Tag: TV Reviews

From the time the earliest teasers for Secret Invasion rolled out online, it was clear that at some point in the show, Nick Fury wouldn’t be Nick Fury. Since writer Kyle Bradstreet left that “ace” up his sleeve, it was pretty evident from the time “Fury” infiltrated the Skrull hideout that it wasn’t really him. In fact, even in the aftermath of last week’s episode, plenty of fans had already guessed exactly what was going to happen with The Harvest; however, most of those fever dream theories were more interesting than what was delivered in “Home.”

As far as series finales go, Marvel Studios has seemed to have a hard time “sticking the landing” as everyone likes to say. To continue that analogy, the Secret Invasion finale would be more akin to a gymnast hitting the springboard and then launching headfirst into the pommel horse. For what was hyped up as a paranoia-landed spy thriller, the series as a whole lacked any sense of suspicion or mistrust as to who was or wasn’t a Skrull and despite their efforts, nobody actually believed Russia and America were going to war. Skrull Rhodey was always going to die. G’iah was always going to have her vengeance. “Who do you trust?” Certainly not the people rubber-stamping the choices made here.

Much as it had previously done with the Kree, Marvel Studios has now painted themselves into a corner with the Skrulls. Kevin Feige once proudly claimed that Marvel Comics pointed Marvel Studios in the right direction with their projects: “The answers are always in the books,” said the head man. It now seems that in their quest to avoid doing direct page-to-screen adaptations, they’ve entirely lost their way. Much like Ronan the Accuser and Mar-Vell before him, Kl’rt, the OG Super Skrull, will either be ignored entirely or greatly reduced in significance…so that the MCU could have Gravik? For decades, Marvel Comics has found ways to keep the Kree-Skrull War alive and interesting but somehow, over the course of two projects, Marvel Studios reduced it–and all its players–into minimalist impressions. What’s left? Some “peace talks” and a brand new most powerful being in the galaxy in Emilia Clarke’s G’iah and Fury’s Skrull wife. What are they going to do now? No idea. Varra’s work is apparently “important” and G’iah’s final scene reeks of the all-too-common theme among Marvel Studios’ writers that whatever comes next for the character is the next guy’s problem.

And what of the hero of the series? After pushing the people he once took under his wing and hoped to find a home for into a war against their own extinction, Nick Fury…pisses back off into space? So he can make jokes again in The Marvels? After a half-assed explanation given not by Nick but by G’iah pretending to be Nick, old Nick is back and nobody would blame anyone for wondering how–or even if–the events of Secret Invasion will have changed him when we see him again. For four episodes, the series really only worked as a showcase for Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Don Cheadle and Olivia Colman’s talents; however, once it came time for it to change gears and try to find its relevance in the ongoing shared narrative, the wheels came off entirely. Ultimately, Secret Invasion will be remembered as a series of unfortunately misapplied and wasted concepts that show Marvel Studios just doesn’t value or understand the Cosmic corner of the comics that Feige once said held all the “answers.” It might be time for the studio to course-correct and work its way back to taking more inspiration from the comics–or it might be too late already.

If you’ve been watching Marvel Studios’ latest Disney Plus streaming series, Secret Invasion, it may have come to your attention that Nick Fury just isn’t himself these days. As the audience has all too often been reminded by everyone in the show that knows him, Fury hasn’t been the same since the Blip. However, as the consequences of Fury’s secrets have continued to come back to haunt him–and potentially the entire human race–glimmers of the old spy have begun to shine through and, as of the end of the latest episode, it seems that yeah, Fury is thinking he’s back. But did Fury’s return come too late?!?!

Not to put too fine a point on it but the answer is no. And being able to answer that question ahead of the series’ finale is, as Samuel L. Jackson might certainly put it, a mother fucker. As wonderful as Jackson’s performance has been, including the unforgettable scenes he shared with Ben Mendelsohn and the chemistry he continues to share with the criminally underutilized Olivia Colman, Secret Invasion continues to be more about Fury’s past–which by proxy includes the collective past of the MCU–and the bind that puts him into in the present. However, because the Nick Fury and MCU are known to have a future beyond Secret Invasion, the audience already knows the score: despite taking heavy body blows, Fury’s going to Rocky Balboa Gravik’s “Skrull ass” and save the day. We know this because Fury is alive and well in The Marvels. We know this because there’s no way the Marvel Studios Parliament greenlit a project (Armor Wars) about Skrull Rhodey. While that doesn’t mean there might not be some surprises in the finale (after all who among us was not both completely surprised and thrilled to see that one character from Black Widow show up?), the finale pretty much writes itself and that makes anticipation for it a bit low and the buzz around it will likely be a bit dull.

