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Post by BackinBlack on Sept 25, 2020 12:26:34 GMT -5
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Post by mr. excellent on Sept 25, 2020 17:17:15 GMT -5
Yes! I remember seeing rumors about this, but like with all rumors, was not sure if it was true. Glad to see it is!!
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Post by BackinBlack on Dec 10, 2020 20:48:01 GMT -5
With the announcement of the Secret Invasion series on Disney+, I'm starting to think this might be the Nick Fury lead series, since some reports were saying that Fury would be leading an MCU series rather than it being focused on him. In any case, I'm placing this news here until we hear they're separate projects: www.cbr.com/marvel-secret-invasion-armor-wars-disney-plus/
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Post by BackinBlack on Sept 10, 2022 18:05:52 GMT -5
Getting a mix of sci-fi horror and spy thriller.
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Post by mr. excellent on Sept 11, 2022 16:58:56 GMT -5
I like it quite a bit. As disappointing as D23 was, this wasn't.
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Post by BackinBlack on Apr 2, 2023 22:07:12 GMT -5
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Post by mr. excellent on Jul 19, 2023 11:05:45 GMT -5
There's a lot of negative discussion around this show, and a lot of the criticisms are valid discussion points. However, I feel that in discussion of this show's merits, as a piece of content that stands on its own within the context of the MCU, people get lost in the weeds of those wider discussion points.
Pros: Consistency in quality of episodes Strong performances Good scripting Good story with interesting philosophical dilemmas
Cons: Too few episodes and the weekly episodic format (these two I feel must be paired together) Episode length
I'll talk about the pros first. So far, each episode is strong and seems to be getting stronger. The stakes keep going up, the story is straight forward and easy to follow, but it's written in a way that adults can enjoy. With Disney+ shows, after episode 2 I've noticed the quality of the series goes down. This isn't true with all of their offerings, but that was the case for me with Moon Knight and Loki especially. While Loki more or less still delivered, I am among those who was disappointed with the way Moon Knight played out. Specifically, I wasn't feeling the show after the first two episodes. However with Secret Invasion, Episode 4 in particular is IMO one of the MCU's best episodes of television. While their shows haven't captured the same level of magic as their movies, they do have some solid episodes of tv. Loki has a number of fantastic episodes, as does WandaVision, Moon Knight, and Ms. Marvel. Even She Hulk has a few really good episodes, so for episode 4 to be among their best I think is still something to be proud of.
Regarding the performances, the show's leads are really great. Samuel L Jackson, Olivia Coleman, Ben Mendelsohn, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Charlayne Woodard, are all fantastic. Emilia Clarke is doing a serviceable job too. Of all those mentioned, I'd have to say Coleman and Mendelsohn are my favorites. The dialogue between all the leads is a step up from what we've had in the other series though, and I'd say it stands on the level with something from a Winter Soldier. The story itself is an interesting one. The Skrulls have been left without a home planet for decades and they feel failed by Nick Fury. They want to be able to live freely, outwardly showing their true appearances, and cannot do that on earth with humans around in top leadership capacities. Therefore, a number of fed up skrulls follow the lead of Gravik, who seeks to usurp humans as the planet's dominant species. The means by which they are going about this task has been done quite well.
As for the cons... this show needed more episodes. I think of this like an Andor. The story being told was compelling, and while it didn't get a lot of viewers, the people who saw it initially kept talking about how good it was and eventually more people went back and gave that show a chance. I think the same thing would have happened here. If Disney was going to simply keep this show at 6 episodes with this short episode length, they should have just put it all out there at once. The weekly episodic format is used to keep discussion going and build anticipation each week. Unfortunately, that's just not where Disney/Marvel is right now and instead it's been this 5 week b*** fest. I think if they were to just drop this super short 6 episode mini series, people would've still complained but also had the whole thing to judge at once and seen that it's actually quite a solid show. There's a larger discussion to be had of the episode length and amount of episodes, as well as the state of the larger MCU and Disney as well, but that I'll leave that for another time.
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Post by mr. excellent on Jul 19, 2023 18:54:13 GMT -5
Pro: The Action There's some good scenes and some good shots here that show the actors being yanked from one side of the frame to the next. While there are quick cuts, it's done in a way that doesn't look like they're trying to hide a lack of actual stunt work. The stunt work is there and the special effects that are in play are actually quite good.
Con: The Action There's little to no action in this series. It's the least action oriented show of the bunch (save for WandaVision which was still much more VFX heavy or heavy on the period themed sets). It was recently revealed that over 200M was spent on this show. Over 200M. My question is simply, how? Where in the hell did all of this money go? This is where an understanding of the behind the scenes workings becomes difficult to ignore and not to discuss. The level of acting and the quality of story here are such that I think it would've made sense just to make this a full length motion picture. More bang for your buck, the material substantiated it. There's enough material to make a damn good show as well, but 6 episodes with almost no action? I would've been fine with a longer running series that was more focused on the dialogue *again I point to Andor* but if you're going to insist on a project being a series and spending that much money, where in the hell is the money going?
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Post by mr. excellent on Jul 26, 2023 18:04:46 GMT -5
Just saw the finale. Overall, I liked this show. I think it was pretty good and I disagreed with a lot of the dissent thrown its way, for the reasons I described above. The finale, I can't defend. So disappointing, and the implications of creating a character with the... attributes they did, man. I know where a lot of the budget went, and it just wasn't worth it IMO.
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Post by BackinBlack on Jul 26, 2023 21:10:11 GMT -5
Just finished it. Keep in mind I usually watch these shows during the last week so I can absorb it all in a shorter period and look at it as a whole, so I tend to avoid reviews and spoilers until then. That being said, this series was a major letdown for me. They took one of the biggest Marvel stories and turned it into something skippable. Seriously, this felt like a pre-Disney+ Marvel show where the canon was questionable, especially the whole "We can't call the Avengers" parts. The implications of which characters were Skrulls will probably have no real impact on anything and I had no real investment in the final fight. I really think they should have built up a Secret Invasion movie before moving on to Kang. Imagine seeing the Avengers (and by extension the audience) question who they can trust and culminate in a huge fight between the heroes and Super Skrulls (and not the uber ones we ended up gettting).
At the very least, it was well acted. I really enjoyed Jackson's performance with Fury taking the lead rather than directing the heroes and his moments of vulnerability, which plays well with the Endgame PTSD we've seen the last few years.
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