Tag Archives: Secret Invasion

Nov 18 2023

The MCU Woes, Part I: How Did It Get To This?

Given all the downbeat news lately about Marvel Studios’ Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), it’s pretty understandable why MCU fans are so alarmed. It was not that long ago when the MCU was an undisputed entertainment behemoth that could not do anything wrong.

Now, there have been noticeable tumbles with their projects, especially this year. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania underperformed in the box office, the Disney+ TV series Secret Invasion was widely derided and what was worse is that the recently released MCU film, The Marvels, is performing worse than the third Ant-Man film.

Then the behind-the-scenes turmoil further added to the impression that the MCU is falling apart. Reports have revealed that productions were rushed and reshot. This explained why many MCU films and TV shows felt so disjointed and undeveloped.

Another dilemma involved the actor Jonathan Majors who plays Kang the Conqueror and is slated to be the major villain in the next few MCU films. He was recently arrested for domestic abuse and Marvel Studios and its parent company, Disney, is struggling over what to do with Majors and the character of Kang because if he is found guilty this would disrupt any upcoming films or TV shows.

Then there is the issue of what direction should the overall MCU should take. In the first three phases of the cinematic universe there seemed to be a goal that the films were reaching towards. Although the Multiverse Saga has been introduced in the Phase Four and Five of the MCU, many films and TV shows have ignored the concept and as a result the overall narrative of the MCU seems aimless and less interconnected than previous films.

Adding to the disjointed and convoluted nature of the current MCU is that a lot of characters and storylines have been introduced but many of them have not been followed up. For example, what happened with the Eternals after the Celestials kidnapped half of them? What is the story behind the Hulk suddenly having a son? Will we ever see Hercules carry out his quest of vengeance against Thor? What happened to the symbiote fragment that was left behind in the main MCU by Venom? What happened with the crusade of the United States against aliens?

What happened behind the scenes was that most of the productions had their scripts drastically altered during filming, which led to a slapdash feel to the finished film or TV show. This in turn strained the special effects department who were forced to work under insane deadlines and resulted in horribly bad special effects that in some cases were tweaked after a film or TV show was released.

What was worse is that the MCU was such a victim of its own success that the higher-ups at Disney demanded more projects from Marvel Studios to pad out the roster of Disney+ inventory. The reason for this as many know was due to the launch of Disney+, which had few original programs, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Both incidents caused Disney to demand more productions to be launched on the streaming app since it was the only way to present the MCU productions during the outbreak of the pandemic. As a result multiple projects were put into production, even though the demand for some of them was questionable. Does anyone actually want to see an Ironheart TV show?

This stretched ability of Marvel Studios to deliver quality films and TV shows and people noticed. Productions were rushed in order to meet deadlines and were heavily reshot during post-production. This in turn not only drastically changed some plots but disrupted the narrative flow of the stories. The results were less than satisfying films and TV shows, though the quality of the MCU productions varied. Still for every WandaVision or Black Panther: Wakanda Forever there was a Secret Invasion or Eternals. Marvel Studios saw diminished returns for their projects, which became very apparent this year given how poorly Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Secret Invasion and The Marvels were recieved.

So is all lost? Is the MCU headed in the same direction as the hapless DC films?

No, to both questions.

Marvel Studios has shown that it’s capable of putting out truly great films and TV shows. Just look at this year’s offerings of Loki and Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3. There is still demand and goodwill for upcoming MCU projects like the third Deadpool film and Avengers: Secret Wars. But more importantly, the film studio and Disney are being proactive and are addressing the situation. The best days for the MCU may still be ahead of us.

In a follow up post, we’ll look at what Marvel Studios can do to right the ship and point out how they are taking concrete steps at this moment.

Oct 15 2023

Daredevil Dead Again & Other MCU TV Shows Blues

Things just seem to be going from bad to worse for the Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV shows. For the most part, some of the recent MCU TV shows have been poorly received by fans and critics who griped about the inconsistent tone of the episodes, half-finished scripts and poor special effects. The MCU TV shows hit their lowest point with Secret Invasion, which should have been a lot better but instead turned out to be the worst MCU presentations. There have been a lot of reports and rumors about how Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige is going out of his way to right the ship with the MCU. This has led to substantial delays and cancellation of projects. But the news last week that the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again has been essentially scrapped created a lot of concern for fans.

