Marvel Studios is pretty much known for the great universe they have created, but lately, they have done some things that the audience didn't like such as the poor CGI shown in the last movie of Ant-man, or bad scripts that the series of Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk had. And now the final episode of the Secret Invasion series is out, and many people wanted to show their thoughts about this one too. After seeing some comments, I realized that this series has interesting things to discuss, but its situation is not the same as the other series I previously mentioned. So let's see if this series is good or bad! (This post is going to have SPOILERS!!)
Plot:
The series starts by telling us what was Nick Fury doing after the events of Endgame, and it results that he was ordered by the government to build an aerospace defense system called S.A.B.E.R and then be in charge of it, which means living in space. But then he receives a call from Maria Hill and Talos and discovers that the Skrulls turned against him because he didn't or couldn't find a home for them as he, with Cara Danvers, promised in the past. So, he feels forced to come back and finish, as the series title says, with this Skrulls's secret invasion, where they can assume the identity of anyone by shape-shifting.
Espionage:
The new approach Marvel tried with this series is espionage and I have to say that I liked this one. It was a good idea to take advantage of the possibility that any person you knew can be an impostor and combine it with this genre. For me, it was interesting seeing each episode and seeing the strategy of the Skrulls. This way we could see too the tactics that Fury and other characters had to use. Also, the intentions and the purpose of this series are at least logical.
New characters as Skrulls:
As another good point of view, I had to say that it was a great idea to make Nick Fury married to a Skrull named Priscilla (name human) or Varra (name Skrull) and see how she supported him many years ago including after the events of the first Avengers movie. Very interesting to see how their relationship was working. That way we could see more the perspective of a Skrull like her that just tries and also helps her species to survive too. It is always cool when a series communicates very well the actions and feelings of the opposite side of the story. Also, they show us a curious way to humanize even more the Skrulls.
But not just Fury's wife, we could see the same with Talos and his daughter G'iah. They showed us how was their life and how were they feeling while they were helping Fury although, in the end, he did not find a home for them. We could sympathize very well with G'iah and understand everything she was going through. I have to say too, that they cast Emily Clarke to interpret G'iah and that added more points. I actually didn't expect to see her playing a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and its acting was convincing.
Even we can understand the feeling of the main villain called Gravik and why he turned against Fury. The feeling and the origin of the villain were well justified which results in a more convincing role.
AI Intro:
I also observed that the opinions for the intro vary a lot. In my opinion, I actually like it, not a lot, but still, I like it, it practically already communicates to us that anyone around us can be a Skrull. Maybe if there were the same scenes but with higher quality could be better though, and I do not care if they used IA or not in an intro. So for me at least, I saw no big problem with this feature.
Agent Maria Hill and Talos deaths:
I want to say that it was very smart to make Maria Hill get killed by Gravik but with Fury's face, I was speechless when I saw it. She may have gotten killed by the face she always had trusted, it was astonishing.
In the last episodes, we got to see Talos's death too, and it was interesting to see how he always kept his ideologies until the end. He always wanted to show that the Skrulls were always good, he wanted to show their humanity.
So both deaths were heartbreaking as they always supported Nick Fury and he would be now alone.
The Harvest:
Another interesting fact is the main cause of the series which this time would be The Harvest. This is a mixture of DNA collected from the battle for the earth in Endgame, where all the Avengers fighted against Thanos. Before turning against of Fury, Gravik was the Skrull in charge to collect the samples, so that way he always knew it exists, but after combining all the DNAs, Fury hide The Harvest in a secret location.
Also, I have no complaints about this fact, it turned the plot more interesting and curious about how will be Fury's last moves to prevent Gravik to become a super Skrull with many powers of the Avengers and conquer the earth.
Final battle:
First of all, it was mind-blowing the big twist before this battle, because I really thought that the person who would confront Gravik was Fury, but instead, he was G'iah taking his face. She convinced Gravik and even the audience that the person who was standing there was Nick Fury and I actually thought he was going to die because of the radiation and the machine Gravik used to become a super Skrull. But that was the purpose since the beginning, making him activate the machine, so G'iah could become a super Skrull too and stop him once and for all.
