That was leagues ahead of the crappy zombie story last episode. The premise is intriguing, and the places the story go are fresh and unpredictable.
Unfortunately, the episode just kinda... ends. Like it ran out of time to tell its full story. Unless there's a second part coming that I missed?
I think this proves Killmonger was kinda underused or underdeveloped in BP :( cause I had no idea he was so smart! I feel like in BP he was portrayed more like someone who uses brute force the most. But here he barely moved a finger and he initiated a war between USA and Wakanda.
Oh and that brief T’Challa funeral scene was heartbreaking.
[7.1/10] This one just tries to do too much. It’s a little bit of Iron Man, a little bit of Black Panther, a little bit of Age of Ultron, a little bit of Iron Man 2. It’s just an awkward fit trying to cram all of that into a single episode. There’s a good unifying idea here -- basically “What if Killmonger won?” or, more poetically, “What if the master’s tools will dismantle the master’s house?” But I wish the episode had used IM1 as a jumping off point, and gone in a more broadly different direction than just smushing Killmonger into that movie and then weaving him through bits and pieces of stories we’ve already seen.
This is also an episode where the show’s stilted character designs really stood out. The action looked good when you had Killmonger and the Wakandans racing through the capital on their rhino steeds to destroy the Stark mechas. But a lot of this episode was just people hanging around and talking to one another, which makes the lack of expressiveness of the characters’ faces especially noticeable. To the same end, as great as Michael B. Jordan is, he’s not a voice actor, and it shows here, with some flat line reads that sap the energy of some important scenes. (And while Mick Wingert continues to do great work as RDJ’s voice acting replacement, the actress who does Pepper sounds way off.)
(That said, between Michael B. Jordan quoting Friday Night Lights in Space Jam: A New Legacy, and quoting The Wire here, I appreciate him paying homage to his television roots!)
There’s some good individual parts here, though. I particularly like T’Challa’s speech at the end about Killmonger’s reckoning coming in this life or the next, and the common ground/differences conversation between Erik and Tony Stark is a strong moment as well. But the catch is that with all of Killmonger’s conspiring, you get to a convoluted level of everyone needing to die or be a sucker for his grand scheme to work. Like a lot else in this episode, it’s just too much.
I do appreciate the boldness of mixing together these two characters who never interacted in the main timeline but, given Tony’s arms sales background and Killmonger’s military history, have reason to cross paths. This episode’s throwing a lot at the wall, and not everything sticks, but what does is pretty good.
Continuing to confirm my theory that everything involving Wakanda is leagues above everything else in the MCU, this is a big improvement over last week's disappointing outing, even if the show continues having problems pacing itself. This is a big concept to do in 30 minutes - one that involves literally removing one of the MCU's biggest characters from the equation entirely - and while it does a great job in setting the stage, once the stage is set, it just... stops. This is a shame too cause the concepts explored here are really cool and fascinating, and like some prior episodes clearly needed more time to breathe.
Still, the good stuff is damn good here. Killmonger is one of the MCU's best villains and here we get another glimpse into just how good his planning, manipulation, and intelligence is. And just like in Black Panther, you can't help but root for him despite his obvious lust for power here, even if it's with extremely noble intentions. I do wish we got a more interesting, longer conversation between him and Rhodey about their differences in ideology, but the short runtime is once again to blame there. Still though, enjoyed this quite a bit.
I thought this was called “What If?…” but I end up saying “that’s it?”
LOL at Michael B. Jordan getting to say “What? I like anime” in MCU.
killmonger turning out to be an anime fan is amazing tbh
my fave episode so far. The characterization of Killmonger in this ep shows that even in this alt universe, he was going to do what he was going to do.
Interesting take that for once centers on a villain. Like the others, not sure what caused the change, it's not clear why he was here in the first place, but in what follows, it's a very different view of the character. Real mastermind and more evil. We mostly follow his chain of backstabbing to get more power.
As expected the action replays some portions of Iron Man and Black Panther.
The scheme went a little too smoothly for Killmonger but overall a pretty cool alternate storyline for Tony Stark. The Wakanda battle was cool.
Wait....what
That's it.....
The second episode was still the best out of this hole season and this one just felt flat to me. Everyone was just following Kilmonger and that was that really, idk I just wasn't as engaged as I was with say the
Dr Strange one.
This had such promise to be a great kick ass episode and it just went by the numbers then......well stopped.
This series definitely hit it's peak with that sensational amazing 2nd episode after that it's been a slow decline. 5/10
(please be good for
these last 3)
Thought it was going to be interesting based on the title, but it was lackluster. Decent idea for a premise, but failed on execution. Everyone had to act like an idiot for it to work. Tony Stark may not have become Iron Man, but he's still a genius. That doesn't stop him from being dumb as hell in this, however. And the US military will declare war based on two individuals, one of them not even being enlisted, being murdered with zero evidence as to who actually did it? A bridge too far.
I can't tell if they didn't get the likeness rights for Robert Downey Jr., or if he just looks weird because they all look slightly off. But he looks like RDJ run through a Steve Buscemi filter.
best episode yet! the ending didn't feel contrived and it felt like a far better standalone story than all the previous episodes combined, which is super surprising because i went in thinking this would be the most boring only to have my expectations completely shattered. it had its flaws, of course, but for further reinforcing how killmonger is one of the mcu's most compelling antagonists and having a super interesting storyline with many twists and relatively thought-provoking themes/messages, this episode is definitely getting a rewatch (unlike the others)!
