Online Series: Secret Invasion

[Pierce Hawthorne]

I thought it was good, and undeserving of the super low ratings it got... But I also agree it was still underwhelming compared to what it could have been.


For me I'd say it was a solid ~7.5/10 but it's a bit frustrating when you can see fairly easily what it could have been. Like the fact Rhodes has likely been a Skrull since just after Civil War is kind of wild to me.. But it's so disappointing and honestly hard to believe he'd be the only Avenger that becane a Skrull in all of this... And had they went and turned a couple more or even just one big player into a Skrull, it could have been that much more crazy.


That said, I have a feeling this is going to end up proving to be a pretty pivotal setup for Captain America 4. I'm also intrigued to see more of Olivia Colman and Emilia Clarke together in something down the road.


If I had to rank all the shows so far, including the Netflix ones since they are Canon I'm pretty sure, I'd have them as:


Loki
Daredevil
Punisher
Moon Knight
Jessica Jones
Mrs Marvel
WandaVision
Secret Invasion
Hawkeye
Defenders
Iron Fist
Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Luke Cage
She Hulk


On to Loki season 2 I guess, that's the next one schedule to release right in September I think?

 

[Sombastate]

Just not sensational was it? Should have been. Could have been. just wasn't. Shame. nothing has been very good since Loki

 

[mattihp]

I thought it was good, and undeserving of the super low ratings it got... But I also agree it was still underwhelming compared to what it could have been.


For me I'd say it was a solid ~7.5/10 but it's a bit frustrating when you can see fairly easily what it could have been. Like the fact Rhodes has likely been a Skrull since just after Civil War is kind of wild to me.. But it's so disappointing and honestly hard to believe he'd be the only Avenger that becane a Skrull in all of this... And had they went and turned a couple more or even just one big player into a Skrull, it could have been that much more crazy.


That said, I have a feeling this is going to end up proving to be a pretty pivotal setup for Captain America 4. I'm also intrigued to see more of Olivia Colman and Emilia Clarke together in something down the road.


If I had to rank all the shows so far, including the Netflix ones since they are Canon I'm pretty sure, I'd have them as:


Loki
Daredevil
Punisher
Moon Knight
Jessica Jones
Mrs Marvel
WandaVision
Secret Invasion
Hawkeye
Defenders
Iron Fist
Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Luke Cage
She Hulk


On to Loki season 2 I guess, that's the next one schedule to release right in September I think?

I loved it too, but you went ahead and married?

 

[RandV]

Agreed I think there was much more potential… I liked the main storyline but they really could have added more layers and tie ins to MCU events and whatnot.

Seemed like the episode length was a big factor.. just over 30 mins each made it feel rushed. A full hour could have had a lot more impact.

Not sure if it was writing or budget…

Marvel seems keen on ensuring these shows do not become a big focal point in major MCU events, which are saved for the movie. This is a misstep IMO

Nonetheless lots that I liked about the series.

I thought it was okay, though not being familiar with the stories from the comics I'm not really sure what potential it missed on? Other than I guess if you take out the recap/opening/credits with only 6 episodes it basically only had the run time of a longer movie.

For the part about shows not becoming a big focal point for the movies, it's making me start to wonder about the whole MCU setup. Not that it's 'bad', I enjoy it, but the biggest complaint you would get from the average person is it's hard to keep up with all the movies and now TV shows, but personally as someone who's good at that and has no problem keeping up I find it's extremely limited and not being used to its full potential. Although of course not just the audience but there's the whole real world concept of getting actors to commit and paying them for it.

So it's not realistic but I'm just wondering how the MCU would like if they could fully embrace the 'cinematic universe' thing. Secret Invasion here being a good example.

 

[GabeTravels]

Meh...it was fine. This is an arc that really should've been stretched and hinted at over multiple projects. Rolling it up into 6 episodes doesn't work in my opinion.

As far as ranking goes...I'd put it 8/9 in the Disney+ shows. Gravik was at least an interesting villain (at least better than the Flag Smashers), but it could've been so much more. The Talos/Fury stuff was the best part of the show in my opinion, and killing him off was a mistake.

It's 31/41 on my overall MCU list.

1. Loki
2. Wandavision
3. Ms. Marvel
4. Hawkeye
5. Moon Knight
6. What If...?
7. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
8. Secret Invasion
9. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

 

[mattihp]

For me

1. Loki
2. Ms. Marvel (for a history buff, the partition stuff is so nicely merged in there)
3. The Falcon And The Winter Soldier (Had extremely low expectations, especially since I am not a big fan of Mackie, but he carried this, especially late in the series)
4. She-Hulk (Loved the comic book growing up and this really captured the spirit)
5. What if...?
6. Hawkeye
7. WandaVision (Too little Vision and the tv references are nonsense for someone who grew up in a nation that for the longest had 1 or 2 tv channels)
8. Secret Invasion
9. Moon Knight (Where is the ultra violence and derangement? Should have been a movie)

 

[beowulf]

Did not land the series as I had hoped it kind of went out with a whimper. Not a bad series though overall just more bland at times then I was expecting.

