Secret Invasion

Our Review

The MCU’s biggest wasted swing: a Skrull-invasion thriller that should have been the franchise’s paranoia epic — who’s been replaced? — and instead became a muddy miniseries about Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, doing his best with material about a veteran spy who failed the Skrulls he promised a home) chasing a radicalized faction. Olivia Colman’s unhinged MI6 agent Sonya Falsworth is the bright spot — she’s having the time of her life while the plot sags.

The problems are structural: the premise (a million Skrulls among us) is resolved with a shrug (the G’iah-super-Skrull finale — resolving an infiltration thriller with an energy-blast fight), the Rhodey reveal gets cheapened immediately, and the dour tone can’t find the story underneath. The AI-generated opening credits finished the job the writing started. The franchise’s lowest-rated entry.

Verdict: Skip it — the “watch this not that” of the MCU. Watch Andor if you want the paranoid-thriller register done right.