“Secret Invasion” has disappointed many Marvel fans and also the trade press. FILMSTARTS editor Björn Becher even considers the project the worst MCU series to date. But the problem lies deeper than a boring script and meagre action.
At the time I’m writing this article, the final episode of “Secrect Invasion” has a score of just 10 percent positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s a negative record: no MCU series episode, no MCU series and no MCU film has such a poor rating. But my problem with “Secret Invasion” is not just the rather unimaginative final episode. It’s the whole series itself – especially how it presents itself over long stretches.
Yes, I agree with many of the criticisms circulating on the net. The final fight between G’iah (Emilia Clarke) and Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) is poorly staged and arbitrarily choreographed. And when Gravik dies at the end, it’s not a logical consequence that follows from what’s happening, but comes across as: sorry, we have to find closure now!
But that wouldn’t qualify it as an MCU low point for me. Let’s be honest: finale fights have rarely been the showpiece in the MCU – and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is what you’re all celebrating, even though the entire finale fight is quite atrocious in my opinion.
I also don’t want to get involved in all the logic debates. Of course it doesn’t make sense that G’iah, when using Drax’s powers, not only has Drax’s arm but also his tattoos. But it’s a visual stylistic device that shouldn’t be dwelled on too much.
Yes, there are also numerous more interesting stories in “Secret Invasion” than the one told at the end (the final minutes with the randomly murdering anti-Skrull groups alone are so much more exciting as a story than the series). But I find it mostly idle to talk about things that could be instead of those that are there….
… and present is a series that seems so lifeless even in its details that it spoiled my enjoyment from the start.
NICK FURY AND THE EMPTY HALLWAYS
“Secret Invasion” shows a major terrorist attack in Russia at the beginning, with some other people present. But everything else in the series often seems strangely depopulated. This is best shown in the fourth episode: the raid on US President Ritson’s (Dermot Mulroney) car convoy is a pretty solid action scene that also has an emotional moment with Talos’ (Ben Mendelsohn) sacrifice that works. But no sooner did I think to myself that maybe the series is getting better now, than another little scene immediately comes along that ruins everything.
Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) takes the injured president to the nearest hospital – and this consists of an empty corridor (which we will see several times later), a doctor and a nurse – so a staff of two (in numbers: 2 !!!) present. There comes the US president fighting for his life into the hospital and apparently no one has time for him or it is more extinct than weeks after a zombie apocalypse.
Sorry, this just comes across as cheap. Even a derided Marvel series like “Inhumans” looks more worthily made at moments like this.