 

[StreetHawk]

Did not land the series as I had hoped it kind of went out with a whimper. Not a bad series though overall just more bland at times then I was expecting.

With stars like Sam Jackson, Clarke, etc. you expected more out of the seris. But, this also isn't Nick Fury from Avengers 1. Time has passed and he's gotten older, and without the power he once had with Shield.

 

[Primary Assist]

I didn't like it.

Spoiler

This was pitched as a spy thriller, but this just required too much hand waving and poorly written plotlines to reach its ending. The highly trained assassins just shoot ...near their targets in Fury's wife's house so they can make their escapes? For some reason the main villain kept who he thought was Nick Fury in the Super Skrull machine when giving himself powers? And for some reason Emilia Clarke's character just assumed she would also get the Harvest powers before fighting him?

Spy thrillers are supposed to rely on tight writing and making the audience really question what they would do in a situation to have a better fate than the heroes. None of that happened here. Plus the whole secret to the heroes has just been DNA? Then why has Thor "leveled up" significantly throughout the films so far? Why do aliens have the same DNA as humans? Let alone plant aliens like Groot?

Overall just a poorly told story where characters constantly made bad decisions with the information they were given. I don't think the MCU or its writers were really ready to introduce the Skrulls into the storyline and do so in a meaningful way

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

It was fine. Felt a bit rushed to me.

Loki
Hawkeye
Miss Marvel
WandaVision
Secret Invasion
The Falcon & Winter Soldier
She-Hulk

I never watched What If.

WandaVision and Miss Marvel can flip given the day, I just watched MM more recently.

I'm not going to include Agents of Shield, Agent Carter or the Netflix shows with the Disney ones.

 

[mattihp]

With stars like Sam Jackson, Clarke, etc. you expected more out of the seris. But, this also isn't Nick Fury from Avengers 1. Time has passed and he's gotten older, and without the power he once had with Shield.

Clarke was not good at all. Colman was incredible considering how few minutes she got. Ben-Adir, really good.

 

[shadow1]

I'm not a diehard fan of the Marvel comics, so I haven't read every major event. But a few years ago I did read all ~100(?) issues of the Secret Invasion crossover and it was great, easily worthy of an Infinity War level "saga" in the MCU.

Rather than be a bombastic all-out-war type of event, the show went in a different direction, harkening back to espionage films like The Winter Soldier. That would've been fine...if the execution was good. But it was mediocre.

I'm not saying the show it a total piece of crap. Samuel L. Jackson was great, and Secret Invasion still had its moments and was an easy watch. But the writing was weak, with generic new protagonists it was hard to get invested in, and cartoonish villains. Worse, there were a few major deaths in this series, but their impacts didn't come across on the screen.

Additionally, for a show about shapeshifting aliens, Secret Invasion has absolutely no paranoia or suspense. The "big" Skrull reveal in episode 4 was extremely anticlimactic considering we heard that character's voice on a phone call with an antagonist in the previous episode. This series could've been Marvel's version of John Carpenter's The Thing, but didn't even try.

Finally, the special effects. Just... wow. That shaky cam, poor CGI'd action sequence in episode 4 was making me literally cringe. I don't know where the budget is going on these Disney+ series. Except I do, because anytime you watch a behind the scenes for any of these shows, it seems like even exposition scenes taking place in mundane settings (i.e. room, diner, etc.) are green screened.

6/10 for me. Watchable, but disappointed both with the show and Marvel's fall from grace.

 

[RandV]

How it should have ended: for the skrull power up they only gain the powers of the same gender, and Dany wins because girl power is stronger.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Sounds like Disney has been slacking. Marvel and Star Wars don’t have many wins the last few years. Even the Disney movies have been mostly live action remakes of older content.

 

[mattihp]

How it should have ended: for the skrull power up they only gain the powers of the same gender, and Dany wins because girl power is stronger.

Who is Dany

 

[tarheelhockey]

I thought it was pretty ok. As others have said, it could have been a movie or series of movies.

Marvel continues to roll out amazing villains and kill them off way too quickly. This has been a pattern for quite some time now.

 

[StreetHawk]

I thought it was pretty ok. As others have said, it could have been a movie or series of movies.

