Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing okay today. I watched the first episode of Loki on Disney+ with my sister last night, so I'm here to talk about that episode. I'm not going to have spoilers in this review, so don't worry if you haven't watched the episode yet. With that said, let's get into it.
Loki is a series that I wasn't excited for when it was announced. Mainly because I'm just so tired of superhero shows and movies in general at this point. Especially DC and Marvel. Though at this point for Marvel it doesn't matter because people will watch whatever they put out, regardless. Like, it could be the worst Marvel movie or show ever, and people will still watch it. Even after thirteen years, that's still really weird to me, because Marvel wasn't always as well known to the non-comic book reading audience as it is now. Especially when I was growing up in the 90s and 2000s. DC wasn't either to the extent it is now, though people knew who Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman were thanks to the shows that were on in the 50s through to the 80s, not to mention the movies that Superman had been in in the 70s and 80s and the movies that Batman was in in the 80s and 90s. But aside from Spider-Man and the X-Men, very few people knew anything about Marvel.
The MCU is a fickle thing for me as someone who isn't a big fan of Marvel Comics in general, because I loved the early movies from Iron Man in 2008 through to Ant-Man in 2015. I didn't like Age of Ultron as much as I enjoyed The Avengers, and while I enjoyed Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Black Panther, Infinity War, Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far from Home, I didn't like Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Ant-Man and the Wasp, or Captain Marvel as much, with Doctor Strange and Thor: Ragnarok being the two I didn't like at all. And it's not that they're bad movies by any means. It's just I personally didn't care about them as much for one reason or another.
So when it came time to announce the MCU post Far from Home, and even a little bit before that, probably around Infinity War or Endgame, I decided I would become more selective when it came to which MCU films and shows I would watch. Especially when it came to the Disney+ shows as I just don't care about the characters being chosen to be the lead character in those shows as much. In fact the only two I actually became excited for were The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (which is one of the best shows I've seen in a long time) and the upcoming series, Hawkeye, because I love Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye and I am really looking forward to seeing how Hailee Steinfeld ends up portraying Kate Bishop, who was the best thing about the first trade paperback volume for Matt Fraction's Hawkeye comic book run. The rest I didn't (and don't for the upcoming ones) care about and have had a very take it or leave it attitude towards. And that includes Loki.
The first episode of the show, titled "Glorious Purpose" is extremely well done, and I had lots of fun watching it, but the time travel aspect is something I'm uncertain about going forward. Look, I'm a fan of DC's Legends of Tomorrow but I'm a fan of that show because of the characters, while most of the weird stuff they do on that show, particularly the time travel aspect are the things I hate the most about that show. So, when the whole conceit of a show starring Tom Hiddleston as the god of mischief, has to be time travel because he was killed at the beginning of Infinity War (okay, so there are slight spoilers for that three year old movie), then to my mind, you're asking the audience to take a leap of faith that the time travel won't immediately make the entire show convoluted due to how loosely these shows and movies tend to play with their own rules when it comes to time travel. Yes, even a show that has been on for decades, like Doctor Who, plays loosely with it's own time travel rules. I'm also not as invested in Loki as a solo character, as I feel his story ended with Infinity War, and anything they do going forward is just filling in blanks that don't necessarily need to be filled in, between movies that came out almost a decade ago.
Aside from not feeling as invested in this time variant version of Loki, who we were technically introduced to in Endgame when the Avengers went back in time to the first Avengers movie in order to get the Infinity Stone inside the Tesseract, though still liking him, everything I said in the previous paragraph is, in this episode, unfounded. It's well written and I do like the chemistry between Loki, and Owen Wilson's character, Mobius, the Time Variance Authority (TVA) agent who recruits Loki for what they need him for.
Speaking of Owen Wilson, he actually surprised me in this episode. Mainly because he's never been an actor that I've enjoyed watching as he's known for playing loud and obnoxious. Especially in the 2000s, when every comedy was trying to outdo each other with how raunchy and plotless they could be. But here, I actually enjoyed his character. And of course, Tom Hiddleston is always fun to watch when he's playing Loki. That's the main reason I didn't just dismiss this series and refuse to watch it. And the banter between these two characters are the reason I'm going to watch the next episode or two. But again, if the time travel aspect gets too complicated for me then I'm going to bow out and put this show on the "Not for Me" list.
The thing I don't like about this show is that it took almost the entire episode for Loki to find out why Mobius wanted to recruit him. Instead most of the episode is Mobius psycho-analyzing Loki, which I guess is necessary, but I am so sick of comic book movies and shows doing this. Yes, we know what Loki's insecurities are at this point in the MCU. Multiple characters identified them in Thor, The Avengers, and Thor: The Dark World, so I feel we don't need to rehash them again for this show. If it was Loki from later on in the timeline it would be fine. But it isn't. It's the Loki we've known since 2011. The reason I love Superman & Lois (one of them anyway) is that all it's trying to do is be a Superman show. It wants to be a Superman show, and so it's not spending entire episodes pscyho-analyzing the main character. I just wish Loki wanted to be a straight up, fun, Loki series. Especially since it only has six episodes to tell it's story in, and so I feel like it should've packed a little bit more plot into this episode instead of spending precious moments on establishing what we already know about the character.
Also, the TVA is basically the Time Lords from Doctor Who, the Temporal Investigations Department from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Time Bureau and the Time Masters from DC's Legends of Tomorrow and Time Force from Power Rangers Time Force. Not to mention any other time monitoring organization in any other show or movie about time travel. So it's really nothing new at this point.
I know, I sound like I'm bashing this episode. But that's the thing, I'm not. A good reviewer has to not only praise the thing they're reviewing, but also identify it's flaws and areas where things could be improved. Especially when it comes to entertainment mediums such as movies and TV shows. Otherwise, how else can the show or movie franchise get better? And the same thing goes for reviewers who are reviewing something they don't like. You can't just bash a movie or show, because that doesn't do anything. Instead, if you don't like something, you have to at least try to find something you enjoyed, even if it's the worst movie or TV show ever. Loki is still an interesting character, but you don't immediately need to go into the psycho-analysis of him to make him interesting. Because it just makes some audience members bored. Luckily, there was still alot of fun in this episode, but there wasn't much story being told, which is a problem when the first season of a show only has six episodes. Both seasons of The Mandalorian, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, as well as WandaVision were able to do so much in only eight or nine episodes that it was astonishing how much they got done in that small number of episodes. But this show has six episodes to tell it's story, and if they continue not putting very much story in each episode, then by the finale, it's going to feel rushed and compacted because they didn't tell much story.
Overall, I think those of you who are huge MCU fans will enjoy this show if you haven't watched the first episode yet. There's tons to love about it, just keep in mind that not much story is told in this first episode. But otherwise, it was a good episode, and I'm interested to see where things go in the remaining five episodes.
Alright guys that's gonna be it for me for today. I should be back tomorrow with another post. If not I'll definitely be back on Saturday with this week's movie review. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to watch tomorrow night yet, but whatever it is, I'll be reviewing it on Saturday. So until then have a wonderful afternoon and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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