SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
- Loki. Oh, Loki. The strongest feelings I have about this movie are about Loki. He falls from Asgard to wherever-the-hell and something had to have happened there to push him even further over the edge than he was when he essentially committed suicide at the end of Thor. When the tesseract transports him to the Pegasus project base, he's not exactly in top physical shape - he looks and acts exhausted - and certainly seems to pick up when we see him later. Combine that with the creepy underling that is Loki's contact with the Chitauri army's leadership, the way he threatens Loki and causes him pain (intentionally or as a side effect of sending his consciousness back to Earth?) and it seems Loki has fallen in with a really bad lot. It's kind of that old cliche; troubled kid gets involved with gang, but it's a little out of control, except this time it's on a massive scale.
Loki's speeches against sentiment... he's hurting isn't he? Denial of emotion generally points to a lot of feels.
I feel bad about it, but I quite liked his expression of satisfaction when all the dressed up people were fleeing while he gouged that guy's eye out. Uh. Tom Hiddleston kicked ass as Loki. He just... he completely stole Thor out from under Hemsworth's Thor, and he's done ever such a good job with this more damaged Loki. All the awards to Mr Hiddleston!
The Loki feels continued when he was captured, when he intentionally let himself be captured, and Odin sent Thor to fetch him home. ("I'm not overly fond of what follows." combined with that expression! Oh Loki!) Thor really doesn't get what Loki's problem is, and his insistence on their brotherhood because they played and fought together... yes, but Loki doesn't see it that way, all he sees is that he was raised in a lie, in Thor's shadow (and oh, when he started talking about that I just about died). It's a little harsh, really, to be adopted and then not told for a millennium (give or take a few decades). It takes a while for people to adapt to that sort of news under the best circumstances.
Loved that he just sat and watched the fight between Iron Man and Thor.
Loki on the helicarrier was... brilliant and bemusing. I loved that he laid out what he had expected; torture followed by manipulation by Natasha. That he fell for her manipulation (oh my god so well played by Scarlett) was... I don't know. Part of me says Natasha is good, but good enough to fool a god that's been playing those games for centuries? But then he's not exactly firing on all cylinders, so...
Then he kills Phil. Well. Possibly kills Phil. I'm in the 'nooooo! not dead' camp. I really like Coulson, so I shall go on believing he's alive as the EMTs did not pronounce on screen, Fury sent the message and he's also the one who bloodied up some trading cards he fetched from Phil's locker after Phil himself suggested the Avengers needed some sort of push and that he would be it. So. Not dead.
Oh, and the stabbing is pretty well immediately followed by Loki ejecting Thor from the carrier. That's so... And his "they think we're immortal... care to test it?" OH LOKI! He certainly does 'lack conviction' in trying to kill Thor. Thor seems to just shrug off all injuries Loki inflicts (he actually seems to throw off all injuries swiftly so...)
The scene on the top of Stark Tower where Loki and Thor are fighting, and Loki seems to briefly hesitate before saying his piece about how it's too far along. Then the sentiment thing. Like I said before; he's like a kid who has gotten in deep with a gang because he wants to be top dog, very angry, very troubled, and hurting. It's like he thinks that taking Earth will make him feel better for having lost everything else because Midgard is the realm that Thor has taken a liking to, so that's the one he'll need to take to prove that he's really the best of the two.
I'm going to go a little more sideways here: The tesseract may be asserting some influence over Loki. The scene with Hawkeye and Selvig, and Loki asking them what it's shown them... Selvig's insistence the tesseract has behaviour too. Also, the way Banner picks up the sceptre in the lab when they're all a little out of control and angry - the sceptre that is tesseract-like enough to be the failsafe at the end. Loki is taking orders. The army he's been given isn't actually his; the Chitauri belong to Thanos, Loki is just the intermediary, the fall guy. He doesn't like it when he's reminded of this by Thor. The creepy guy issues warnings to Loki, and he's the one that gave Loki the sceptre to begin with.
So yes, Loki is feeling the need to be King Loki of Midgard, King Loki of somewhere, because he's decided he wants to rule after all, and is angry that the throne of Asgard was taken from him. Didn't he deny wanting the throne in Thor? I think the quest for a throne is an expression of wanting control, order, to be on top. Not surprising given all he's lost (and lived with. Can't be easy to be the 'spare', especially when you don't live up to the ideals your society sets).