Marvel continues to roll out amazing villains and kill them off way too quickly. This has been a pattern for quite some time now.

I’ve seen a budget of $200 mill for this which seems high unless it’s a huge budget for Sam Jackson. Really need to tighten up their budgets moving forward.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I’ve seen a budget of $200 mill for this which seems high unless it’s a huge budget for Sam Jackson. Really need to tighten up their budgets moving forward.

Well, it had a cool opening credits

 

[dr robbie]

1. Loki
2. Wandavision
3. Ms. Marvel
4. Hawkeye
5. Moon Knight
6. What If...?
7. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
8. Secret Invasion
9. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

That's pretty much my ranking for the D+ shows as well. 3-5 may be on the same tier and are interchangeable to me, but overall it's basically the same.

Overall, I think Secret Invasion was just a let down. It's not that it was bad per se, it just had so much potential and completely wasted it. The whole premise was already there - you have shapeshifting aliens already infiltrated all over the world and you don't know who is who while you're trying to remove the threat. They can be anyone at any time, so no one can be trusted. Perfect set-up for Fury, the ultimate spy, to use his skills and deduction to figure out a way out of this mess. It's all right there ready to go.

Instead, we get a washed-up Fury, shapeshifting aliens that don't really shapeshift like at all, the pointless death of the only interesting character in the show, and a cookie cutter "its the end of the world again!" climax. It's not a spy movie. It's not a detective movie. It's a generic marvel movie with the same marvel plot - just without the typical superheroes... The fact that they gave this final product a green light and sunk so much money into it and still served us another plotless pile of vanilla crap gives me little hope for the future of the MCU. At some point, fans are gonna stop watching everything just because it is part of the ongoing series. I know my interest has been waning.

 

[tarheelhockey]

The fact that they gave this final product a green light and sunk so much money into it and still served us another plotless pile of vanilla crap gives me little hope for the future of the MCU. At some point, fans are gonna stop watching everything just because it is part of the ongoing series. I know my interest has been waning.

Funny enough, I’ve really been enjoying the offbeat MCU shows like Wandavision, Moon Knight, Ms Marvel. If those concepts had been released without the MCU label, I doubt I’d have ever heard of them let alone watched. It was the completionist aspect of not missing part of the MCU story arc that drove me to them, but I ended up enjoying them for reasons that have nothing to do with the greater storyline.

I think part of it is that those shows don’t take themselves too seriously — they’re focused on characters that frankly not many people actually care about — and so they have some room to be fun and creative and sometimes appealingly dark. It’s what made Guardians and Ant Man so successful in their first movies. A lot of what we’re getting lately is either fake-urgent or fake-quirky, which is the same thing that afflicts the D.C. movies.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

It was fine. Felt a bit rushed to me.

Loki
Hawkeye
Miss Marvel
WandaVision
Secret Invasion
The Falcon & Winter Soldier
She-Hulk

I never watched What If.

WandaVision and Miss Marvel can flip given the day, I just watched MM more recently.

I'm not going to include Agents of Shield, Agent Carter or the Netflix shows with the Disney ones.

Fine ranking for sure.

I'd have (including the Netflix shows):

Daredevil
The Punisher
Jessica Jones (first season being the best season of any Marvel shows)
WandaVision
--
Loki
Hawkeye
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Miss Marvel
Luke Cage
Secret Invasion
The Defenders
Moon Knight
--
She-Hulk and Iron Fist, fighting for the crap title.

I've seen What If? But meh, don't know what to do with it. Haven't seen the werewolf thing, nor Agents of Shield.

 

[Howe Elbows 9]

My ranking of the Phase Four shows (haven't seen The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and only the first two episodes of Ms. Marvel);

WandaVision
Loki
Hawkeye
What If...?
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
Moon Knight

Colman, Mendelsohn, Jackson and Ben-Adir did their best to make Secret Invasion an entertaining show, but it ended up mediocre (to me).

 

[Neil Racki]

It was decent but missed its mark. First few episodes were better.

Finale fizzled hard and disappointed.

 

[Mario_is_BACK!!]

We’ll see what the finale brings but so far… it’s Fine. Underwhelming. It just feels so small. And not even in like a close quarters spy thriller way. It just feels… cheap in some ways. Rushed in some moments, very slow in others. The big moments are impressive, they’ve just largely been character moments more than espionage or action. For a five hour project it’s not doing more than a surface pass of what it SHOULD be.

My feelings didn’t change. It was fine.

 

[blueandgoldguy]

Everywhere I look it seems the finale has been panned.

Apparently the series had terrible ratings as well in terms of streams.