sucks considering it's pedigree.
Didn't really work for me this one, okay that coming from the quantum realm I'll buy it and having my man Bucky running around with the shield absolutely but everything else just didn't really sit right with me and before I knew it, it was over with no real investment in the none ending.
Head in jar, hope going big to become a massive problem, vision taking himself out for no good reason, more help alive for proper attunement, their was more that didn't work but this just wasn't the best What If for me.
It wasn't the worst that would be episode 1 but this was definitely not one of the better ones.
I think I nodded off 2mins before the end.
5/10
Pretty lazy writing… it's basically the same thing as any zombie superhero mashup.
The premise that the zombie virus came from the quantum realm is pretty random. Hope sacrificing herself despite knowing that once turned she would be a threat to her friends makes no sense. Vision's "atonement" aka suicide doesn't make any sense. Plus Vision would never do that. Bucky trying to hold off Wanda is pointless. The whole thing doesn't have a proper ending. Also how is Scott's head in a jar? Also how many episodes of What If are going to be premised around Hank Pym?
I appreciate the effort put into making this series and enjoy the technicality behind the animation and rendering. It's awesome.
I could give so little fucks about zombies and the media surrounding them. So from the outset this wasn't one I was excited for. That said, I did chuckle at a few moments that were just pure horror-comedy energy. Also liked Hope getting some more action/screentime. Though mostly I was just annoyed at Hank fucking Pym ruining everything AGAIN.
peter parker being the dorky dork he is in this is amazing
I actually like the comedy sections in the episode. wingardium leviosa made me gig
Wow! I came to the comment section expecting to see nothing but praise, but it seems like a 50/50 split in terms of love vs hate.
Personally I loved it and thought it was the best episode of the series thus far. But then I really like the humor aspect which l, I guess, isn’t for everyone.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!........
BLAM!!
That was SO funny!!
How do they 1up themselves every episode.
Did Peter just say “uncle Ben” ? That’s not happened before right?!
Vision could have pulled the stone out of his own head the whole time, kinda makes half of infinity war a little pointless.
Paul Rudd was great, Hudson Thames was great, and that definitely could have gone the other way as Tom Holland is hard to replace, we also got Chadwick Boseman again which will always be nice.
Great episode but not surprising as it was the zombies episode which is the one I was most excited for.
I thought a lot of these past episodes were silly but none reached the heights of goofiness this one did. Honestly, I can see some people fully leaning into the slapstick nature of this one but for me, it just didn't work. This episode especially flounders when it tries to have heartfelt or serious moments. Scenes like Hope's sacrifice were undercut by the truly non-stop stream of jokes and rejoinders.
I also spent most of this episode utterly baffled by basic logical gaps in almost every aspect of the episode. How and why did the zombie Avengers who were turned in San Franciso end up in New York? Why would zombie Thanos still want to capture all the infinity stones? Why do some zombies seem only motivated to eat people while others are demonstrated to be complex thinkers? Why did Vision commit to being Wanda's Renfield for so long to almost instantly turn good? Why did Hope take so much longer to turn than every other zombie we saw in this ep?
I will say it wasn't all bad. Hope here had more robust and meaningful characterization than in both Ant-Man films (it's funny how removing Scott from the equation almost instantly makes her a more interesting character) and Peter was also pretty solidly drawn.
Great concept. One of the rare Marvel stories I actually read back in the days. Not the best treatment though.
Vision's behavior is entirely nonsensical. Scott's jokes are exceedingly annoying. Spidey is cool though.
Becomes more and more stupid at the end:
Classic zombie trope: Hope is bitten, and will turn. But wtf are they doing ? Just remove her fucking suit ! She can't do anything without it and is just a regular human. Why would you leave a 20m tall zombie ?!?
In the same vein, why would you sacrifice Banner that not only could have helped for a potential cure, but will become an almost invincible zombie ?!?
Final detail: not clear how Thanos would be here, catching an Earth virus, yet still having all the Stones.
Apparently in the zombie MCU it's possible to take a train from Grand Central to New Jersey?
This episode is the best argue with the wall
Great men are great because of women, and bad men are bad because of women.
Hank Pym is 2 for 2 in fucking up these alternate universes. So is he the most dangerous person in the MCU? A hair trigger away from destroying everything, in more ways than one, apparently.
I'm going to assume they had Kurt in this because they couldn't get Michael Peña.
Those zombies getting to crawl on Hope's giant butt, I see you.