His comment that humans are killing each other and Thor's not stopping them hit me hard. That's the thing with humans; we kill each other over the stupidest things. So many, so often, all the freaking time. If humanity would stop killing each other long enough to pull together and become aware we're one huge world and it would go that much easier on us all if we co-operated, helped and showed kindness to each other... that's not going to happen though, we like divisions too much. Urgh, I have other thoughts but can't get them down without sounding stupider than this.
(This is all out of order :( I've seen it three times already, you'd think I'd have my thoughts organised by now!)
I liked Loki being badass and catching the arrow, only for it to explode and dump him on Stark Tower. I loved his outburst of frustration when the Hulk is coming toward him. I did not like the Hulk slamming Loki around like a monkey with a toy.
Oh! I forgot to mention, I love the scene where Loki talks to Tony after escaping the helicarrier! I loved Tony offering Loki a drink (and that later, at the end, Loki says he'll have that drink after all), and their discussion (including the roll call of the Avengers). That Loki tries to buy himself time by bespelling Tony to fight the other Avengers was interesting, that it failed even more so - I did laugh at Tony's erectile disfunction joke; no wonder Loki decides upon defenestration! Although... it's rather odd, isn't it, that Loki didn't try anywhere else - surely a little to the side might have worked? Was worth a try before chucking Tony out the window?
I'm worried now though, what's going to happen to Loki in Asgard? He needs therapy, really needs it. Punishment too, yes, but an argument could be made for a mental breakdown for some if not all of his crimes - ye olde insanity plea. Although who knows what the justice system of Asgard is like! Which is why I'm worrying. It doesn't help that when he was being taken back to Asgard by Thor at the end of the movie, he was in manacles (fair enough) and gagged; it just made me think of the whole lip-sewing situation (it was supposed to, I guess).
Other things:
- Stark Tower! Oh wow! Arc reactor tech powers the tower! Awesome!
- Pepper! She's so lovely! 12% - hehe.
- Hawkeye - so badass! I loved that he was the one brainwashed. I really liked him directing the team during battle.
- Natasha! Oh yes! Scarlett's superb in the role; Natasha kicks ass, but is, more importantly, an excellent manipulator. Anyone who says she's just there to be the girl needs to shut the hell up. She's amazing! She's a regular human, in a regular SHIELD uniform, who jumps from a car, to Cap's shield, to an alien aircraft in order to kick ass then stab-n-steer the pilot! She tricks Loki into revealing his plan! Awesome, awesome agent!
- Bruce! Mark has really done well with Bruce; I was expecting to be ambivalent about him, but I now actually like Bruce! (The Hulk I still don't much care for, but it was definitely the best CGI Hulk, and the Hulk had some good moments too - hitting Thor off the space whale, 'puny gods', saving Tony.) Bruce and Tony's science bonding was brilliant; as was his admitting his concerns about Fury and SHEILD at Tony's prodding.
The scene where Fury comes in and Tony and Bruce are in the lab, having cracked SHEILD and set up a tracking program... brilliant. It was chilling when not long after Bruce reveals he tried to kill himself, that he was low enough to try, and that it didn't work because of Hulk, not because of anything Banner did himself.
- Steve! Oh you poor lost lamb. He's not a happy chap, is he? And why would he be? He's in a really shitty situation, but he's still himself, still trying to stand up for what he thinks is right. Bless.
- Tony! You wonderful genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist you! Lots of snappy lines. When he and Cap are talking where Phil 'died' and he is on about how Loki is such a diva that he'd want a huge monument with his name on it and it clicks for him that Loki intends to use his tower with his name written on instead... Brilliant! Absolutely loved it!
And, of course, after having said that he wouldn't lie on the wire, he'd cut it instead, of course he ends up having to lie on the wire himself. He doesn't even consider not doing it; no time to do anything but accompany the nuke, no other options but to attempt to use it against the enemy through the portal rather than on this side.
I also really, really liked that Tony is the big name in clean energy. It's brilliant; Stark Industries has always had more to it than weapons programs, but without the weapons they need another big thing and energy... energy this the problem of the moment. Perfect, given the links between Tony and Howard, the arc reactors and the tesseract.
There are many things I've not said, but this is over a thousand words about Loki feels and a few hundred of other feels and I am tired. I've now seen Avengers Assemble three times, and I want to go again tomorrow morning. Can't though. My coursework won't finish itself! (Plus I expect the cinema will be packed with full screens for Avengers and other movies and that's horrid.)
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