Secret Invasion

★★1/2

Mild Spoilers

Directed by Ali Selim
Written by Kyle Bradstreet, Beto Dantas, Jonathan Hirschbein, Matt McRee, Haleema Mirza, Jennifer Muro, Jovan Robinson, Brian Tucker, Michael Bhim, Brant Englestein, and Roxanne Paredes

S.H.I.E.L.D. (or is it S.W.O.R.D. now?) head honcho Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) returns from space to handle a sleeper Skrull agent named Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) who has gone rogue and started his own terrorist organisation. He reteams with former associate Agent Hill (Colbie Smulders) and Skrull ally Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) to stop Gravik, with some help from Talos’ daughter G’iah (Emilia Clarke) who has allied herself with Gravik’s cause. If you didn’t know, Skrulls are a shape-shifting alien race who can physically impersonate anyone, not unlike Mystique from the X-Men films.

Secret Invasion is a spy thriller (more Bourne than Bond) that looks like one, even feels like one, but isn’t in any way as clever as it wants you to think it is. There is a huge potential here to create a very gripping espionage tale where literally anyone could be a Skrull in disguise, but because of budgetary reasons and one hand-waiving excuse, a Skrull needs to remain in one identity for long durations, which is pretty baffling since some Skrull characters here are literally walking about with their most identifiable facade for any covert operatives to easily spot and pick them up or take them out. With that kind of ability, I’d be changing into multiple identities at all times and be virtually impossible to find. I know it makes Skrulls a little overpowered, but I’m sure there are clever solutions that can be concocted to level the playing field, e.g. a Skrull detector of some sort, or just Fury using his wits to sniff out imposters. Instead, what we have here is a weak spy series with a lot of logical problems that they didn’t even bother to hide with great production values, which it also didn’t have. The script was also pretty dire - some of the most cringey dialogues I’ve ever listened to. The series also felt like it had forgotten to edit its footages, with some weird reactions and movements from actors that should have been trimmed away. Like there’s one moment where the President of the United States (Dermot Mulroney) made an odd, out-of-place grunt, or when Fury was pointing his gun at someone and his other arm just briefly flailed about for no reason at all. I suspected that they were forced to artificially extend the series to six episodes and didn’t have enough coverage for it. There is also another big issue that I had with the series that I will rant about in the spoiler section below.

The only saving grace is the cast. Jackson is the reason to watch this, and Olivia Coleman stole every scene she was in as a British clandestine operative Sonya Falsworth. Ben-Adir also happens to be in the Barbie movie that is currently in theatres, and it’s interesting that we get to see an actor doing two very different roles in the same span of time. I enjoyed Mendelsohn, Clarke and Smulders, but their roles are criminally limited.

I would only recommend this for die-hard MCU followers. This one is easily the weakest of the Marvel streaming entries to date.

I HAVE ONE SPOILER-Y GRIPE

Here’s my gripe: Fridge-ing Maria Hill and also Talos. But it’s not really just the idea of it, but the execution, no pun intended. These are pretty important figures in Fury’s world for decades and you’d expect a lot more care in the way their deaths had been handled, and provide a more satisfying dramatic impetus for Fury to stem out Gravik and his operations. But there’s just no impact being felt from their deaths, with a pretty nonchalant Fury who seemed strangely ambivalent towards the abrupt departures of his most trusted allies. Just a few shots of Fury getting, er, furious or upset would have been enough, but all we got were a bit of frowning and grimacing. It’s either an odd creative choice, or (I really hate to say this but) just plain ineptitude.

The Spoiler-ific Companion Piece to The Gray Man Review

Spoiler-alert! Here are some random thoughts about The Gray Man.

• Ricardo Hohl Jr (a friend on Facebook) pointed out that there were quite a few similarities to the Schwarzenegger film Commando. The following are some that I can think of:

  • The hero has to escape from inside a plane.

  • The hero has to fight and kill at least one person from his outfit.

  • The female supporting actor has a scene where she uses an explosive projectile weapon.

  • Evans’ sociopathic, mustached villain is reminiscent of Bennett. He even has a knife battle with Gosling in their final showdown. Both Bennett and Hansen died from a fatal injury to the chest.

  • Both finales involve rescuing a pre-teen girl held hostage in a large mansion.

• Evans called Gosling a “Ken doll”. If you know, you know.

• There is a scene with a jeep with a henchman poking out of its sunroof with a machine gun who looks like Al Leong. This is funny if you know who Al Leong is.

• Empire FB group member Gregory Webster pointed out to me that the film is based on a series of books by Mark Greaney. Based on the synopsis, the film seems to deviate quite a bit from the source.

• Though some people have been complaining about the “terrible” script, there are still some cool lines and comebacks like “it’s just another Thursday,” “boring”, and “please remove yourself from my personal space!”

• Things I’m looking forward to in Part 2:

  • Sierra One, Two, Three and Five.

  • The “Old Man”, revealed to be none other than Six’s dad, so that they can shoehorn in a Star Wars moment. How did he survive being shot and killed by Six? Unclear. But I’m sure they’ll find a way.

  • I haven’t read the books, but I bet Six’s brother is also a Sierra.

  • Denny and Suzanne getting their due comeuppance.

  • Dhanush’s Avik San returning to kick ass in style.

  • Lloyd’s twin brother, also played by Evans, plotting his revenge against Six. He’d be meaner and crazier than Lloyd, but without a mustache. It’s stupid, but it’d fit naturally in this trope-ridden world.

Originally published on my Facebook page, here.

Spoiler-free review, here.

The Gray Man

★★★★

No spoilers

The Gray Man is an action movie directed by the Russo Brothers. They’re also the director of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, so my anticipation for this one is pretty high, probably because I haven’t seen their previous movie, Cherry, which not many people liked. Stars Ryan Gosling as a CIA assassin who disobeyed orders during a mission and goes on the run. Believing that he possessed important information that could implicate his employers, they sent mercenary-for-hire Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) to kill him.

This isn’t the smart spy thriller I was looking forward to. I was waiting eagerly to have the rug pulled under me, but I knew it wasn’t to be after the umpteenth action thriller trope was being introduced. It’s really just an unsophisticated action movie designed for spectacle and crowd-pleasing moments.

What it does right are the action stuff. No shaky cam here - everything’s meticulously choreographed and shot. There are two major set pieces that are going to please the action aficionados, and a number of smaller ones, mostly hand-to-hand melees that may not have the creative glee John Wick’s fights have, but they’re still very entertaining. Gosling handles the action scenes well, and I enjoyed his nonchalant attitude whenever a situation’s escalating. Evans is having a blast playing an absolute bastard who is also pretty funny. I was surprised to see Ana de Armas here as I’ve forgotten she was in the movie. She probably kicked the most asses here out of all the movies I’ve seen her in. Yes, a lot more than even No Time To Die. She was great. The cast also includes Jessica Henwick, Billy Bob Thornton, the guy from Bridgerton, and the little kid from Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

I’m disappointed that this came from the Russos, whom I expected to offer more from the story perspective, but for some reason they opted the safe and familiar route instead. It’s not a total loss, as the movie is still a very enjoyable, albeit generic action film. The two set pieces alone are worth the price of subscription.

Originally published on my Facebook Page, Big Movie Freak.