Daredevil: Born Again has been one of the most anticipated MCU projects since it brought back Charlie Cox as the title character. He won so much acclaim for his performance as Matt Murdock/Daredevil in the Netflix TV series Daredevil, which was about a blind superhero with enhanced senses fighting crime in Manhattan. That series ran for three seasons and was considered to be among the greatest superhero TV shows based on a Marvel Comics charater. Fans wondered if the TV show would ever be revived and saw reason to hope when Cox reprised his role in the film Spider-Man: No Way Home and the TV show She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Naturally, many were excited when Kevin Feige announced that a new Daredevil TV show was being produced by Marvel Studios.

Not a lot was known about Daredevil: Born Again other than aside from Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio would reprise his role as Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin, the brutal crime lord that rules New York’s criminal society. Supposedly, the overall plot had to do with the consequences of Fisk being elected as the mayor of New York. But there were some aspects about the show that put off fans, namely that Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll would not return to play their beloved characters Foggy Nelson and Karen Page. In fact, there have been leaks that both characters were killed off in Daredevil: Born Again. Also, there seemed to be an effort by the executives to not associate it with the Netflix series. This did not make sense since Daredevil was so revered and it was only logical to continue that show instead of doing a reboot given that the same lead actor was returning.

Production came to a halt with the TV show due to the writer and actors strikes, which has crippled film and TV productions this year. At the onset of the strike only a few episodes had been completed and it was supposed to have an eighteen-episode run.

Marvel Studios has been having issues with the quality of many of their projects, especially the TV shows, and this resulted in diminishing returns. As we all know, Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige had been stretched very thin by mandates by Disney to produce more product and there are only so many resources and time available to consistently produce quality products. This is how we got poorly received films and TV shows like Secret Invasion, Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Naturally, this has forced Marvel Studios to take a hard look at their current and upcoming projects and honestly assess them.

This assessment and the realization that the market was being flooded with too many films and TV shows have led to delayed releases for their projects. In some cases, projects have either been scrapped or will undergo significant revisions. Unfortunately, this included Daredevil: Born Again.

According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, Kevin Feige reviewed what had been filmed with the new Daredevil TV show and admitted that it was not working. It was turning out to be a procedural lawyer show that de-emphasized Daredevil and Matt Murdock did not even don the Daredevil suit until the fourth episode. This has led to the dismissal of the writers and directors and the show is now back to square one.

But Daredevil: born Again is not the only casualty. It has been rumored that a planned TV show, Visionquest, based on the android hero, the Vision, has been cancelled. Echo, which has been completed and feature Daredevil, keeps being delayed because it’s supposedly not well done and Marvel Studios is trying to fix it through editing. Agatha: Darkhold Diaries also seems to be a victim of constant retinkering given that the TV show based on the witch Agatha Harkness has had so many title changes. Ironheart, has been completed for some time, yet there isn’t any clear indication of when it will stream on Disney+. Rumors for upcoming MCU projects featuring Nova, Okoye and the Silver Surfer have stopped giving the impression that they also have been scrapped.

On the one hand this implosion of MCU TV shows is cause for concern given the high reputation Marvel Studios has with fans and most critics (excepting snobs like Martin Scorsese). Some panicking fans will use this situation to declare that superhero fatigue is upon us. But that is not necessarily so. The reason for diminishing returns in metrics and box office returns is due to diminished and inferior product that is not up to par with past MCU projects. If a film or TV show is great, people will seek it out, for the most part. Look at how well some recents films and TV shows performed. These include Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, WandaVision, Loki, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Werewolf By Night. Right now, Loki, which began its second season a couple of weeks ago is removing the sting of the dismal Secret Invasion. However, it’s early for the show and it could wind up becoming an uneven disappointment. Another problem for Marvel Studios is that they do not have a lot of experience creating TV shows and it can be seen with their finished products. Most of them seem like overlong films instead of TV shows that are a different medium with a distinct method of storytelling.

On the other hand, these delays, cancellations and retoolings are a sign that Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios have acknowledged that things are not working for their projects. It is far better to course correct now with Daredevil and be willing to go back to the drawing board. Otherwise, can anyone imagine what would happen if Daredevil: Born Again turns out to be another Secret Invasion? One thing Marvel Studios should do is bring back the folks who were behind Daredevil like Drew Goddard. He and the other creatives behind Daredevil knew how to handle the character and his world, and it would reassure fans. Anyway, with less projects to deal with, Marvel Studios now has more bandwidth to ensure that they create superior films and TV shows that will be up to their usual high standards. So, while we may have to wait longer to see the full return of Daredevil, we can be comforted knowing that it will be worth the wait.

