I have serious doubts that even this July’s Dark Knight Rises will get me hooting, clapping, cheering, laughing and hollering as much as The Avengers did when I first saw it in RPX in glorious widescreen and 3D. Writer/director Joss Whedon – whom I have heard of from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series – did a magnificent job of balancing the personae of the nostalgic Captain America, the narcissistic Iron Man, the majestic Thor, the implacable Black Widow, the unpredictable Hulk, and a new character in the damaged Hawkeye.
Certainly, the plot device is an old one; there is a new power source that dark forces seek to control, and these loners must unite to stop it or let the world be destroyed. But the best thing about the film is how the director allows no single Avenger to dominate. We get to see fight matchups between various members –they even let Hawkeye get brainwashed by Loki (who is even more awesome with longer hair) so that he could fight Black Widow.
My eager anticipation of the film came fairly late since I only watched Thor two months before Avengers debuted. Of course, I admit guiltily, my main reason for wanting to see this film was to see more of Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and I am glad to say I was not disappointed. When last seen in the end credit stinger of Thor, Loki was bruised after his fall from Asgard and was coveting the mysterious Tesseract shown by Col. Nick Fury to Dr. Selvig. Now he has made allies with the Chitauri, been given a power staff by the mighty Thanos, and has been made leader of a Chitauri invasion force that will enter our world with the aid of the Tesseract. Denied the throne in Asgard, he will take our world for his own.
One of my favorite moments is where Loki is disguised as a human at a museum gala in Germany. Dressed in a beautiful long dark coat with a scarf and a cane – which is his power staff disguised – he comes down the stairs looking oh so stylish and whacks a man in the head with his staff/cane, before forcefully scanning the scientist’s eyeball, so that minion Hawkeye can get into a research lab and get a mineral they need to open the portal with the Tesseract. Loki is smiling, of course, seeing the Germans run from him in fear as he changes into his natural form with his scary green cape, magical staff, and (stupid looking) horned helmet. On the matter of his helmet, I continually insist that he’s much better looking without it. There’s a dark, twisted sexiness about a guy with long black hair, a pale, clean-shaven face with a high brow and piercing gray eyes, a long dark sweeping outfit and high boots, who carries a long weapon, fights with his mind instead of with muscles, has a soothing but sinister voice, and who walks with a confident, purposeful strut. This is what I liked about the Dracula in 2004’s Van Helsing.
Though he has fewer character layers in this film, it makes him no less sophisticated. He still appears quite vulnerable – battered after his trip to earth, straining under his tentative alliance with the Chitauri, and he’s forced twice to surrender to the combined strength of the Avengers. In this film, Loki has surrendered himself to his evil urgings. “I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose,” he announces when he arrives on earth. Though consummately evil here, I saw his character in a forced despair.
Loki has despaired of any hope of forgiveness and has resigned himself to his fate, whether he wins or loses. “You lack conviction,” notes dying agent Coulson. This is why, even after Thor – who still to some degree loves his foster brother – continually gives him chances to reform, Loki continually refuses and hurls it back at him, insisting that it’s too late for him to change. This is also why he keeps ranting about the falsity of free will because he has surrendered his own and is trying to convince himself that his destiny as a villain is set. His persecution complex has developed to the point that he performs evil acts solely to punish Thor – whom he believes drove him to make the choices he can’t turn back on. “Your ambition is little and born of a childish need,” mocks the Chitauri spokesman. He still gets my sympathy, even though he treats everyone as less than Asgardians, while at the same time also treating them with contempt. I love the scene in which he rants to Black Widow about the indelibility of her past sins – the guilt for his own probably still hurts him.
All the same, as much as I like Loki, I clapped and laughed with everyone else when he was beaten in the most ignoble way imaginable.
“The day audiences saw Loki getting grabbed up by the Hulk and bashed repeatedly into the floor like a broken doll would be known in infamy as the day that Loki’s dignity was forever crushed! Can’t wait for Thor 2!!!” ~ Isabella Summitt
“If you are considering a life of villainy – and I certainly hope that you are not –
there are a few things that appear to be necessary to every villain’s success.
One thing is a villainous disregard for other people, so that a villain may talk to his or her victims impolitely, ignore their pleas for mercy, and even behave violently toward them if the villain is in the mood for that sort of thing. Another thing villains require is a villainous imagination, so that they might spend their free time dreaming up treacherous schemes in order to further their villainous careers. Villains require a small group of villainous cohorts, who can be persuaded to serve the villain in a hench-personal capacity. And villains need to develop a villainous laugh, so that they may simultaneously celebrate their villainous deeds and frighten whatever non-villainous people happen to be nearby. A successful villain should have all of these things at his or her villainous fingertips, or else give up villainy altogether and try to lead a life of decency, integrity, and kindness, which is much more challenging and noble if not always quite as exciting.” ~ Lemony Snicket, ‘The Grim Grotto’