I love playing him, and I love the fact that they’re opening him up to all these other possibilities and this whole life that he has. So hopefully I’m not done, and in this new phase of the MCU I’ll still be floating in and out of there somehow, some way.

Samuel L. Jackson on Nick Fury

That’s not to say that Secret Invasion hasn’t excised a pound of flesh or two from Fury. Over the course of the first five episodes, he’s lost his longest standing ally in Talos, his right hand in Maria Hill and had to come face-to-face with the idea that even he is fallible. But for Secret Invasion to truly matter, the events of it must change the man known as Nick Fury and set him on a new path just as the events of Captain America: The Winter Solider did for Steve Rogers. The good news is that it would seem Jackson has no interest in walking away from the role of Fury which means the next 4-5 years could pay off the investment fans of the MCU have put into Secret Invasion and, to be fair, that’s exactly what Marvel Studios One Above All, Kevin Feige, sold to fans when the first wave of Disney Plus series were first announced.

“These episodes will intersect with the movies in a very big way,” Feige told Variety in a 2019 inteview. “It’s a totally new form of storytelling that we get to play with and explore. It’s the first long-form narrative that Marvel Studios has done — they’ll be six episodes, eight episodes, 10 episodes with the actors from the films playing their characters. They’ll be changing, evolving, growing in those event series and then those changes will be reflected in their next film appearances,” Feige explained. So while fans continue to wait for each of these series to be “the next big thing”, Feige could easily quote Dennis Green and remind fans that “they are what we thought they were.” But therein may lie the problem with Nick Fury in Secret Invasion. If the finale simply reinstalls old Nick Fury into the MCU, which is what the whole series has been preparing fans for, then there’s been no change, no evolution and no growth. If the Nick Fury who appears in The Marvels hasn’t been irrevocably changed by the events of Secret Invasion, then it will be fair to judge the series as a failure.

As for the rest of the episode, it’s a bit of a microcosm of the series as a whole. Like the deaths of Maria Hill and Talos before him, Pagan’s death at the hands (?) of Gravik was weightless. It’s hard to think of a supporting character in any of the MCU series that was as impotent as Pagan; seemingly every action undertaken by the character, even his death, would have had the same impact on the series if it happened off screen or didn’t happen at all. For all the razzle dazzle of G’iah becoming a Super Skrull, she participated in a good old-fashioned shootout with the meanie Skrulls rather than Super Skrulling and the same can be said of Gravik who resorted to his hand-to-hand combat skills to kill the mutinous meanies Skrulls. Given the importance of the Kl’rt in the comics, to see the idea of Super Skrulls relegated to a few cheap VFX scenes makes the entire idea feel squandered. Even the episode’s McGuffin, The Harvest–an idea that has circulated since Thor’s blood lingered around during the Battle of New York seen in The Avengers–seems stripped of any real danger around it since Fury’s plan to give it to Gravik will certainly resolve in some way other than a bunch of Avenger-powered baddie Skrulls trotting around the Earth. As far as pentultimate episodes go, “The Harvest” came up short but with one episode left to go, there’s still time before the impact of Secret Invasion can truly be judged.

Source: Empire, Variety

Representing the 2/3 marker of their 6-episode series, the fourth episodes of Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series have routinely served as pivot points for the shows. Episode 4 of Marvel Studios’ latest streaming series, Secret Invasion, kept that trend alive with multiple big moments that will change the course of the show as it heads into its final act; however, none of those big moments really felt impactful as they were ultimately far too predictable. At the end of the day, though, ” Beloved” gave Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury the final push he needed to bring back that Old Nick Fury we’ve heard so much about.

