SECRET INVASION Director Ali Selim Addresses Negative Reviews

Marvel’s Secret Invasion was not the big hit with fans that Marvel Studios was hoping it would be. The series was met with poor reviews and the six-episode series is currently the lowest-rated Marvel Studios TV show on Rotten Tomatoes with a 56% rotten average.

I was initially excited about the $212 million-budgeted series because I was looking forward to another good Marvel espionage thriller. I was also excited about the Skrull invasion story being told. But, unfortunately, the whole thing ended up being a lackluster story with a few interesting story threads.

There was so much potential for this series and so many cool and interesting storylines they could’ve gone with, but this is what we got, and a good amount of critics and fans were disappointed. A lot of fans criticized the show for its sluggish storytelling and boring dialogue.

Series director Ali Selim recently responded to the negative reception of Secret Invasion, telling Variety:

"I don't read reviews. With all due respect. For me, I view all the storytelling work I do as a dialogue with an audience. When the show is finished and put up on the screen, that's my half of the dialogue. And the audience then starts their half of the response to it. I think that's valuable, but I don't know. I don't know how to answer the question.

"I don't feel bad about mixed reviews. 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.

"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."

I do like his outlook on things and if I knew a project of mine was getting bad reviews, it would probably be hard for me to read them as well. Hell, sometimes when I make a mistake on the site it’s hard to read the comments, so I kind of get it. You don’t want to face the wrath and get put in a funk. But, on the flip side, if you want to get better at what you do, it’s also worth seeing what people didn’t like and using that information to get better at your craft.

What did you all think of Secret Invasion? Are there any aspects of the series that you did enjoy? One of the most interesting parts for me was the Rhodey/Skrull storyline and where that arc will take him in Armor Wars.