‘Secret Invasion’ Episode 1 “Resurrection” Review: Chaotic, Except When It Needs To Be
(L-R): Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn as Talos in Marvel Studios’ SECRET INVASION, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Des Willie. © 2023 MARVEL.
With Secret Invasion, Marvel is returning to the spy-thriller genre that they first started exploring with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a film that paved the way for the franchise from its release until today, with the way it mixed genres with the classic MCU aesthetic. However, despite its serious tone and commitment to feeling more relevant than recent MCU entries like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania or Thor: Love and Thunder, the first episode of the series left a lot to be desired.
Ali Selim directs from a script by Kyle Bradstreet and Brian Tucker, with Samuel L Jackson returning as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, after the two shared the screen together in Captain Marvel. The series is set in modern-day MCU (whatever that means for the actual calendar year we are in is a distant thought of the past at this point) and focuses on an emerging threat, as Skrulls, who have been hiding on Earth for nearly three decades, have had enough and are starting their own insurrection against humans and are taking matters into their own hands.
The first episode of the series is an unapologetic mess. We go from character to character and from location to location with complete lack of cohesiveness and a sense of actual momentum. The script feels like it had a set of goals to accomplish, and must move quickly to the next scene so it can introduce the next character or the next plot point, as opposed to arriving there naturally through the story.
Emilia Clarke as G’iah in Marvel Studios’ SECRET INVASION, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Gareth Gatrell. © 2023 MARVEL.
As we learn in the episode, the events that the show references have been going on for a while, we are just catching up with them. Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), we are told, has been contacting Nick Fury, who has been off-planet for a while, to try to bring him back and deal with the Skrull insurgence. In the opening scene of the show, she finds an ally in Talos, and the next thing we know, Fury is back on Earth.
The main problem with Secret Invasion is that it doesn’t give its characters any time to breathe, but it also doesn’t deliver a sense of urgency that would have allowed for that to be acceptable. For that reason, it feels completely unfocused. It is supposed to be a series about trust and betrayal, among so many other themes (policing, racism, refugees, terrorism, just to name a few), and for that to work on a human level, the audience needs to establish a connection to the characters. Unfortunately, none of them are in the series enough for us to relate to their struggles, which we also don’t have time to experience with them.
Secret Invasion would have felt much more human had it been anchored from the perspective of the relationship between Talos and his daughter G’iah (Emilia Clarke), two Skrulls living on opposite sides of the fight but who have an unbreakable love for one another. It’s a tale as old as time, but one that, if done correctly, can move mountains. Moreover, we could have even seen the corruption of G’iah by Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) and thus experience his true menacing presence, as opposed to depicting him as just another terrorist in the first episode.
(L-R): Emilia Clarke as G’iah and Ben Mendelsohn as Talos in Marvel Studios’ SECRET INVASION, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Des Willie. © 2023 MARVEL.
However, instead of doing that, we are treated to a bullet-point episode, where the writers make sure we meet all the important players, stitching them together in any way they can. We meet Olivia Colman’s Sonya Falsworth, a shady MI6 operative who so far doesn’t strike as interesting as they want us to think, and we also check back with Rhodey (Don Cheadle), who cameos here to let us know he’s in the series and he’s working for the President of the United States now (who is definitely going to be revealed to be a Skrull later).
That being said, the final moments do include a very interesting twist with repercussions that will be felt throughout the rest of the show, or at least that’s what was promised. It was a well-executed moment that also felt like a satisfying conclusion to what had come before in the episode. It happens during a scene that should have felt like utter chaos, but it was completely fake due to poor direction and thus felt completely underwhelming.
Overall, this is not a terrible episode of TV, despite what the review may sound like. It was just disappointing, because the show had a lot of potential with its premise, and also because it felt completely unfocused on its goals. As much as I hate to say it, I am not hooked, though I will keep an open mind and I am looking forward to seeing how the series moves forward from that ending.
Secret Invasion is currently streaming on Disney Plus.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
