The results are in, and the finale of Secret Invasion has set a new Marvel Cinematic Universe record for the single worst-reviewed piece of content the franchise has ever put out in its 15-year existence.
Hardly a cause for celebration, then, especially when the series as a whole ranks as the superhero saga’s lowest-rated episodic offering on Rotten Tomatoes, too, with only the miserable responses to Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania keeping it off the cumulative bottom of the barrel.
Now that audiences have had 48 hours to digest that utter shambles of a conclusion, director Ali Selim has been making the rounds to talk spoilers, and it turns out that he’s completely unaware – or being willfully ignorant – of the heated reactions damning his contributions to the MCU.
Speaking to Variety, the filmmaker danced around the widespread panning to question whether or not it’s even his job to meet the expectations of the audience, which is surely a pre-requisite when dealing with the biggest brand in the business.
“Oh, 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.”
As it relates to the MCU, the bare minimum is ensuring the target demographic at the very least derives some enjoyment from what they’re watching, so you’ve got to wonder if Selim is better off blocking out the noise forevermore given the vast – and entirely deserved – trashing the show has taken.