Loki Season 2 Episode 1 Review: Compelling and with a Time-Puzzle Story Structure
Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Owen Wilson, Wunmi Mosaku, Ke Huy Quan, Jonathan Majors
Director: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Streaming Platform: Disney+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Loki Season 2 Episode 1 landed on Disney+ streaming platform. Where were we? The first television season of Loki debuted on the Disney+ streaming platform in 2021 with great critical success and a particularly high appreciation score from the audience of Marvel fans, perhaps second only to the now iconic WandaVision. Between different timelines, battles, and clashes in the past, present, and future and the threat of a villain who wants to control time for eternity, the serial product created by Michael Waldron was the one that introduced Marvel fans to the very dangerous consequences of the Multiverse, even before the exploit (and stratospheric takings) of Spider-Man: No Way Home, of the same year. A little warning: this review is based on the first episode only. But there is the feeling that Marvel Studios’ not-so-hidden gem hasn’t been scratched. The visual quality, the photography as well and the entire staging – including special effects and settings – is always top-notch (the fake old post-Soviet look, in times of exasperated CGI, is a breath of fresh air).
Tom Hiddleston is practically Loki and eats up the scene with a look, Owen Wilson overflows in every frame and Ke Huy Quan – fresh debutant with his OB (even if he is an Oscar winner) – is the addition of surreal comedy that embellishes the All. In our review of Loki Season 2, we will talk to you about how the second television appointment with one of the flagship products of the latest phase by Marvel Studios only keeps half of the promises it had in store for two years now: despite being a children’s story always exciting and energetic and with a Tom Hiddleston in great shape, ends up incomprehensibly drowning in a needlessly complex and confusing narrative web.
Loki Season 2 Episode 1 Review: The Story Plot
Loki Season 2 picks up in the aftermath of the shocking season finale when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority. Together with Mobius (Owen Wilson), Hunter B-15 (Wunme Mosaku), and a team of characters old and new, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous Multiverse in search of Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Miss Minutes to understand what it means to have free will and glorious purpose. But the threat of the mysterious Victor Timely (Jonathan Majors) endangers the fragile balance of the rapidly expanding Multiverse. Will they be able to defeat him in the past, present, and future?
Loki Season 2 opens a few seconds from where we left our protagonist in the shocking finale of the first season, imprisoned without his knowledge in a part of the TVA in which Mobius does not recognize him and is dominated by gargantuan statues of He Who Remains, the mysterious weaver of universe timelines killed in cold blood by the Sylvie variant in the previous episode. A lightning-fast incipit that already perfectly frames the pace and tone of this second appointment with Thor’s brother, perhaps a little too much at the mercy of ambitions and narrative purposes specific to the completion of Marvel’s Phase Five.
Of course, the most intriguing and engaging component of the episode is shown precisely by the clues that Loki finds in the past and future, signs of a much deeper, traumatic, and abusive manipulation on the part of Kang (Jonathan Mayors). But the crux remains finding a cure for the protagonist’s time jumps and the reactions of the TVA leaders to the birth of the Multiverse, between those who recognize and accept this new status quo once and for all and those who regret the old methods and will have no scruples in put them back into action. Well, in our opinion it is an episode to be put in the right perspective because those who immediately expected clarifying answers on the Multiverse and its dubious global management by Marvel will have to wait – we are a little more pessimistic in this regard, but there will be time and opportunity to delve deeper into this discussion.
Loki Season 2 Episode 1 Review and analysis
As mentioned, this second season is in every way the continuation of the first. Perhaps it is too closely linked to it, which is not necessarily a bad thing, except that characters of certain importance within the TVA are introduced out of nowhere, including OB. More importantly, however, it also takes back everything from the first season that worked: themes, style, and a plot which, judging from what we have seen so far, appears well structured, albeit partly confusing. The concept of time travel, on the other hand, is always particularly delicate to deal with. Unfortunately, the fact that laws vary from product to product within the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn’t help. However, a scene starring Loki, OB, and Mobius is particularly effective in giving explanations (there is certainly no shortage of explanations) and offering an interpretation of what happens in Loki.
From a future perspective, the fear remains that everything will become excessively complicated. For the moment, contextualized in the world of Loki and the TVA, much of what we saw in the first episode works great. It’s a start to the season that is capable of piquing the viewer’s interest, not changing anything that didn’t need to be changed and finally making Marvel fans happy. Because it is proof that, at least for now, all the good things seen in the first season have not been thrown away. It remains a series with a seemingly slow pace, but it is very good at balancing the lack of big action scenes simply thanks to dialogue. The writing work, together with the aesthetics, is among the main strengths of the series. You may like it or not, but despite not being flawless, Loki is a breath of fresh air for the current MCU.