Good premise that falls flat by the middle. It's quite interesting that zombies are capable of skills to some degree, but just not when it's Hawkeye, who seems clumsy at taking out the still Sharon Carter at a really short distance for what he has showed before.
might contain spoilers!!
honestly, this episode was decent, I did like a few things about it, it was super cool seeing the avengers zombified and stuff. I feel like some characters were acting a little weird, like how bucky just killed steve and barely reacted, same with sam. Also I honestly do believe vision would do what he did, but it just came across as sort of weird? i don’t think he’d kill allies to feed wanda but it is what it is I guess lol. I think this one could’ve done better if it focused more on the horror aspect if it made sense?? idk it just seemed like there was too much funnies for an episode meant to focus on horror.
overall I did like this episode and it was alright :’)
Unfortunately the best part of this episode was to hear Chadwicks voice again.
Not their best, but it filled a gap in my day so who am I to complain.
Well, the MCU meets the Zombie Apocalypse might the craziest "What If" scenario yet.
Weirdly enough it also actually works very well (one of the few times I actually have no idea if this is based on a comic or just done for this TV show, I assume the former though).
I have given up on the facial animation by now and (probably) won’t complain about it anymore. Surprisingly the odd "stiffness" worked well on the zombies. While still not reaching Episode 2‘s height of animation, it was a solid offering. It took me a moment to recognize Happy though.
Most of the original actors appear again to voice their characters, sadly only absent is Tom Holland who is replaced by Hudson Thames here. Thames does a well enough job in mimicking Holland‘s voice, which is probably why he was cast in the first place. They could’ve done with Josh Keaton as well, making it a nice callback to "The Spectacular Spider-Man," but I guess was off the table since he is voicing MCU‘s Steve Rogers here.
I enjoyed the ragtag group of Zombie Survivors a lot. I‘m a sucker for interactions between characters that usually don’t have much to do with each other and they played each other off very well. Especially touching here, the bond between Hope and Peter.
The tone is very reminiscent of 2009‘s "Zombieland" blending comedy with tragic elements and even Peter‘s survival vlogs seem to be inspired by the film.
Halfway through I was genuinely surprised by how much I ended up caring about the characters and what would happen to them.
If I had one major criticism then that due to its limited run time the episode feels very rushed, especially the ending (yes, I‘m aware not every episode can or should be an hour long). Especially Vision‘s turnaround towards the end felt unearned and out of nowhere.
Some stray thoughts:
I would want Peter Parker on my Zombie Survival Team
Doctor Strange‘s Cape is now the MVP for the second episode in a row
Zombie Wanda is pretty scary
I completely lost it when Vision turned Scott into one of the jar heads from Futurama
It was... Okay. It's definitely not the worst episode so far. That first one with Captain Carter almost made me reconsider watching the entire show. It was interesting to see how it played out, but nothing mind blowing here, it didn't leave you thinking about the episode afterwards like last week did. The only problem I could say it had was trying to be way funnier then it turned out being. I like the humor in the movies, but contained in these much shorter episodes it falls pretty flat. Also, can someone coach Mark Ruffalo on his voice acting please?
The Wanda vision part of the story was not good, but I get it. The writers are obviously just playing off common Zombie tropes in movies and shows. Wish they did something original though
It's a fun episode, for the most part. I'm not really a fan of zombie movies, but I'm not gonna lie, seeing zombies with superpowers is pretty cool. However, it kind of fell on its face after the halfway point, and there is too much quippy dialogue for such a dark set of circumstances. And to top it all off, it's missing the entire third act, ending on a mildly unsatisfying cliffhanger. That could have been solved by having longer episodes. In fact, a lot of my problems with What If...? could be solved by having longer episodes...
After last week's episode, this was a step down. Was still a lot of fun to see all the avengers we know zombified, but other than a few moments here and there this episode fell pretty flat for me most of the time. The pacing and humour was weird, and something I've noticed with particular episodes like Captain Carter is that the facial animations don't always match the voice acting. It's very distracting to watch and it kinda ruins some of the better acted moments for me... its like the animation can't keep up with the voice actor.
Despite the negative comments, this episode was still a lot of fun and definitely more interesting story-wise than some of the previous episodes, even if it was one of the weakest acted ones.
PS: You might notice the Watcher is becoming more and more visible as the episodes go on. We can now even see his entire face and skin colour
Vision: "Sergeant Barnes, you will not find what you're looking for."
I swear this show keeps one-upping itself every episode. This is quickly becoming my favourite MCU series.
7/10
Shout by TheLazyReviewerBlockedParent2021-09-08T10:59:14Z
So Marvel Zombies is based on a classic alt-universe storyline that I've never read. That aside, this episode felt very messy. Ruffalo's Hulk continues to be the goofiest character in the MCU, both live action and now animated. The story was okay at best but the ending felt messy. A step down from the last 2 weeks.