To the shock of most people who know me, I held off on finishing Loki. Yes, I know, I’m incredibely late.
My inital thoughts on the series were mixed to say the least. I watched the series with my mom, and after two episodes (on debut night), we both decided to set the series aside for awhile. We weren’t exactly impressed. I’m not really sure what it was about it, but we just couldn’t get into it.
And then last night, while waiting for sushi to arrive, Mom turns to me and says, “Let’s finish Loki tonight.” Completely out of the blue. And so we did.
Having now seen the whole show, I’m mildly impressed. In my opinion, it doesn’t stand up to WandaVision or Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but it’s a solid showing. I realize now why I wasn’t a fan: the pacing. There were many scenes that I would have condenced or cut all together. It felt like a lot of scenes were stretched out to meet the runtime goal, and it slowed down everything considerably.
The other issue was that many characters just wanted to info dump, especially in the last episode. Jonathan Majors (who portrays He Who Remains) has a massive speech that takes up the majority of that episode, only somewhat broken up with quick shots of what’s going on at the TVA. While I’m all for background information on characters, this took the cake. Pretty much the entirity of what the multiverse is, how it is formed (thanks Sylvie), and who our new big bads are get revealed in the speech. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good scene. It just goes on and on and on…
Early on, it was clear that this show wasn’t going to go the route of FatWS, meaning that there was less action. It also wasn’t going down WV‘s path, as the writing didn’t really let Loki get emotional. It was absolutely a show that spoke a lot, but most of the scenes consisted of conversations, then an establishing show, then another conversation. Most action scenes were limited.
I’d also like to have a conversation with the stunt and fight coorgraphers, as it was clear when characters were faking hits. It was sloppy. I know with the filming restrictions that were on set made things difficult, as well as the several month delay in the middle of the shoot, but it was noticable.
That’s not to say that I didn’t like the show. I did! I felt that it was well cast, as most of characters (excluding Loki and a brief cameo of Lady Sif) were new to the MCU. I had been nervous when I heard Owen Wilson was cast, but he brought out his drama chops for this film (can he do more drama films? He’s got good timing!). Sylvie is a character created from the comics, inspired by a combined Enchantress and Lady Loki. She is expertly portrayed by Sophia Di Martino, while one of her most emotional scenes is played by young Cailey Fleming when the character was a child. The introduction and portrayal of Ravonna Renslayer was supurbly done by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, towing the line between morally ambiguous to complex villain in such a perfect way. Oh, and we can’t for get voice actress veteran Tara Strong bringing the animated Miss Minutes to life (the character that ended up with a jump scare in the beginning of episode six, and scared the hell out of me).
I’ve become more critical of Marvel’s films and televisions shows as of late, because they have such a hold over the market. But I also know that a lot of what I dislike about the series was well liked by fans across the globe, and that’s okay. I’m allowed to not like things.
Next up for us is Black Widow in a few days. I’m curious to see how that one goes.
Until next time!
(BTW: Don’t ask my opinions on Eternals. I have issues with this film, and I haven’t even seen it yet.)