Many things work about Loki, but the real great certainty is Tom Hiddleston. The first episode is based entirely on the excellent performance of the British interpreter. The more time passes, the more he manages to stage a tormented and convincing Loki, 12 years after the first Thor. To tell the truth, much of the success of the first episode goes to all the acting tests. Not only that of Hiddleston but also that of Owen Wilson. The two form one of the most beautiful and funniest couples in the MCU, perfect for a TV series. They are joined by the new entry of this second season: Ke Huy Quan. The actor, fresh from winning the Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once, brings a comedy that is well suited to Loki, refreshing his tone and offering a successful performance. Without a doubt among the most beautiful things of this start of the season.
Together with the technical aspects, visually there is very little to complain about. The nature of the show is never betrayed and there is a care, even at a directorial and visual effects level, that we would dream of seeing in most Marvel products. Added to this is Natalie Holt’s soundtrack, which is extremely recognizable and gives something extra to the most intense sequences. In short, if these are the premises, we can have a minimum of confidence for the continuation of the series. But if there’s one thing that all Marvel series have taught, it’s not to celebrate until the end. Just as those who immediately expected the much-feared invasion of Kang’s infinite variations will have to wait, an event that has now been teased for two years and which in our opinion will only see the light in the Kang Dynasty. Here too, we could talk for hours about the management of the post-credits from Endgame onwards and the wait that has become epochal to see them realized, but this is not the time.
The essential question is: does the Loki Season 2 premiere work? Yes, without a shadow of a doubt. It remains a fascinating series, which has its unique storytelling as well as a fabulous general retro-futuristic aesthetic, it never gets lost in the excessive filler, and above all here the pace practically goes crazy because it’s as if the micro-universe represented by TVA was in a total panic after the events of the first season. If we then add to this the extraordinary charisma of Loki and Mobius, the ideological clashes on the direction that TVA will have to take, and the surprising almost investigative component of the clues in the past and the future, then it is clear that the quality has remained substantially high. Not everything works, mind you, as the existence and role of OB (Ke Huy Quan) combined with an excessive amount of vital information on the functioning of the TVA exposed as if they were nothing much continues a rather negative trend of Marvel’s current not wanting to complicate things in the slightest and treating aspects that are not of secondary importance too superficially.
But for now, Loki Season 2 seems to be working too, we’ll have to see how much and how it will hold up. Yes, because despite the good pace, the charismatic protagonists, and the narrative points of broad appeal, the second television appointment with Loki does not fully satisfy, the promises that he would have liked to keep and which had contributed so much to making the first season a success, this time are the proverbial double-edged sword that could have been avoided. What partly ruins the Loki Season 2 project is precisely a script that isn’t up to par, a narrative web (as we anticipated in the introduction) that sacrifices the genuine attention of the casual spectator or the most die-hard fan in favor of frivolous complications between a timeline and the other, between the three narratological levels that mark the very flow of the Marvel series: past, present and future.
A great shame given the general success of the first television appointment which debuted on Disney+ in the summer of 2021, symptomatology of a phenomenon entirely signed by Marvel for which the management of the great narrative of the post-Avengers: Endgame Multiverse seems to show increasingly evident cracks to its foundations, also and above all in the sector dedicated to television production at Kevin Feige’s studios. Is there still time to avoid the complete loss of love of a good portion of MCU aficionados? The second season of Loki, one of the highlights of Marvel Studios’ television production, partly disappoints its fans’ expectations. Compelling and with a time-puzzle story structure, it however fails to overcome all the limits imposed by an overly expository and cumbersome script, in which the useless complication of the different timelines becomes more of a flaw than an advantage.
Loki Season 2 Episode 1 Review: The Last Words
The second season of Loki, at least from this premiere, does not present itself as the sudden panacea to all Marvel’s ills as some expected. All the recent shortcomings found in other MCU products are also present here: confusion on how to deal with the Multiverse, a superficiality on essential topics so as not to complicate things too much, and the endless waits for events already practically set in motion years ago. This does not mean, however, that the premiere of Loki, considered in itself, is not full of charm and interesting conflicts, starting from the clash at the top of a TVA now in full panic mode, the crucial clues about the past and the future of the TVA itself found by Loki in his time jumps and the increasingly abusive and manipulative shadow of Kang in the background. In short, quality However, it seems to have remained high, even though we are still in an introductory phase and more interested in picking up the pieces of the past season than in telling something new. Here, it is an episode that must be framed and, despite some shortcomings, all in all, it convinced us.
Loki Season 2 Episode 1 Review: Compelling and with a Time-Puzzle Story Structure - Filmyhype
Director: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Date Created: 2023-10-06 18:40
3.5
Pros
- Strong performances from Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson
- Visually stunning, with some of the most impressive visuals seen in the MCU to date
- Intriguing plot threads set up for the rest of the season
- Fun and engaging, even with its reliance on exposition
Cons
- Relies too heavily on exposition
- Can be overloaded with information, especially for viewers who are not familiar with the comics or other MCU Phase 4 projects
