Secret Invasion

Take a good premise, an absolutely stellar cast, a reportedly generous budget and somehow get.....this???

This badly made, cheap-looking, muddled, dull, bland excuse for an espionage/action thriller?

The occasional scene where individual performances occasionally manage to elevate the awful material aside, this was an absolute train wreck.

Confusing narrative, badly shot, character motivations all over the place, what should have been major.plot revelations (and character deaths) were tossed away without any sense of import or gravitas.

God knows where the reported $200m budget went, this had the production values of a daytime soap apart from the obligatory CGI finale (which sets up more narrative problems for the future in itself)

Looks like it was reshot extensively, someone needs to carry the can for this bin fire.

I don't understand the low ratings. But then again maybe I do. Some Marvel fans have gotten used to a certain kind of formula, but to be honest I am ready for some maturing and alternative perspectives on a Marvel UNIVERSE. This is a timely work, where people are at war, each with their own reason. But mostly to fight for a placed called home. No one group's hands are clean. This series, more than any in the MCU, felt the most human...where we see a man broken by fighting and trying his best to take responsibility for the collateral damage done. And as a side note, Ben Mendelsohn's acting is a revelation, as an alien who seems to have the best of humanity.

With the Marvel Phase 5 arriving, they could've made a sort of a come back after the mess Phase 4 was, but they continue to be stuck, in this particular time around it seems they are making the old Marvel stages irrelevant.

There is a limit to the amount of super heroes and villains that exist in Marvel where it just become senseless, even with the Multiverse, in this story they are still facing threats on Earth (actually USA as always) and none of the major super heroes appear which makes no sense specially when the threat is as big as the antagonists on Secret Invasion, a shape shifting alien race that can infiltrate to the highest level of governments a destroy a world from within... Nonetheless I was actually expecting this show to be good, it started nice but the first problem started with lack of context, Fury has been away for a long time and now he comes back as a shadow version of his former self, a beat down man and we have no context as to why, throughout the series they try to give this context but it doesn't make too much of an impact. We follow along just for the character to do a full circle...

More bad decisions, killing off a character that has been present in MCU for quite some time and this character's death was as underwhelming as the character participation on the franchise as a whole, we had a moment of USA military arrogance which always annoys me personally, but I am getting side tracked... This all could've been overlooked but then the last episode arrives and I cannot stress how absurd that final battle was and how much of a middle finger it is for every single super hero movie that came before... really, all powers each with a particular explanation, they are given just like that? I don't want to give away to much, it reminded me of a particular scene on the old Fantastic 4, just laughable.

I am becoming hopeless to a recovery from the hit Phase 4 took on Marvel, I see mediocrity going forward.

I need to start off by saying I'm a huge fan of superhero movies and shows so my review for Secret Invasion may be a little biased, especially to people like me that love these shows. I even enjoy the superhero movies/shows that aren't as liked or as highly rated as the others. Having said that, I think Secret Invasion should be enjoyable to most. It's much more than just another superhero show, it's also a solid spy thriller. While there is still plenty of fun to have it's also a lot more serious than other Marvel projects and it moves the overall MCU story forward in a lot of ways. It also has plenty of Easter eggs throughout each episode. We learn more about Nick Fury in this series than all of the other movies and shows combined. Obviously, if you're a fan of the MCU this this is a must watch. It's only six episodes so you can binge the entire season over a weekend.

...there IS a "but" (more on that later)

• This review is based off the first 5 episodes.

First the criticism.

In a universe so full of extraordinary superheroes and alien technology, it makes absolutely no sense that "good old Fury" is running around on his own, with a normal run of the mill pistol, to try to "save" earth from being taken over by aliens.

It's just unbelievable dumb in its premise, and despite excellent production quality (as is the norm for the MCU) the show is on track to get a 3.

BUT (and here is the kicker)... then enters Olivia Colman.

Her character lifts the entire show by 3 points, all by herself.

That understated, witty, stiff upper lip character just makes it all worth while.

More or less every time she is on screen you chuckle, if not laugh out loud.

Imagine taking her from "The Crown", with a few (obvious) changes, and then making her a much funnier stone cold killer, with absolutely no boundaries.

I'd happily watch an entire show based off just her character.

It takes the show from a waste of time, in an already overcrowded universe, to being something you find yourself grudgingly continuing to watch, despite all the illogical poorly thought out BS going on around her, just to watch what she does next.

I dearly hope they expand her character and give it a bigger part as the show develops, and I hope they are not dumb enough to kill her off, as that would instantly make me lose interest in this otherwise senseless drivel.