Aug 27 2023

Disney + Has Damaged Pixar, Star Wars & Marvel

When it was announced that the streaming app Disney + would feature exclusive content for their purchased intellectual properties Star Wars and Marvel, most fans were understandably excited. In the closing years of the 2010s both properties were riding high, especially Marvel with its Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The people running Disney + promised that subscribers would have access to a vast video library of its properties and that the exclusive content would be top-of-the-line when it came to quality. At first, this seemed to be the case. At first.

Shortly after Disney + became available, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which shut down theaters and the streaming platform became the only medium available to get new content based on Disney IP, Pixar, Star Wars and the MCU. Due to the pandemic many films were delayed and this happened with the Pixar films scheduled for release. At the same time, Disney was desperate to generate streaming traffic for Disney + and to gain subscribers, new product had to be available. The easiest solution was to take the delayed films like Soul and premiere them exclusively on Disney +.

For a short while, this tactic worked, but unlike the other MCU films that were released exclusively in theaters, Disney kept debuting other Pixar films like Luca and Turning Red on the streaming app. This gave the impression that the Pixar films were inferior in quality, because people began thinking that these films were not good enough for theatrical releases. Also, when the Pixar films Lightyear and Elemental actually premiered in theaters, viewers were conditioned to wait for them to come out weeks later on Disney + and save some money. To be fair other streaming apps like HBO Max did this as well, but this tactic was abandoned soon after studios realized they were losing revenue. It took Disney some time to forego premiering some of their films on the app.

The app premiered with The Mandalorian, the hit TV show set in the Star Wars universe about a Clint Eastwoodish, intergalactic bounty hunter and his infant alien ward. The Mandalorian became a huge hit and actually helped keep the Star Wars brand alive. Actually, for a couple of years it was the only Star Wars-related property for fans to watch. Obviously, Disney had to put out more Star Wars content and last year more Star Wars-related TV shows streamed on Disney +, which included The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and now Ahoska. While some of the TV shows were well received and even earned Emmy nominations, the Boba Fett show was a huge misfire with its unfocused scripts. Unfortunately, these same problems bled into the third season of The Mandalorian, and Ahsoka is receiving criticisms, as well. It is clear with The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka that Disney wants to create a more integrated universe with a part of Star Wars history: the period of time after the fall of the Galactic Empire. Reportedly the goal is to have the TV shows lead to a film that ties all the elements together. While it is ambitious and echoes what happened with the MCU, there are problems in that the Star Wars universe is becoming too convoluted. Viewers are forced to watch other shows and even animated programs like Star Wars: Rebels to fully understand what is going on with many of the Star Wars TV shows. With interest in the Star Wars brand waning, this development could not have happened at a worst time.

The problem with the scripts for some of the Star Wars TV shows also plagued the MCU TV shows. What was worse was that the production values for many MCU TV shows was shockingly poor. The MCU, like Star Wars, got off to a promising start on Disney + with TV shows like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. But the quality of the MCU TV shows soon began to falter and it became more and more obvious that budget limitations were impacting the shows. For example, with the time travel TV show Loki, even though it was well acted and written, it seemed as if there was a lot of talking instead of showing. Instead of time traveling to pivotal events in the MCU, the main characters traveled to mundane time periods.

The problem with limited budgets affected some of the effects work on later TV shows. This was best seen with Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Secret Invasion. With She-Hulk, the limited special effects was fatal for the show because its poor, unfinished special effects left She-Hulk looking like a SIM character. The same budget limitations has severely affected Secret Invasion, which has a lot of talking scenes about world events with limited action scenes. What is even more unbelievable is that the budget for the TV show was about $200 million. Where did that money go? The budget for Secrect Invasion is not the main reason for its poor execution, it is actually due to the scripts which make the show feel small scale. This also went on with many other MCU TV shows that should have had great payoffs. This even happened with WandaVision. For the most part that show was terrific with clever scripts and acting. But the payoff at the final episode felt like a letdown with the scope of the confrontations between characters.

Disney CEO Bob Iger recently said that the market was oversaturated with Star Wars and Marvel TV shows and films, and he is correct. There was a lot of pressure for the Disney + app to have new and original content, which meant that there had to be a lot of content about two of its most popular IPs. Unfortunately, the demand stretched the capability to keep up the quality of the products in order to meet scheduling deadlines. The result was that many fans were disappointed with the finished TV shows as the brands became diluted. To correct this, the brands need to pull back and Disney is doing this as per Iger’s orders. They are giving their properties the time needed to produce quality over quantity. However, there will be more inferior TV shows until the better-produced TV shows come out.

