Secret Invasion Finale Review: If Skrulls Are As Bad As This Show, They Deserve To Die
SECRET INVASION FINALE REVIEW SCORE
The Secret Invasion finale is here and the best news about it is that — clocking in at 38 minutes — “Home” is one of the shortest episodes in the series. “Home” is formulaic enough it feels like the plot was conceived while everyone involved was asleep, it’s more predictable than Tony Stark at an open bar, it’s at times bewilderingly dumb, and everything that’s good about it just makes you frustrated they waited until now to do it.
Indicative of that last bit — the Secret Invasion finale opens with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) stumbling through the radiation-thick Skrull base to confront Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir). It’s Ben-Adir’s best scene in the series and the High Fidelity star is phenomenally stirring.
And if you’re like me, as much as you’ll enjoy Ben-Adir cutting loose, you’ll find yourself wondering where the hell this guy has been for the rest of the series. Ben-Adir is clearly an incredible talent, and yet we were made to wait until the final episode to see him do anything beyond giving other characters dirty looks, making vague threats and occasionally riding the CGI.
If there is something new under the sun, it didn’t make an appearance in the Secret Invasion finale super-fight.
This confrontation ends with a “surprise” twist — that will be loudly telegraphed to you pretty much as soon as the Secret Invasion finale begins — which in turn leads to a massive super-fight.
Thankfully, in order to render the fight scene, Marvel Studios used something other than the same A.I. that made the creepy intro graphics, so watching it won’t give you nightmares. Unfortunately, if you’re asleep, it probably won’t wake you up either.
It unfolds like every single MCU super-fight we’ve seen so far. It’s pretty and it’s exciting, but at the same time it feels so completely perfunctory. If there is something new under the sun, it didn’t make an appearance in the Secret Invasion finale super-fight.
While the big CGI throw-down is going on, other heroes try to save the hospitalized President Ritson (Dermot Mulroney) from going ahead with the plans of the fake Rhodey (Don Cheadle) to start World War III.
Armed with a gun from the least professional Secret Service agent in screen media history, President Ritson is eventually trapped in a stalemate. Knowing someone is a Skrull, but not who, he points his weapon at good and bad guys, including the woman who has without a doubt consistently delivered the best performance in Secret Invasion — Olivia Colman (as Sonya Falsworth).
This is one of those “bewilderingly dumb” moments. One of the most memorable things Sonya does in the series is cut off a bound Skrull’s finger in an earlier episode. The severed finger goes green, and thus she discovers that this is a brand new way of exposing one of the aliens in disguise.
Yet in spite of Sonya being the one who has the Fake Rhodey hostage in the stalemate scene with President Ritson, it never occurs to this devilishly clever and ruthless spymaster to do the same thing again, hence ending the stalemate and saving the whole stupid world.
After the good guys win, Colman is shamefully forced into one of the other dumbest scenes in the Secret Invasion finale. She offers one of the heroic Skrulls a chance to work for her, the Skrull casts doubt because of Fury’s failure to keep his promises, and Sonya’s response is basically “oh, but I won’t do that.” And the Skrull — who apparently could also be sold any number of bridges in the Brooklyn area — agrees.
Since Secret Invasion began streaming, it had some glaring flaws but it also showed some intriguing potential. In particular, there were more than a few hints that the series would find a way to address racial relations in America, much like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier did.
My hope that the series would rise above its flaws lasted until the Secret Invasion finale, but it ultimately proves to be the worst kind of project Marvel ever offers its fans — a story with no real message or draw all its own, that is just meant to plant seeds for future money makers.
Projects Like Secret Invasion Are Why The MCU Is Failing
Part of what has made the MCU so unique since day 1 is that it delivered movies which connected to and built upon the narratives of other Marvel franchises, while succeeding in being engaging all on their own.
Now, far too many MCU films and series fail to deliver fun and entertaining stories all on their own, and instead just lay the groundwork for the next event.
If you think about it, in the beginning that wasn’t just a hook, it was a necessity: it meant that in the parallel universe where the Phase One solo franchises of Captain America and Thor failed, the young Marvel Studios was still left with the blockbuster success of Iron Man to build upon.
Now, far too many MCU films and series fail to deliver fun and entertaining stories all on their own, and instead just lay the groundwork for the next event. Quantumania — which sacrificed everything that distinguished the Ant-Man franchise from its contemporaries for the sake of “Kang’s Coming!” — is perhaps the best example of this, with now the Secret Invasion finale offering some stiff competition.
By the way, in case you were wondering, no — there is no mid or post credits scene. I can only imagine that if any such scene was planned, the editors fell asleep too soon to add it.
