Start Writing

'Loki' Episodes 1 & 2 Review

LightsCameraJackson LightsCameraJackson Critic Marvel’s third major series of 2021 on Disney+ is “Loki”, with Tom Hiddleston reprising his title role as the MCU villain. I’ve never been a gigantic fan of his character over the years. You don’t have to like all villains, but the great ones still have impact. He’s never had that in my book.

That carries over into this new series, which is far less interesting than the TV centric “WandaVision” and highly exciting (and commercial) “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”. “Loki” is also not for families to experience together on Disney’s streaming service. There’s some violence – but more than that, this is a show for adults. And a dull one.

I’ve screened the first two episodes, which drop June 9th and 16th, respectively. “Loki” opens in 2012, when Loki takes the tesseract and disappears during “Marvel’s The Avengers”. The scene was memorably altered during the time travel heavy 2019 “Avengers: Endgame”. Disney and Marvel have found a little window here in the timeline to fill – only to keep Hiddleston in the game for a little bit longer.

Loki gets caught by the TVA, the Time Variance Authority. His brain is about to be re-set when worker Mobius (played by Owen Wilson) takes Loki aside and determines he can be valuable towards their ultimate goals.

These “Loki” episodes are incredibly talky. So many scenes are just Hiddleston and Wilson having lo-ki (low-key) conversations. The first episode plays like a “This is Your Life” for Loki. We get highlights of his antics in previous Marvel movies along with new/altered scenes with familiar characters. It’s all against a dark gray visual backdrop. Episode Two consists of a chatty, buddy investigators first two-thirds, followed by a third act “mission” sequence that’s just plain messy.

There’s nothing spicy about “Loki” and not nearly enough to make me want to continue on this journey. Diehard MCU fans may care about what happens to a character whose outcome we already know. But for everyone else, this is o-ki to pass on.

Posted in Loki,

LightsCameraJackson LightsCameraJackson Critic

read more or join