Marvel delivers on the who’s who mystery genre with Secret Invasion. We return back to the super spy espionage genre that Marvel has neglected for a while now.
Secret Invasion is based on the Marvel Comics storyline from 2008 of the same name, it keeps the same premise but differs quite heavily. Rumour has it Skulls have infiltrated key government and political individuals identities and are planning to conquer the Earth. So, who you gona call??? Ghostb…. Nick Fury LOL! Nick is summoned from his space expeditions to come and sort the issues at hand. He teams up with Maria Hill and Talos to investigate and uncover the renegade Skulls led by a new general, Gravik who is leading the whole invasion. Spanning only 6 episodes, which are not 1 hour long, it does OK to tell a decent story not a MARVELlous one.
Big Samuel L Jackson reprises his role as Nick Fury and just continues to be the non-super powered human bad ass that he is. This time around we get a personal story which gives some insight to his more emotional side. Sam had no issue as he always delivers on all fronts. Talos returns as the former leader of the Skulls, reprised by Ben Mendelsohn. He’s calmed and collected. He does well in showing his compassion around the family plot point in the series. Kingsley Ben-Adir is one of the highlights of the show, my only wish is we got more episodes and therefore more screen time for him. He is the cold-blooded savage needed for such an invasion. His demeanour is so peaceful yet sinister and he just manages that balance between the 2 through the whole series. It’s very impressive. He embodies the Gravik character. Emilia Clarke plays G’iah, daughter of Talos. It’s a bland and predictable character and didn’t require much of a performance. She is too much of a big actress to take on such a small side character role, it was a weird decision. With what she had she did ok. Now Olivia Colman is the show stealer, as Sonya Falsworth. She’s dread, heartless, fearless and most of all hilarious. Her witty torture displays are actually a joy to watch. It’s mainly in her dialogue. I’m not sure how much is scripted and improv but she was amazing. I just couldn’t wait to see her comeback in scene. Don Cheadle is back as Rhodey. Don is excellent as always. He’s involved in one of the most powerful scenes in an exchange with Sam around the racial aspects of the world etc. some small almost cameo appearances by Cobbie Smulders as Maria Hill and Martin Freeman as Everett Ross.
Marvel returns to their top-level quality CGI thankfully and for that reason we are able to keep our focus on the story and narratives. With so much shapeshifting etc it had to be to be honest.
Giving the espionage feel the cinematography is more on the dark, greyish, and gritty style, in line with the Winter Soldier and Black Widow movies.
We have large portions of the series taking part in London so of course I felt quite at home recognising landmarks and streets but it was also a good choice. The English actors didn’t need to adjust much. The action consists more of shootouts with few super powered fights here and there. We catch Stormzy as part of the soundtrack and it’s a funny scene. Kris Bowers is the composer for the series and I am a personal fan of the Nick Fury Main Title score. Just feels like something Nick will having playing in his area whilst on missions.
Once you hear Skulls you think aliens, once you hear aliens you think space… however they managed to keep such a sci-fi very grounded and down to earth (pun intended). By that I mean the Skulls had families, felt emotions, were in love and all. It added to that mystery feeling of “they are among us”. We get glimpses of the Skulls strength individually and as a unit and it definitely has the ingredients to make some bigger and juicier content. With no super heroes present in the series we got our super hero display fixes via Talos and Gravik mainly. The casting of G’iah definitely affected the storyline around father and daughter, just made it all quite predictable. Emilia being such a star, I could always see her switching over to the good side eventually. Sam’s Fury did an amazing job of presenting a range of emotions for the character. We are used to seeing Nick Fury being 10 steps ahead of everyone and quite emotionless but in this show, we see signs of stress, frustration, love, heartbreak, and grief. The show consists of a lot of dialogue and it does well in that department. There are some iconic changes all involving Fury… him and Talos, him and Sonya, him and Gravik and best of all him and Rhodey. Gravik although flows through with a one set mindset he makes it dynamic and interesting. His overall plan is even quite a fun which you want to see come into fruition. With episodes being quite short even though a lot of plot points needed more time to be fleshed out, I found the deaths of various characters to be more tools for dramatic effect instead of feeling that loss of connection to a character.
Overall, I enjoyed the show. It was easy for me. Spy drama, alien invasion, and Samuel L Jackson! I’m very easily pleased. If you heard “Marvel” and expect to see loads of hulk smash and iron man flight sessions then you’re in the wrong place, maybe wait till the latter episodes.
Did they do the comic book proud? Were you able to notice all the Skulls? Does this need more seasons? What heroes would you want to pop up in the future? React and comment below…
