Secret Invasion Episode 2 Review: The Painful Consequences of Failure
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Charlayne Woodard, Samuel Adewunmi, Killian Scott, Katie Finneran, Dermot Mulroney, Christopher McDonald, Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, Don Cheadle, Cobie Smulders, Martin Freeman
Director: Ali Selim
Streaming Platform: Disney+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars)
Secret Invasion, after a devastating premiere ending, takes a moment to calm down to reflect on the events and better prepare the pawns on the field. After a more than convincing first episode, it’s time to go back to immersing yourself in the darkest atmospheres of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Secret Invasion continues to put superheroes aside to make their way into a world of spies and political and cultural intrigue. All in a second episode that confirms all the merits already highlighted by the pilot of the new Marvel series available on Disney Plus. The Marvel series has presented itself in very different ways than the products that preceded it, but that doesn’t automatically make it something compelling. It is better to avoid any possibility of an absolute dichotomy from the beginning, as if by now everything baked by the MCU must be judged by the number of jokes and gags present and the final evaluation depended only on this. Otherwise, following such logic, for example, the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy shouldn’t be held in such high regard, should it?
Secret Invasion should therefore be praised not for the almost total absence of jokes, but because it is a choice that is perfectly consistent with the type of darker and more mature story it wants to tell. And the second episode is an excellent manifesto of this, for a series that even voluntarily renounces spectacularism – which Disney products always seem to have to appear at every episode – to prepare its chessboard as much as possible. It’s not a perfect chapter, more than a few aspects left us a pinch of bitterness in the mouth. Yet it’s hard not to get carried away by the ambition and scope that perhaps Nick Fury’s latest adventure wants to pursue and implement, without facilitation of any kind or excessive simplifications.
Secret Invasion Episode 2 Review: The Story Plot
Not surprisingly, the entire episode is essentially dedicated to the consequences of the attack in Moscow by Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) and his rebel faction of Skrulls – here you can find our review of Secret Invasion Episode 1. A failure that leaves further scars on Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) and above all on Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), increasingly a lonely man fighting against an invasion of far more mammoth proportions than he had anticipated while the world is too busy to avoid a third world conflict to listen to him seriously. After all, the episode is all here, it is a continuous descending parable that sees the former head of the Shield in an endemic lack of allies and friends to rely on to carry on such a battle – even the motivation for not wanting to contact the Avengers seems all in all valid or any case better than many other products of the MCU.
In short, a classic descent into the abyss naturally crowned by the golden moment of enemy number one, Gravik who can now collect even more support after the success of his plan. And it’s fascinating precisely because, as I anticipated at the beginning, he doesn’t look for any shortcuts: the Moscow attack has global political repercussions and are effectively addressed, Fury becomes a person of interest or a scapegoat as appropriate, the deployments in the field that try to seek the truth multiply dramatically. Plus, that tantalizing addition of a never-dormant tension of not being able to trust anyone, since basically anyone or almost anyone could turn out to be an enemy Skrull at the decisive moment.
The invasion has begun or rather has already occurred. Secret Invasion picks up on the shocking ending of the last episode but first takes a step back. A flashback that sheds light on the motivations of Gravik and the Skull faction intent on conquering planet Earth. It all stems from Nick Fury’s broken promises, who finds himself having to deal with the tragic consequences of the Moscow attack. The former director of SHIELD is as alone as he’s ever been in the MCU. No allies to rely on, no one to trust, and now without the support of his government, represented in this episode by Colonel Rhodes (Don Cheadle). Paralleling the fall of Fury, we find the rise of Gravik. The villain of the series acquires more and more power and prepares his decisive attack, strengthening the Skrull army. However, about the shape-shifting aliens, there is no shortage of twists, destined to change the continuation of the series but also the perception of the past of the MCU.
Secret Invasion Episode 2 Review and Analysis
Of course, don’t expect a House of Cards level of depth in the description of these processes, but in the context of extremely commercial productions ambition – and the discreet visual violence that accompanies the darker tones – produces tangible results in any case. The problem with the second installment, in our opinion, is more that it doesn’t advance the Secret Invasion storyline. There wouldn’t be anything wrong with a transition chapter, mind you, but we’re talking about a 6-episode miniseries and so the choice to stop almost completely no longer seems so wise and takes the form of playing with fire. It is evident that he does a monstrous job in meticulously preparing each pawn on the field and playing with the contrast between the fall of the hero and the rise of the villain, but in our opinion, there is also something about the ending that pushes the story forward or introduces it better next week’s episode could have been inserted.
It wouldn’t be the first series that, in the eagerness of wanting to introduce everything with obsessive attention, in the end, wastes essential playing time to find itself concluding in a hurry. Perhaps it is precisely the fear caused by the other Marvel serial productions, which in terms of rhythm have always been lost in one way or another, but for once we would like an all-round evolution of Marvel Studios, not only in intentions which to tell the truth have always been commendable. At the risk of being repetitive, we want to underline once again the beauty of the Secret Invasion atmosphere. Not because the darker tones are synonymous with quality, but because every project needs its dimension and this spy story seems, for now, perfect to stage a worthy adaptation of the comic story, even if it deviates from the original material.
If we especially appreciated the technical sector of the first episode, this second episode of Secret Invasion stands out for writing of a much higher level than the standards of the Marvel series. We could have focused more on some aspects that are glossed over, but many of the dialogues present are brilliant. Fury repeatedly refers to the themes of racism and immigration, without ever being banal. He has powerful words that remain impressive, as not forced. Instead, they are effective in contextualizing the arrival of another race, that of the Skrulls, in a world where men themselves declare war on each other. There is no room for peaceful coexistence. The viewer manages to frame the events also from the point of view of the Skrulls. Not just the ones we had already come to know, like Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) and G’iah (Emilia Clarke).
Indeed, the latter take a back seat in this episode, to the advantage of new characters. We see, for example, more than Olivia Colman’s Sonya. A character that we hope will be thoroughly investigated, because Colman’s interpretation is confirmed to be formidable. She stars in one of the grittiest sequences Marvel Studios has ever brought to the small screen. The sign that something is changing. In any case, although pleasantly surprised by this beginning of the series, an objective judgment on Secret Invasion can only come over time. The real test bench will be the next episodes: will the following episodes be able to carry on the macro plot without getting lost in useless subplots? Will six episodes be enough to reach an unhurried ending?
Secret Invasion Episode 2 Review: The Last Words
Secret Invasion Episode 2 turned out to be quite ambivalent. On the one hand, it is impossible not to praise the ambition and desire to face the consequences of the Moscow attack as minutely as possible, including a world political situation on the verge of collapse. And it’s all crowned by the classic contrast between the fall of the hero – Nick Fury who is increasingly alone in countering a mammoth invasion – and the rise of the villain – Gravik who, after the success of his plan, receives even more support. It’s all done with the right attention and even charm, which leaves room for further in-depth work, especially on Fury. On the other hand, though, it’s an installment that doesn’t advance the story of Secret Invasion, limiting himself to an almost bureaucratic job of perfectly arranging every pawn on the field, which, however fascinating, struggles to introduce the next episode or take decisive steps. And, in a 6-episode miniseries, a break like that makes your nose turn up a bit, especially given the serial history of Marvel Studios, full of excellent introductions and hasty closures.