As was widely speculated–and indeed given away by promotional footage–Emilia Clarke‘s G’iah was not only NOT dead but also now a Super Skrull herself, powered up with Extremis at the least and who knows what else at the most. G’iah’s brief reunion with her father, Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos, didn’t really have the emotional kick the writers’ room probably intended for it to have (due in part to the lack of screen time the characters shared up to this point) but it did all too easily clue engaged fans into the fact that Talos wasn’t going to survive the episode. As a series intended to be full of twists and turns, Talos’ death was another example of a “twist” that was far too foreshadowed by a trope audiences have seen far too many times to miss. Just like Fury and his Skrull wife weren’t going to shoot one another and Rhodey was the most obvious Skrull plant well before the series ever aired, the paranoia and suspense that the audience is supposed to be feeling just isn’t there.

Outside of the less-than-impactful “twists” in Episode 4, “Beloved” also took away one of the series greatest strengths to date: the chemistry between series leads Jackson and Mendelsohn (it’s also probably one of the last times fans will be treated to the great chemistry between Don Cheadle and Jackson as well). While Jackson’s charisma and talent makes him a surefire match for any talented actor with whom he’s sharing scenes, he and Mendelsohn had something special and it’s more of a gut punch to know we won’t see that again than it is to know Talos is dead (or “dead’?). Talos’ death does, however, open the door for Fury to need a new ally in his fight against the Skrulls which may just lead him back to the absolutely wonderful Olivia Colman whose character has, to date, been greatly underused.

Whatever the case, it does seem clear that Talos’ death will be the final push needed to help Fury find his way back to the bad mother fucker that Secret Invasion has reminded us of so frequently. One of the most frequently seen clips from the promotional footage for series saw Fury putting on an eye patch and a trench coat in a cemetery and savvy fans are well aware that’s not happened yet. As Secret Invasion enters its third and final act in next week’s Episode 5, that moment is likely just around the corner and two episodes of a vengeful Fury turned loose on Gravik’s Skrulls puts the conclusion of the series in the hands of its surest bet: Jackson’s enormous talent. So while Episode 4 was a bit of a downshift, there’s plenty of hope for the series to end in high gear, letting Jackson open it up on a long straightaway.

Episode 3 of Marvel Studios Secret Invasion certainly doesn’t ascend to the heights of the previous installment but it does share the same strengths. “Betrayed” follows the same recipe for success as “Promises” by giving stars Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn plenty of room to riff off one another but fails to deliver the payload due in part to a fairly uninspired and less-than-surprising series of “twists.”

Billed as a paranoid spy-thriller, Secret Invasion hasn’t really been steeped in much paranoia and the outcomes of this episode’s spy games were all too predictable. The Skrull plot to blow up the UN plane didn’t work?! G’iah got caught!? Rhodey is a Skrull?! When compared to similar projects within the genre, the attempt to thrill and surprise the audience not only doesn’t live up to Mission: Impossible standards but also does not even to the MCU’s espionage goalpost, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The good news, however, is that the series is only at the halfway point and hopefully ups its game during the second half.

Whether the series ever lives up to the billing of a high-stakes spy thriller or not, it’s clear that Kyle Bradstreet, Ali Selim and the team of creatives behind Secret Invasion knew where their bread would be buttered and gave the supremely talented duo of Jackson and Mendelsohn room to work. When watching the two playfully barb one another, it’s impossible not to think that the two veteran talents either had some input into their dialogue or did a fair amount of ad-libbing. Either way, the result continues to be some of the MCU’s best character work. And on that note, using the series to draw out the idea that Nick Fury’s reputation as “the spy” of the MCU was built on the backs of Talos and his Skrulls is a wonderful bit of retconning that truly changes the world we thought we knew. Maybe the second half of the series will allow Gravik and his extremist Skrulls the same opportunity.

As for Gravik, he’s given some real bite by Kingsley Ben-Adir despite being written into some corners. Now that his Super Skrull plan has been revealed (as well as the fact that he’s already powered himself up), that will seemingly become Fury and Talos’ primary problem. How can two non-powered folks take down an army of Super Skrulls? They certainly can’t expect help from War Machine now that we know Rhodey is a Skrull and Fury has already made it clear he’s not calling The Avengers for help. So, perhaps his best bet is a Super Skrull or two of his own? While Marvel Studios has been known to waste a talent or two over the course of its 15-year history, it’s hard to believe they just Quicksilvered Emilia Clarke, especially when promotional footage for the series has shown her character in several key scenes that haven’t made their way into the show yet…including one in which she appears to be in Gravik’s Super Skrull maker. Of course, that could all have been subterfuge by the studio but given the myriad ways Gi’ah could still be alive let’s hope it’s not.

