Summary
- Secret Invasion, Marvel's latest series, has received mixed reviews with a low rating on Rotten Tomatoes, prompting the director to respond.
- Director Ali Selim doesn't feel bad about the mixed reviews and acknowledges that different people have different expectations.
- While a devoted fan base may have high expectations, it's not always necessary for a project to fulfill those expectations to be successful.
Despite its intriguing premise and a commanding lead performance from Samuel. L Jackson, Marvel Studios' Secret Invasion received mixed reviews, prompting series director Ali Selim to address them.
Based on the comic of the same name, Secret Invasion follows an alien invasion on Earth involving shape-shifting Skrulls infiltrating positions of power worldwide. The six-episode, $212 million series is currently the MCU's lowest-rated show on Rotten Tomatoes with a score of 56%, as no single episode reached 60% or above --- the positive or "fresh" status.
In a recent interview with Variety, Selim, who directed all six Secret Invasion episodes, reacted to the mixed reviews from fans and critics from a somewhat different perspective. "I don't feel bad about mixed reviews," he said. "If you had unanimously good reviews, every movie would gross $10 billion, trillion dollars, right? [Projects] resonate with different people at different times for different reasons, and Marvel has a very devoted — even rabid — fan base who have expectations and when their expectations aren't fulfilled, they move in the other direction; they give it a thumbs down."
The Secret Invasion finale, in particular, received the most backlash from fans, as many felt it abandoned its espionage, slow-burn story for a rushed episode that concluded with a generic fight scene with no stakes. The Secret Invasion episode currently sits at 8% on Rotten Tomatoes. "I don't know — is it our job to fulfill their expectations? Or to tell the story that we're telling? So, it's a tricky thing. I would love it if everybody loved it, but I also don't have that expectation myself, so I feel great about the response to it," Selim added .
Although his comments regarding the overall fan base and their devotion to the entire MCU ring true, it's not guaranteed that every superhero film that has received great --- or generally favorable --- reviews earns big at the box office. While restrained by the pandemic, James Gunn's The Suicide Squad was considered a box office disappointment, as it only racked up $168.7 million on a $185 budget, despite its rave reviews. And this year's The Flash, while certainly flawed, was met with decent reviews and included the return of fan-favorite characters, but is now considered one of the biggest box office bombs of all time.
With a promising second season of Loki and an acclaimed director in Nia DaCosta helming The Marvels, let's hope the MCU can find its footing again and get back to producing consistently good --- or above-average --- projects.
Secret Invasion is streaming on Disney Plus.
Sources: Variety