While they were fighting, the real Fury was in the hospital trying to save the president who was manipulated to create a conflict between the USA and Russia by a Skrull who took the identity of Coronel Rhodes (war machine). The tactical strategy here was well thinking and of course, fit very well with this espionage series.
Although, I have to agree with the people that the CGI and other effects in this final fight were not the best, but still the sequence was epic and they implemented very well about the importance of using the right power at the right time. In this kind of battle, you got to be smart too.
James Rhodes (War Machine): The Big Question Mark!
As we know, in the final chapter, they rescued the people captured, whose identities were stolen by the Skrulls. But here is a big surprising detail that the audience could not ignore and is that Rhodes was with a hospital gown like the one he was wearing in Civil War after his accident. This fact drove us all crazy because this would tell us that he was never present when Tony Stark (Iron Man) died and surely he never knew about this event, which maybe gives us an interesting plot for Armor Wars.
Also, some people say that this not makes sense because in Endgame Rhodes was still with his leg braces, which they stop to work after Thanos blew up the Avengers's building. So, when they stop working, we could see Rhodey struggle to survive. I have to say there that, because of this, it actually makes no sense to me either that Rhodes was a Skrull since Civil War. I agree that there would be some narrative mistakes that have to be explained very well if Rhodes was a Skrull for that amount of time.
On the other hand, I like it a lot when Marvel does these little things that make people debate and question themselves about what is going on. It made me remind of the good old times.
So, about this big movement Marvel did, I would say it has its good and bad parts. In my opinion, I vote that Rhodes was a Skrull since Endgmae for the reason I've already said it but also because it would be sad he couldn't say goodbye to Tony and it would look a little weird seeing the previous movies knowing that in all those moments he was a Skrull.
Conclusion:
I think that this time people exaggerated a lot with the expectations of this series. Putting aside the CGI from the last battle, it was an entertaining series with character development. I can agree with some negative criticisms that Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk received but with this one not.
If we compare the series, Ms. Marvel has a good proposal at the beginning, where we thought the series would offer an interesting and fun way of how would be the life of a teenager with powers she is trying to understand and discover how to use properly. It would be interesting seeing how would be her life with her friends and family too, but instead of doing a simple but interesting plot, they went to explore more serious and boring scenarios putting aside some characters like her friends, school, and some members of her family. On the other hand, She-Hulk had an interesting and funny approach in the chapters, because we can see how a lawyer who also is a hero would defend other people with special powers and abilities. Also was interesting to see in what way the laws would apply to the heroes, but I think they exaggerated a lot in the final chapter by destroying completely the fourth wall (if you want to see my whole opinion, I already did a review about She-Hulk). But if we take a look into Secret Invasion, it had an entertaining plot that made you curious to reach the end and what Fury would think and do to end the invasion. The plot is well written and the actions of all the characters are well justified too. Maybe I can agree that the final chapter left us wanting to see more of it, but I would not say either it was bad at all. Also, in the post about She-Hulk that I did before, I said I was concerned that Marvel was becoming less and less serious but I am so happy that with this series they retrieve his balance between being serious and funny.
Speaking now about the CGI, I agree that nowadays it is very worrying what Marvel will do next because lately, the quality of their work is not good at all as before. Here they improve at least in writing a better plot than its previous series, but I hope that with their next projects, they would do what they claimed about focusing on more quality than quantity.
Finally, for me, it was innovative the way they introduce G'iah into the series and in the MCU, where she might be in the future a new face of heroin in future projects and a key decision in the conflict between humans and Skrulls, where she may take the a big role and honor his father.
Comics vs Series:
Apparently, many people complained about this series because it is so different from the comic's version. I just have to say that sometimes the things that are in the comics would not work in the cinematic universe, and it is wrong to say that just because they used another approach in the series than in the comics, would mean that the series does not work. I think some things should be inspired by the comics but not be exactly like them because there would not be a surprise there.
SAMUEL L. JACKSON:
I just wanted to do a whole section to recognize the great actor that Samuel L. Jackson is and the whole work and dedication he gave to the Marvel movies since the beginning. Even when he had no big role in Infinity War and Endgame, he decided to keep other projects with Marvel despite being a little bit excluded after Age of Ultron. He did a great job!
SECRET INVASION TRAILER:
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