I was actually really excited by the idea of an R-rated animated Marvel movie that's completely disconnected from anything else. But only half of the things I said there came to fruition; because Sony refuses to let Spiderman be in an animated movie unless its Spider-Verse, it was released as a TV mini series that Disney+ will almost immediately bury, it does actually connect to the What If episode of the same name, which is neat I guess, but it just limits them on what they can do with the characters and the story.
I think the movie has a lot of the same problems as What If; it feels like they were forced to cram in as many Marvel characters as humanly possible, but didn't bother giving half of them any amount of screen time or development. The characters they did decide to focus on are mostly really bizarre picks.
Kamala Khan, Blade, Shang-Chi, Red Guardian, Yelena, Kate Bishop and Iron Heart are all welcome additions who make sense to have large roles here since they're seemingly going to have large roles in the future of the MCU, plus they're good and likeable characters who are beloved by most fans.
But Zemo, Valkyrie, Scott Lang head, Awkwafina, Death Dealer, Jimmy Woo, and that one Minotaur from the background of Doctor Strange 2 have no reason to be here, some of them take up so much screen time and somehow manage to add nothing aside from a bunch of unfunny jokes and obnoxious lines. Some of the characters they pick to be zombies as well are really weird, Zombie Okoye? Sure! Zombie Namor? Hell yes!! But what was the need for Zombie Abomination, Captain Marvel or Ikaris?
I never thought I'd say this about an animated Marvel project, but it should have been made as a TV show. But I don't mean some 8 episode TV show that doesn't get renewed, I mean a 20 or so episode TV series that gets renewed for at least 1 more season, that way we can actually explore some of the settings and get to know the characters before "OH MY GOD THE ZOMBIES ARE ATTACKING WE NEED TO RUN AWAY" that way when characters die or sacrifice themselves it might have actually had some weight to it
Another thing that really annoyed me was the wasted character interactions, we open with Kamala, Kate and Riri all grouped together, and it would've been a great opportunity to show off their chemistry before they eventually team up in some kind of Young Avengers team. And in one singular scene, they hint at the idea of Yelena and Shang-Chi having a thing for one another, which could've been interesting to see develop since they're going to be sharing the screen together in Avengers Doomsday next year. But in both cases, they decided to kill off the characters for shock value rather than developing any story
I think as well they just threw in too many random ideas; Infinity Hulk, doesn't fit the zombie apocalypse story whatsoever, Moon Knight Blade was really cool, but since it seems like Blade might never come into the MCU it does feel a tad jarring, the whole story regarding the Nova Corps felt weird, like when was there ever a time where they saved a planet like this in the MCU? When would people on Earth have found out about the Nova Corps? And why is Kamala Khan the main character? Don't get me wrong, I like Kamala, but she seems like an incredibly arbitrary choice for the lead role. What makes her specifically the most important character here?
I don't know. The animation is great, the voice acting is well done, most of the story is pretty good, but overall I am very disappointed by this. I hope Marvel makes more animated projects in the future, I hope they make more animated movies in the future, but I hope that if they do they can be a bit better than this.