Disney and other studios are facing a new problem with their inability to provide new content thanks to the crippling writer and acting strikes which have shut down productions for film and TV studios. As content dries up and films and TV shows get delayed again or canceled, there will be increased demand. Will the studios make the same mistakes they did earlier this decade and force creators to pump out products before they are ready? Probably, so it is up to the studios to learn from their missteps regarding their streaming platforms.

Jul 27 2023

A Disappointing Secret Invasion

The six-part Secret Invasion TV series on Disney + streamed its final episode last night and unfortunately it was as mid as the rest of the series. To go into why it was so mediocre and par for the course with the recent TV shows set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) there will be major spoilers from this point on.

Secret Invasion had a lot to admire, notably Samuel L. Jackson as former S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury, Olivia Colman as British secret agent Sonya Falsworth, and some terrific dialouge. There was one riveting moment where Fury explained, using his childhood memories in the segragated south, why humanity would never accept alien beings living on Earth. But the overall feeling of the series feels underwhelming and done on the cheap, which is surprising given that it supposedly had a large budget.

Like every comic-book adaptation, Secret Invasion was very loosely based on the Marvel Comics mini-series of the same name in that it only adapted the basic premise that alien shape shifters called Skrulls infiltrated Earth’s human populace. Unlike the comic books there weren’t any Skrulls impersonating superheroes except for Col. James “Rhodey” Rhodes aka War Machine (Don Cheadle). There aren’t any epic battles between superheroes and their alien counterparts, and there is a lack of paranoia about who was a Skrull like in the comic books where readers were shocked that several superheroes were impersonated by Skrulls for years.

Yes, there was Rhodey, but that was it, and by the way he acted at the start of the series it was fairly obvious that he was a Skrull. There were a few other revelations but they lacked any dramatic punch because most of these people never appeared before in the MCU. The TV series was just begging for appearances from many established characters, yet that never happened. Sure, it was unrealistic to expect Chris Hemsworth or Paul Rudd to show up, but the MCU has so many distinctive minor characters that could have appeared to play into the paranoia by revelations that they were Skrulls. What is it, they ran out of money to pay these actors? Did the showrunners seriously expected viewers to be shocked when it was revealed that the prime minister of the United Kingdom was a Skrull? Big deal! This faux prime minister did not even do anything!

The storyline followed Nick Fury as he learned that a million Skrulls are living as refugees on Earth disguised as humans. One of them, Gravik (KIngsley Ben-Adir) was a former spy who worked with Fury and is now a terrorist intent on turning Earth into a new homeworld for his race. To do this, Gravik planned to start World War III by using his clandestine Skrull army to instigate a conflict between the United States and Russia. With limited resources, except the help of his Skrull friend Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). Fury has to muster all his connections and skills to stop Gravik and his followers.

What could have been an intense and paranoid political thriller came off as underwhelming aside from a few bright moments throughout the show. Many elements of the storyline do not make sense. For instance, Skrulls were immune to radiation, which is why Gravik wanted to start a third world war. He reasoned that when humanity was wiped out by the fallout radiation the remaining Skrulls would inherit the Earth. But did he stop to consider that Skrulls would be just as vulnerable to the shockwaves and firestorms from the nuclear explosions? What about the biosphere of Earth, could the Skrulls survive on a poisoned planet with no food available and destroyed infrastructures?

Then there were the attempts to assasinate the president of the United States (Dermot Mulroney). There was a sequence in the fifth episode where the president’s motorcade in England was attacked by Gravik’s forces. It was exciting, but it was nagging to see how lightly protected the motorcade was or how it was put into a vulnerable position in the first place. Some lines of dialogue that the Secret Service was severely compromised would have helped here. The poor lines of defense are even more noticeable in scenes were the president was in a British hospital with very few people around him. He should have had an army surrounding him after the motorcade attack and most likely the Secret Service would have whisked him off to Air Force One. Instead we are expected to believe that Fury was able to slink into the hospital without any serious opposition.

There were these cheap dramatic moments of Fury facing off with the Rhodey Skrull. Every time the Skrull would get the upper hand because he was disguised as Rhodey. So why didn’t Fury do what Falsworth did in other scenes when dealing with Skrulls and just shoot him? She showed that injuring a Skrull would have revealed that their blood was a different color and boom, the fake Rhodey would have been exposed.

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