What If...?

[MarkB]

Good first episode. The animation was well done, though some of the voices were a little jarring compared to their movie counterparts.

 

[Older Beholder]

I really enjoyed it, they can have a lot of fun with action sequences by doing things in animation. The fight scene with the fighter planes for example.

I heard there are only 9 episodes (I'd seen it mentioned previously that there were going to be 10)

 

[Tonguez]

I really enjoyed it, they can have a lot of fun with action sequences by doing things in animation. The fight scene with the fighter planes for example.

I heard there are only 9 episodes (I'd seen it mentioned previously that there were going to be 10)

9 episodes but season 2 is already confirmed

I liked the episode and how its scenes parallel and contrast with the movie. It was a lot more mundane than I expected but it is only episode 1 so perhaps they’re leaving the gonzo weirdness til later.

Captain Carters fighting technique was awesome and much more brutal than Captain America’s - a much higher kill rate! The fighter plane combat was very cool. I also really liked how the nod to Bucky losing an arm was lampshaded and even the fight with the tentacle-hydra.

Biggest problem was it wasnt long enough!!

 

[trappedslider]

and now we have a new time line:

Marvel Studios' What If...? is likely placed right after Loki because of the destruction of the Sacred Timeline, which creates the multiverse that the new animated Disney+ takes advantage of.. Technically, What if could go anywhere, but for when it comes to pure viewing order for the audience, then its placement makes a lot of sense. Not that it's completely necessary to watch Loki before What If...?, but the show's explanation of timelines, multiverses - the whole nine-yards - it's all very helpful in understanding what The Watcher is showing the viewing audience.

The order for the MCU now stands:

1.) Captain America: The First Avenger

2.) Captain Marvel

3.) Iron Man

4.) Iron Man 2

5.) Thor

6.) The Avengers

7.) Thor: The Dark World

8.) Iron Man 3

9.) Captain America: The Winter Soldier

10.) Guardians of the Galaxy

11.) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

12.) Avengers: Age of Ultron

13.) Ant-Man

14.) Captain America: Civil War

15.) Black Widow

16.) Black Panther

17.) Doctor Strange

18.) Thor: Ragnarok

19.) Ant-Man and the Wasp

20. Avengers: Infinity War

21.) Avengers: Endgame

22.) Loki

23.) What If...?

24.) WandaVision

25.) The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Disney+ Unveils New MCU Timeline Order, Including WandaVision's Spot After Marvel's What If

Disney+ revealed their new timeline for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, placing What If...? in between both Loki and Wandavision.

thedirect.com

 

[RangerWickett]

It was okay. For a pilot, I can be forgiving, but I think the writing and pacing was off. There wasn't really a character arc for anyone.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It felt like a rushed gender swapped remake of Captain America I. I suspect one issue is the high cost of quality animation limiting the run time. But the conclusion seems to be swapping Steve and Peggy makes no real difference.

One thing touched on but not really gone into is Carter is both smarter and more ruthless than Rodgers. Judging by her accent her background is more privileged too. This might make her a better supersoldier, but also, by Erskine's standards, more corruptible.

 

[MarkB]

The one thing that seemed to come out of nowhere in this adaptation was the shield. In the movie there's a natural progression - Rogers first improvises a shield from a car door, then it gets incorporated into his stage costume, then once the Red Skull punches a dent in it he gets an upgrade.

In this version Howard Stark basically just thinks "hey, you know what would complete this ensemble? The world's most expensive shield!"

 

[Tonguez]

It felt like a rushed gender swapped remake of Captain America I. I suspect one issue is the high cost of quality animation limiting the run time. But the conclusion seems to be swapping Steve and Peggy makes no real difference.

One thing touched on but not really gone into is Carter is both smarter and more ruthless than Rodgers. Judging by her accent her background is more privileged too. This might make her a better supersoldier, but also, by Erskine's standards, more corruptible.

I'd say the gender swap of Captain America is rather the point of this What If story, especially as they've conceived the MCU versions. Though they did rush a lot of the story beats to condense the movie into the 30 minute episode.

Great point about Erskine serum though, the psychological effects were touched on in the recent Falcon & WS run so it will be interesting if they acknowledge that with Peggy too - maybe her being more brutal and killing more Nazis is a nod to her being a more ruthless person than Steve was. We'll have to see how she fairs in later episodes.

The one thing that seemed to come out of nowhere in this adaptation was the shield. In the movie there's a natural progression - Rogers first improvises a shield from a car door, then it gets incorporated into his stage costume, then once the Red Skull punches a dent in it he gets an upgrade.

In this version Howard Stark basically just thinks "hey, you know what would complete this ensemble? The world's most expensive shield!"

well, they did have all those weights embedded in the training room wall, maybe he got the idea directly from that.

what I think more glaring was just how many Wonder Woman poses they give Captain Carter - standing on the statue, and the sword and sheild motif (sure nod to Excaliber but come on!)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'd say the gender swap of Captain America is rather the point of this What If story

But "swapping the gender makes no difference" is surely a no-brainer in 2021?

 

[Morrus]

I really enjoyed it, they can have a lot of fun with action sequences by doing things in animation. The fight scene with the fighter planes for example.

For me, I find it hard to get immersed in animated action scenes. They're too easy!

I think I have a scale:

Animated
Heavily CGI (ie most Marvel flicks)
In-camera stunts (which can be enhanced with CGI but you are seeing what somebody actually did)

The last category, when it comes to watching a Mission Impossible film where Tom Cruise insists on real stunts (and even doing many of them himself), or some of the incredible in-camera work that Christopher Nolan does (when Nolan flips a truck in The Dark Knight it's very different to when F9 flipped a CGI truck), is the stuff I really love to see and which really draw me in. I feel like I'm watching something happen.

Everybody's mileage varies, of course.