Secret Invasion: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

You read the title. Just because it has some good stuff, it doesn’t mean it’s a good show. Just because it has some bad stuff, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad show. It just simply means it has the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

No, not that ugly!

The Good

The villains, visual effects, and actings are impressive

There are a lot of things to consider in order to label a show good or bad. For instance, the CGI in the show is not disappointing and quite acceptable (compared to the previous Marvel projects). The acting was impressive. We believe that Samuel L. Jackson, Emilia Clarke, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Ben Mendelsohn did a great job. 

However, the real good element of the show is how they set up the antagonists. The Skrulls. A species that is being killed by another alien species, Kree. Since then, Skrulls have been a refugee. Nick Fury took them to Earth, promising them to find a new planet for them, as long as they are willing to work as spies. And to kill anyone that Nick Fury orders them to do. It shows that Nick Fury has been exploiting them. The villains of the show are the embodiment of Fury’s mistakes and regrets. And Fury needs to face that. It’s perfect.

The Skrulls’ plan is really impressive as well. Kidnapping Earth’s most powerful people, stealing their memories, infiltrating our governments, and carefully incite World War 3. Why? Because nukes will be used. Humans cannot survive on a radiated planet. But Skrulls are immune to radiation. They don’t need to rain down nukes on us. We’ll do that ourselves. Skrulls took the advantage of our inability to live peacefully with each other. Even the Skrulls represent humans’ flaws. It’s perfect. 

The first five episodes of the show are building up to something. And then… the finale comes.

The Bad

Gravik, the embodiment of Fury’s fear, mistake, and regret

The final episode. The climatic scene. Nick Fury has to face his fear, mistake, and regret. He needs to walk into the severely radiated land of Russia to meet Gravik, the leader of Skrulls. Gravik is a Super-Skrull who has the ability of Groot, an Extremis, Frost Giant, and Cull Obsidian. Not to mention, Fury had been exploiting Gravik to do his dirty works since he was a boy. Not only is it dangerous but it’s also personal! 

How would Fury face this conflict?!

He doesn’t.

It was Gi’ah all along. A character that Fury rarely interacted with. 

There is this scene where Fury (Gi’ah in disguise) is approaching Gravik. Gravik reveals that he took the face of a person Fury forced him to kill. Gravik admitted he never enjoyed killing. He did it anyway because he looked up to Fury. But Fury was only using him. Then, Fury tells him that he feels guilty. But Fury comes to see him anyway, endangering his life on the radiated soil, only to protect Earth. It’s heroic. It’s selfless. It completes Fury’s redemption arc.

Then it was revealed that it was actually Gi’ah. The whole scene was just meaningless. The show is like building up to a finale that doesn’t pay off. At least for Fury’s character arc. 

The Ugly

What is even this…?

The opening credit. Yeah, that’s it. 

It is created by AI. That’s why it doesn’t look good. With a budget of US$212 million (which is more than twice of Oppenheimer’s budget), Marvel should be able to come up with an opening credit that is more visually impressive than that. 

Conclusion

We generously rate the show 4.5/10. It’s not perfect but it’s definitely not nearly as good as the recent Marvel project, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. (you can read our review on the movie here). 

Secret Invasion, just like other Disney Plus series, doesn’t feel impactful. Slightly lower than mid-tier. However, it is not a bad show either. And it doesn’t impact the MCU’s Phase 5 Multiversal project. Which is acceptable because Secret Invasion is only the third entry of Phase 5 after Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.