Secret Invasion is the latest entry in the Disney+ run of Marvel Cinematic Universe offerings that have been coming fast and furious since 2021. The receptions to each one has been far more varied than we’d gotten accustomed to with Marvel action products, and that itself has been a major online topic of discussion. No matter how you feel about any of them, we can all agree that the once bulletproof MCU is now subject to similar commentary as many other films and TV series have been getting online – some fair, some unfair, and some just downright ridiculous – and not just from trolls or stuffy movie critics, but even from avowed MCU loyalists.
The title is taken from a Marvel Comics event where the Skrulls had infiltrated all corners of the Marvel Universe in an effort to take over the Earth after their home world is destroyed. In the MCU as we know it the Skrulls are not a hostile force, but a rogue sect has splintered off and become radicalized into wanting to trigger World War 3 so they can pick the bones in the aftermath. They are led by Gravik (played by Kingsley Ben Adir), who is joined by G’iah (Emilia Clarke). G’iah is the daughter of Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), who we know from Captain Marvel, and has taken a different path from her father who has chosen to work with the humans of Earth since meeting Carol Danvers and Nick Fury.
So……how did I like this? I’ve played a la carte with Marvel’s offerings since Endgame but I was here for this one since it offered another go round with Fury (Samuel L Jackson), War Machine (Don Cheadle) and Talos who was great in Captain Marvel. It also promised a deep dive into who Nick Fury was and he became who he is in this universe. Now how was it? Let’s see:
The Good
The series was very well acted. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Mendelsohn, Ben Adir, Olivia Colman, and Charlayne Woodard all did great work. Woodward, playing Priscilla, Fury’s secret spouse, adds some extra weight to Fury’s character and to the question of prejudice against those we don’t know. There were some riveting one on one conversations between Jackson’s Nick Fury and each of them at various points throughout the series. As for the newcomers Colman and Woodard stole every scene they were in and Adir was riveting as Gravik.
Unfortunately that’s about it.
The Bad
The comic book version of Secret Invasion was a big Marvel event that drew in from all corners of the Marvel Universe. It went on for several months and had several crossovers with regular series. And they tried to fit that type of story into a 6 episode TV series, when it would have been better to make a movie out of it. You have an alien infiltration that has been escalating over 25 years, refugees hiding among us in disguise while helping us fight all kinds of evils inside and outside our world, a plot by a rogue sect to start World War 3, kidnapping and replacing of several high ranking officials by said aliens, and some major scientific experimentation to create super aliens. All while telling the story of how Nick Fury became who he is today, introducing some new characters and giving some existing ones a sendoff. That’s a lot, and too much to pack into this all too brief run.
The story really suffered by not having some more of The Avengers around. All we had was war machine and turns out he was a Skrull so we never got to see him suit up or anything. Other than Nick and Rhodey we didn’t see any of the characters we’d come to know and love. The Skrulls can impersonate anyone, which makes one of the hooks to this story the possibility that someone who has been around for years was a Skrull all along. If there was a time to get a departed cast member back for a one off return, this was it. What if say, Black Widow had been a Skrull all along? Or Tony Stark, or Steve Rogers? What if Fury was one himself? Instead of anything permanently Earth shattering we got one that has already been undone when they could have really turned the world on its ear with a bigger, more permanent reveal.
Killing off Maria Hill was another sore spot for me. Hill has been with us since the first Avengers film and has shown up along the way several times along the way. She’s not a main character but deserved a better ending than to get shot during a melee at the end of episode 1 of this series, and to just be dead. If there was ever a time for a Skrull reveal that was it, even if it meant Hill had been dead already and had replaced by a Skrull. Her death as it was played out didn’t give anything to the story that couldn’t have been achieved some other way. Yes it was meant to frame Fury as her killer and force him underground but that didn’t exactly come to fruition in any kind of substantive way. There are other ways they could have set Fury up without unceremoniously killing off a long serving character. And that’s before we get to the execution of it all. Hill was killed off in such a nonchalant way that it failed to give any sense of gravity to her or what came next. It didn’t feel any different than if they’d killed off somebody who’d just started working for Fury. Major miss there.
And the ending…..oh boy. The Kree/Skrull war is essentially the starting point for Captain Marvel in the MCU, and by the series own revelations a focal point in the life and career of Nick Fury and the forming of the Avengers. And yet it ends offscreen, with not so much as a single onscreen interaction between the two species? That in itself is movie worthy, al la Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country. And there’s the issue of who the Skrulls were impersonating. We knew Rhodey was one, so that reveal was a nothingburger. But besides him, we got Everett Ross and that’s it. If there was ever time to turn an onscreen death into a fake out, this was it. Maria Hill was right there waiting to be brought back, and yet…..nope. Or you can have introduced someone to the MCU that way, even as just a name on a list. Something, anything other than a guy we already knew was one and another one (Ross) that we really don’t care that much about.
Other Stuff
I saw some complaints about the CGI fight scene between Gravik and G’iah. I honestly didn’t have any issues with it. I’m not a CGI stickler at all; I can’t name one movie where the quality of the CGI either redeemed the film or ruined it for me. I find harping about CGI to be something that people do when they’re either piling on something they don’t like or are reaching for something to criticize when a movie or show isn’t as bad as they just knew it was going to be.
Final Verdict
Once it was over, this whole thing felt……unnecessary. That on its own isn’t a bad thing, but if you’re going to do that then it needs to be enjoyable, entertaining time that we’re spending hanging out with the characters. Six episodes with Clint Barton after his work was essentially done weren’t necessary either and yet Hawkeye was a fun and good time that made it worth watching. This was a bit of a slog at times and the overall gloominess wasn’t worth sitting through since all the things that may matter going forward could have been achieved in future films or series. Was it terrible? No. But is there any rewatch value beyond seeing Nick Fury as a main character for a bit? Not for me. Even if we see Varra, Falsworth, or G’iah down the road nothing that went on here would make me recommend this to someone to learn about them.
Chock this one up as another post-Endgame letdown. While all the ‘MCU fail’ talk is a bit overblown – Phases 1 and 2 had their share of ‘mid’ – the lack of a singular goal has made the individual series and films easier to find weaknesses in and pick apart. This one is no different; were it simply a piece on a puzzle that we knew was being built it might be a bit easier to watch and move on from but since we don’t know where any of this stuff is going all we have to judge it on is itself, and in this case I found it lacking.
Final Grade – Quality: 3 out of 6, Enjoyability: 2 out of 4. Total Grade: 5/10
Stroke of Genius 