Cast:
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Ben Mendelsohn as Talos
Kingsley Ben-Adir as Gravik
Dermot Mulroney as Ritson
Richard Dormer as Prescod
Emilia Clarke as G’iah
Olivia Colman as Sonya Falsworth
Don Cheadle as James “Rhodey” Rhodes
Charlayne Woodard as Varra/Priscilla Davis
Christopher McDonald as Chris Stearns
Katie Finneran as Rosa Dalton
Creator: Kyle Bradstreet

Nick Fury learns of a secret invasion of Earth by a faction of shapeshifting Skrulls; Fury joins his allies, and together they race against time to thwart an imminent Skrull invasion and save humanity.

Secret Invasion is the latest Disney+ MCU show. It did have some interesting things going for it. It would be the first Marvel project with Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury in the lead role, it would also star Olivia Colman and Emilia Clarke along with Ben Mendelsohn (reprising his role from Captain Marvel). It was even said it would be like MCU’s answer to Andor; a relatively grounded (within the universe) and character focused story. Secret Invasion is not only far from reaching Andor levels, but it is also one of the worst things that the MCU has put out.

In all fairness to Secret Invasion, for much of the show it does attempt to be fairly grounded and lower level. It also has a fairly serious tone, and there aren’t too many of the distracting quips that have plagued these projects. There is also an attempt to have heavier focus on character and dialogue scenes. However, they feel rather undercooked, and the end result is a mildly interesting but mostly dull show. Secret Invasion is adapting the comic story about Skrulls infiltrating Earth, and it seems they didn’t know what to do with this idea. Perhaps the approach doesn’t exactly fit this story, because it doesn’t really feel as big or daunting as it should. It’s a show that progressively gets worse with every episode. I was willing to give things from the first episode, but as it enters its second half, I realized that it wouldn’t be improving all that much. It’s not terrible but it isn’t that interesting. There is also a bit of an awkward situation considering the Captain Marvel movie. In that movie, the Skrulls are initially set up as the villains, but there’s a twist, portraying them as immigrants being hunted down and looking for a home. So it’s more than a little jarring seeing them suddenly being placed as the antagonists here. The attempt at moral complexity is very undercooked and confused, and is probably why it still ends up being less politically dubious and insidious than The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. That said, that show was at least mostly interesting to watch. There are some very questionable story and character decisions, some of the major dramatic moments either don’t hit, or they are a detriment to the story. Then it gets into the finale which is a strong contender for the worst conclusion in a MCU story. It drops all pretense of it being a unique and special Marvel project and devolves into this ugly CGI filled climax, that still manages to feel underwhelming and anticlimactic. The most interesting parts of that episode was in the last 5 minutes, which unfortunately wasn’t really focused on. By the end, despite some major events, it really feels like not much has happened, outside of potentially setting up The Marvels.

There is a great cast assembled, and their performances are definitely the strongest part of the show. So it’s a shame that they were underserved by the writing. Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury has been a part of the MCU ever since the closing credits scene of the first Iron Man movie, but now finally gets to lead a MCU project. As usual he’s great, bringing a lot to his part, and while much of the story wasn’t the most interesting, he did keep me invested. Ben Mendelsohn as Talos was one of the highlights of the first Captain Marvel movie so it was great to see him here again, if anything I wish there was more of him. Jackson and Mendeslohn made for a very entertaining duo, they were my favourite part of the whole show. Olivia Colman is in a prominent supporting role and is definitely a scene stealer, but wasn’t in it as much as I would’ve liked. The rest of the cast including Emilia Clarke, Don Cheadle, Cobie Smulders and Dermot Mulroney do commendable jobs, but aren’t dealt the best hand with the writing. The worst of the characters is the villain, the leader of the Skrull invaders named Gravik. Kingsley Ben-Adir is a very talented actor as seen in things like One Night in Miami, Peaky Blinders, and more recently Barbie. For what its worth, he does put everything he can here, its just a shame that Gravik is a very dull and underdeveloped character, despite being in all 6 episodes.

All the episodes are directed by Ali Selim, and much of the show is very average on a technical level. The cinematography, editing and sound are competent, but fairly basic and generally uninspired. The CGI is mostly competent enough, until it reaches the finale. The final fight is so visually ugly, with some of the worst effects seen in the franchise.

Despite a good cast, Secret Invasion is incredibly underwhelming and wastes its potential, with an average and undercooked story that isn’t nearly as interesting as it should’ve been. One of the MCU’s worst projects.