While it’s a bit concerning that Secret Invasion only delivered one truly strong episode in the first half of the series, it does actually feel like the best is yet to come. Through visual cues, the audience can track the “return of Nick Fury” and so far, he’s not quite there yet. Once Fury resumes being Fury–and what will it take to finally push him to that point?–the series could become something else entirely as well.

In the Fall of 2020, trade reports broke the news that Marvel Studios had hired Kyle Bradstreet to develop a Disney Plus streaming series around Nick Fury. Long having been one of the MCU’s most important supporting characters, the man who put together the Avengers finally gets the spotlight in Secret Invasion and despite some issues, there can be no doubt that giving Samuel L. Jackson this much room to work as Fury was a solid decision. And despite 15 years of appearances, Secret Invasion makes it very clear that we simply do not know Nick Fury.

Though the series boasts an impressive supporting cast bolstered by the always-brilliant Ben Mendelsohn, who returns to the MCU as Talos, and Kingsley Ben-Adir as the brooding Gravik, Secret Invasion is–as advertised–a vehicle for Jackson’s Fury. And to the surprise of nobody, given more to do as Fury, Jackson simply does more with the graceful ease of a supremely talented actor who knows how to inhabit a role. Whether it’s the playful conversation with Olivia Colman‘s absolutely fantastic Sonya Falsworth, recollecting on train rides to Detroit with his mom or sharing a powerful scene with Don Cheadle‘s James Rhodes, Jackson’s performance alone makes the series a worthy entry in the MCU. Short of headliners Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans work as Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, respectively, it’s hard to recall a performance like the one on display here by Jackson. Secret Invasion shows, for the first time, a vulnerable Nick Fury who becomes, for the first time, a relatable character as each of the first two episodes peels away layers of what previously appeared to be a bulletproof persona putting THE spy on the outside looking in without his usual support. Where that ultimately leaves Fury is hard to say having only screened two episodes but as he tells Rhodey, he is Nick Fury and even when he’s out, he’s in.

By the end of the second episode, the stage is set and the grand plan of Gravik–whose previously unknown connection to Fury makes him an interesting and motivated foe–and his Skrull extremists made clear. Unfortunately, it takes two episodes to get to that point and as enjoyable as the performance by Jackson is, the first episode certainly slows down considerably after an exciting cold open and, at times, spins its wheels. Part of the pacing struggle comes from the increasingly unbearable weight of the shared universe that is the MCU and the prerequisite knowledge necessary to navigate each new entry. Good, bad or otherwise, an interconnected franchise of this magnitude can’t always blaze new trails and has to retread old ground. Though they aren’t present nor expected to be present in the series, Carol Danvers and the Avengers still take up chunk of the exposition and while that might be necessary, the heavy-handedness of the writer’s room only works as an exacerbating factor. If you know anything by the end of the first episode, it’s that Nick Fury hasn’t been the same since Thanos’ snap…because everyone he knows tells him all about it…again…and again…and again. That said, navigating the first episode is manageable and though it’s attempt to shock the audience falls unfortunately flat, it provides all the necessary table setting for the second episode to be one of the better episodes of television Marvel Studios has put together on Disney Plus. There’s some fun retconning and at least one surprise that you almost certainly don’t see coming.

Despite the slow start, through two episodes, it looks like Bradstreet and company have hit the mark for which they were aiming. Cleverly, most of what the audience thinks they know about the show through promotional footage and interviews seems to have been subterfuge by the studio. Essentially, Secret Invasion is not the show fans thought they were getting. “Who Do You Trust?” is more than just a tagline related to sorting out who is or isn’t a Skrull, it’s a reflection of the fact that the studio has created as much of a false flag as the Skrull operatives in the show. For a studio that gets criticized for its formula and generic press events, Marvel Studios went pretty non-formulaic here in leading the audience astray. One place they did stay true to their word, however, was in putting Jackson in the spotlight and if he, Cheadle, Mendelsohn and Ben-Adir continue to shine through the next four episodes, Secret Invasion will become one of Marvel Studios’ finest character-driven projects to date.