Okay, so I get the Loki thing at last...
Jul. 18th, 2012 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightLast night, I watched the Thor movie for the first time - only two years behind everyone else - and yes, I totally get the Loki mania at last.
Weird, because....
(Behind cut confessions of a sad old comics fangirl, with spoilers for the Thor movie, and no I haven't seen Avengers yet, so no spoilers please).
....Loki in the comics doesn't have a thing to recommend him.
This is not surprising, I suppose, as he's been around since the 60s, and way back then, villains in comics weren't (relatively) complicated characters who just wanted their stepdads to love them (to start with anyway), but just plain mwah-hah-hah! bad.
Not that you couldn't theoretically feel sorry for Loki in the comics, being the odd one out in Asgard - a skinny intellectual, like Movie!Loki, if with less spectacular cheekbones -surrounded by crashing bores who think being bigger and stronger than everyone else is all that matters. Not to mention, Big Daddy Odin in the comics is a right old git. If he's not suffering from one of his odd attacks of narcolepsy, a.k.a. the Odinsleep (as seen in the movie), which usually occurred when it was necessary for Thor to do something especially dangerous without daddy around to rescue him, or for Loki to make one of his periodic (and always unsuccessful) attempts to make himself king of Asgard, Odin was usually oppressing one or other of his children.
In early issues of the comic, when Odin first finds out about Thor's love for Jane Foster (nurse to his human alter-ego Dr Donald Blake, and very much in the adoring-nurse-hanging-on-the-doctor's- every-word Dr Kildare mode) he's so cross he banishes Thor from Asgard until he gives her up (I think, or maybe he took Thor's power away - it's a long time since I read this stuff), and tells Thor he'll never ever, agree to him having a relationship with a mortal. In fact, it's a bit like a Bollywood movie. I'm pretty sure there are plenty of other occasions on which Odin was mean to Thor too. It's a wonder that Comics!Thor doesn't need therapy.
But anyway, yes. Loki is just a villain. He has no redeeming qualities at all. Movie!Loki is so much better. More fun, too.
That said, I think the film was extremely silly and rather mediocre. I liked Loki, Odin (Anthony Hopkins is always good), and Idris Elba as Heimdall, but the other Asgardian characters bored me. In fact, I preferred Thor's human sidekicks, Jane (not a nurse, but still making gooey eyes at Thor), Mr Skarsgard Snr and the kooky girl. As for Thor himself, basically, you could have swapped him for a big plank of wood and no one would have noticed the difference.
I can, though, see the Thor/Loki slash potential (even though my slash goggles don't work that well these days). You can definitely read it (if you want) as Loki feeling unrequited love for Thor and doing what he does not just to impress Odin and make him love him, but also because of his very conflicting feelings about his stepbrother - he hates him/he loves him etc, etc. I also get the Spike/Loki parallels (as jokingly mentioned by Joss at SDCC, though I think he was referring more to both characters' rabid female fanbase - see, Spike fans can take a joke :fume, fume:), though that makes Thor a sort of combination of Buffy and Angel, which is weird, and anyway, BtVS is just a much better piece of work altogether.
Not that this movie is anything to do with Joss, of course. But - from what I hear about Loki in the Avengers, certain aspects of the character have been set up pretty well in Thor.
Speaking of silly movies, I watched Cowboys vs Aliens at the weekend. That was, if anything, even sillier than Thor, again featuring actors (Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig), who were way too good for the material, though thankfully, there wasn't a plank-of-wood as the hero.
Fun, though.
ETA: On reflection, I think Thor is less of a plank of wood, more of an Andrex puppy.
Weird, because....
(Behind cut confessions of a sad old comics fangirl, with spoilers for the Thor movie, and no I haven't seen Avengers yet, so no spoilers please).
....Loki in the comics doesn't have a thing to recommend him.
This is not surprising, I suppose, as he's been around since the 60s, and way back then, villains in comics weren't (relatively) complicated characters who just wanted their stepdads to love them (to start with anyway), but just plain mwah-hah-hah! bad.
Not that you couldn't theoretically feel sorry for Loki in the comics, being the odd one out in Asgard - a skinny intellectual, like Movie!Loki, if with less spectacular cheekbones -surrounded by crashing bores who think being bigger and stronger than everyone else is all that matters. Not to mention, Big Daddy Odin in the comics is a right old git. If he's not suffering from one of his odd attacks of narcolepsy, a.k.a. the Odinsleep (as seen in the movie), which usually occurred when it was necessary for Thor to do something especially dangerous without daddy around to rescue him, or for Loki to make one of his periodic (and always unsuccessful) attempts to make himself king of Asgard, Odin was usually oppressing one or other of his children.
In early issues of the comic, when Odin first finds out about Thor's love for Jane Foster (nurse to his human alter-ego Dr Donald Blake, and very much in the adoring-nurse-hanging-on-the-doctor's- every-word Dr Kildare mode) he's so cross he banishes Thor from Asgard until he gives her up (I think, or maybe he took Thor's power away - it's a long time since I read this stuff), and tells Thor he'll never ever, agree to him having a relationship with a mortal. In fact, it's a bit like a Bollywood movie. I'm pretty sure there are plenty of other occasions on which Odin was mean to Thor too. It's a wonder that Comics!Thor doesn't need therapy.
But anyway, yes. Loki is just a villain. He has no redeeming qualities at all. Movie!Loki is so much better. More fun, too.
That said, I think the film was extremely silly and rather mediocre. I liked Loki, Odin (Anthony Hopkins is always good), and Idris Elba as Heimdall, but the other Asgardian characters bored me. In fact, I preferred Thor's human sidekicks, Jane (not a nurse, but still making gooey eyes at Thor), Mr Skarsgard Snr and the kooky girl. As for Thor himself, basically, you could have swapped him for a big plank of wood and no one would have noticed the difference.
I can, though, see the Thor/Loki slash potential (even though my slash goggles don't work that well these days). You can definitely read it (if you want) as Loki feeling unrequited love for Thor and doing what he does not just to impress Odin and make him love him, but also because of his very conflicting feelings about his stepbrother - he hates him/he loves him etc, etc. I also get the Spike/Loki parallels (as jokingly mentioned by Joss at SDCC, though I think he was referring more to both characters' rabid female fanbase - see, Spike fans can take a joke :fume, fume:), though that makes Thor a sort of combination of Buffy and Angel, which is weird, and anyway, BtVS is just a much better piece of work altogether.
Not that this movie is anything to do with Joss, of course. But - from what I hear about Loki in the Avengers, certain aspects of the character have been set up pretty well in Thor.
Speaking of silly movies, I watched Cowboys vs Aliens at the weekend. That was, if anything, even sillier than Thor, again featuring actors (Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig), who were way too good for the material, though thankfully, there wasn't a plank-of-wood as the hero.
Fun, though.
ETA: On reflection, I think Thor is less of a plank of wood, more of an Andrex puppy.