Loki: Marvel's God of Mischief turns time-cop in a trippy mix of sci-fi influences

By Jim Slotek

Rating: B

When I see Tom Hiddleston yet again recreating the God of Mischief, Loki, I think of an interesting interview we had where he psychoanalyzed the character just after he’d finished filming his first Avengers movie.

“He comes from such a place of damage,” Hiddleston said, “from a place of psychology, of abandonment and loneliness and terrible spiritual desolation, I think. And then it switches into malevolence.

“Or,” he continued cheekily, after pausing to consider the heaviness of his previous statement, “he could just be batsh—crazy.” 

Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finds a timeline to his liking in Disney+’s Loki.

The Loki we get in Loki, Disney+’s often trippy newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is still undergoing psychoanalysis, as part of his processing by the Time Variance Authority – a group of, what, Timelords?... Time Cops? It’s hard to think of a new name for this idea of entities who keep timelines in line.

A glitch in said timeline ostensibly occurred in Avengers: Endgame, bringing Loki (who’d been killed previously) briefly back to life. Having committed time crime, the question is whether to send him back to his original life (where he’d end up dead) setting everything right, or conscripting him to the cause of hunting down “variants” like himself (VERY much like himself, in fact).

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

You’d think, having defined the crime, pretty much everybody in Avengers: Endgame would be up on charges, but no. (Also, if none of this makes sense to you, I know your pain. Time travel is not one of my favourite plot devices).

It’s odd that both WandaVision and Loki, TV incarnations of the MCU, featured characters who died in the movies. It may be a clause in their contracts that they get one last gig after dying.

In any case, the Loki in Loki reminds me of why he was such a refreshing character, a mocker, who made, of all things, the Thor movies arguably the most fun to watch. Loki, the pernicious maverick, is stuck in a giant bureaucracy that runs the universe, and seems almost designed to elicit his derision and ridicule. (Shades of Douglas Adams!)

In the first two of six episodes (all directed by comedy-oriented Kate Herron), Loki is less than the sum of its classic influences (let’s add Brazil while we’re at it). 

But it’s entertaining, sporadically funny, takes some interesting turns (including random acts of time travel), and introduces likeable characters. These include Owen Wilson as the trippily named Mobius M. Mobius (who is both Loki’s minder and partner in their hunt for a dangerous entity), and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as the judge Ravonna Renslayer, who ultimately holds Loki’s fate in her hands.

The intro and first act of this mini-series is enjoyable, as is any Marvel story that doesn’t involve superheroes fighting supervillains or other superheroes (although that may yet come). It’s not as impressively crafted a creative vision as WandaVision, but it’s close.

Loki. Executive produced and directed by Kate Herron. Starring Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Now playing on Disney+.