Terrible episode that requires so many leaps in logic. The idea that Killmonger, who wasn't portrayed as the smartest of bad guys, would get away with all of this considering the amount of surveillance tech Stark and Wakanda use is just nonsense. Also, why would Tony confront him with only a robot? You know he would have had other options in place, like shields of some kind if things went wrong. Also, and this is just my opinion, while Michael B Jordan may be handsome, he is not a great actor, even when he's just voicing a cartoon character. I struggle to get through most of his work and this was no exception.
When even the Watcher is up there looking sad by the turn of events :upside_down: I honestly came out of this feeling the worst for T'challa's parents. Stop making them sad, pls.
Killmonger: "I uncovered plans to assassinate Tony Stark while on a deep cover operation inside the Ten Rings."
Obadiah: "Whoa! Whoa! Well, there you have it, folks. That's gonna be a wrap on this conversation."
Killmonger: "Yeah. Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you? Because those plans were bankrolled by Stark Industry COO Obadiah Stane."
Obadiah: "Tony, I..."
[Chuckling nervously]
Obadiah: "I don't know what this kid's talking about. Let's get outta here and work through this."
Killmonger: "No, no, don't you worry about that. I brought receipts. Wire transfers, bank documents, phone records. Google it. I just dropped it all online."
Tony: "If we could miniaturise an arc reactor... No, that's a dumb idea."
Killmonger: "What we need is vibranium. With the right juice, it can act as a self-sustaining energy source.
Tony: "Yeah, now you're thinking. Too bad Pops used up the last of it during the war."
Killmonger: "Hmm. Not all of it."
Tony: "I might have just the guy."
Pepper: "Ulysses Klaue? No, Tony. Absolutely not."
Killmonger: "Stark R and D is no joke. The sonic taser thing is legit."
Klaue: "My, my, my. I would not want to play chess with you, my friend."
Killmonger: "The difference between you and me..."
[Pushing spear]
Killmonger: "Is that you can't see the difference between you and me."General Ross: "Congragulations, Lieutenant. You just invented 21st century warfare."
Killmonger: "It's like you said. Wakandans are full of surprises."
Queen Ramonda: "For T'challa!"
7/10
Can we stop with Wakanda already. Didn't like Black Panther and this is by far the weakest episode, yet.
okay this is the only one of these so far that was genuinely cooking with gas. its an inspired concept that meaningfully engaged with canon while being rooted in the core characterizations of all of its major players.
Killmonger here is very well characterized his relationship with tony and his plan make sense with what we know about him. and seeing it all unfold was genuinely engaging.
like i would actually watch the full fledged movie version of this. maybe with some adjustments (sorry 10 year old shuri leading the resistance is a but jarring) but overall a solid concept.
Seeing Ramonda in an action role was awesome.
So the episodes have definitely stopped getting better each week now….. that’s cool….. I knew it wouldn’t keep it up so that’s fine I guess….. this was ok
Fairly dull episode, all things considered. Nothing super obviously terrible just.. bland.
That was way too much for < 30 minutes, it was so uncomfortably rushed that it felt like playing catch-up with each scene. I think even the lines were spoken so fast that the dialogue felt even more stilted. The story was all over the place (with almost everything and everyone who had the say just falling in line according to his plans), and the pacing didn't do it any favors.
A big redeeming factor, especially since they cut this off at one of the worst possible times (I guess this'll be continued in Season 2 like Captain Carter), was the small sneak peek for the possible little Shuri and Pepper team-up.
Thats it? Eh... Very weak episode. Somehow everybody became dumb and Killmonger became a genius.
Yeah this weeks was pretty weak. This show really peaked with Captain Britain and Dr Strange's episodes. Hoping they've saved some more of that quality for the final few weeks.
Since the Doctor Strange episode, the show has been progressively getting worse.
I admit I went into this not expecting much nor being that interested in the overall scenario.
Tony Stark being saved before becoming Iron Man is interesting and something I like to see explored, but crossing it with the path of Killmonger felt completely out of the left field, and I‘m saying this after an episode that had literal zombies in it.
But see, there is completely out of the blue bonkers crazy and then there is this weird "whatever" kind of way we got this episode.
That being said, I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would, mostly due to a great voice performance by Michael B. Jordan.
Generally speaking, a lot of MCU actors reprised their roles again and mostly did a fine job. As for the other actors, Mick Wingert does a passable Robert Downey Jr impression and Ozioma Akagha is a fine Shuri, even if her character design looked like a twelve year old. Only Beth Hoyt stood a little bit out, not sounding at all like Gwyneth Paltrow and giving a rather uninterested performance.
As for the story, it was probably a good thing to choose Killmonger as the main character here instead of Tony. He was portrayed as a very cunning villain, playing Wakanda and the U.S against each other and showing he is way more than just the muscle of the operation.
I kinda still think a more interesting "What If" scenario for his character would’ve been seeing Erik grow up in Wakanda after his father‘s death though.
Well, it was still a more interesting episode than the first one, which basically just switched out Steve with Peggy and added a tentacle monster in the end.
On some loose ends, it was pretty badass seeing Queen Ramonda lead the Dora Milaje into battle.
Also, how fun must it have been for Michael B. Jordan to record the line about Erik liking Anime?
Lucky to get a 6. Just felt pointless.
Shout by Paul VincentVIP 5BlockedParent2021-09-16T16:32:30Z
Well, this wasn't quite the worst episode of the show but it's a very thin margin between this and the lifetime remake of the first avenger. This story was alright, but I couldn't help but think while watching it how if they were going to do a Killmonger episode how much more interesting it would've been to just see him never leave Wakanda. He cut his way through the entire Iron Man cast a little too easily and somehow outsmarted a guy who invented time travel, and on top of all of that it just ends out of nowhere like they didn't know how they were going to wrap it up, so they just didn't. Definitely below par here.