Journey Into Mystery (2021)

Posted by Mrs Giggles on July 10, 2021 in 4 Oogies, Idiot Box Reviews, Series: Loki

Journey Into Mystery (2021) - Loki Season 1

Main cast: Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Owen Wilson (Mobius), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Ravonna Renslayer), Sophia Di Martino (Sylvie), Jack Veal (Kid Loki), Wunmi Mosaku (Hunter B-15), Tara Strong (Miss Minutes), and Richard E Grant (Classic Loki)
Director: Kate Herron

Is anyone else bedazzled by Richard E Grant’s crotch in this episode? He is bulging like nobody’s business and sporting a very visible camel toe, something that I can’t imagine typing out until now. I’ve no idea why they made him wear that costume that reeks of AliExpress realness, but I suppose there is only so much they can do on a pandemic budget. At any rate, Mr Grant’s crotch completely upstages Tom Hiddleston’s erect nipples poking through his shirt in these recent episodes, so, uh, congratulations, I guess.

After the events in the previous episode, Loki learns that whoever got taser-poked out of existence by that TVA thing doesn’t actually die, as them dying would also be disrupting timelines, an act that the TVA is supposedly set up to prevent. I know, it feels like an ass-pull, but you know Disney, nothing ever happens to the good guys that hold any long-term consequence unless the actor playing the role got canned for having the wrong set of opinions. Instead, Loki is sent with other Loki variants to the Void, a place located just at the end of time, where bad CGI threatens to destroy everything on a daily basis.

Now, let’s see what I like about this episode.

  • Loki and Sylvie are so adorable when they act like school kids infatuated for the first time. The whole thing is way out of character for Loki, but it’s a heavy-handed part of the whole “love makes you a better man” arc that this show is going for, and the actors manage to make such bumbling mawkishness work very well.
  • Everything about Richard E Grant is awesome, the crotch action included. Seriously, he’s the best thing about this episode. Classic Loki steals every scene and has a big damn moment in the episode too.
  • Crocodile Loki is so adorable too.
  • While I won’t say it’s that well done, what with the whole thing being treated in a clumsy, heavy handed manner like MCU movies tend to do, I like the theme of Loki of all time lines being constantly trapped in the role of the backstabber and the outcast, and how the TVA actually punishes them when they try to break out of this predestined role. I’m a sucker for underdogs, and my oh my, both Loki and Sylvie here are such plucky underdogs that I can’t help but to root for. Mood: Ours by The Bravery.
  • I don’t buy Loki and Mobius being BFFs now, since their relationship is so underdeveloped—vacillating from mistrust to antagonism with very little genuine moments of bonding—but because the two actors have such good chemistry, yeah, I am willing to buy that too. This is a show carried by the cast rather than the story, and thank goodness for that, because I’ll be getting to the things I don’t like next.

Yes, here’s what I am not too fond of about this episode.

  • Too many ass-pull and convenient developments crammed within one episode, giving me the impression that this episode is simply, carelessly, and hurriedly rushing to a finale.
  • The concept of Kid Loki is fine, but I can barely make out what Jack Veal is saying—in English, mind you—without looking at the subtitles.
  • Whatever they are trying to do with Ravonna Renslayer. It’s like they are scared to make her out as a villain, so they are making her do villainous things while insisting that she has some kind of goody-goody motives. This character is giving me whiplash. Perhaps I will have a better idea of what this character is all about in the next episode, but come on, she’s just a barely-baked character so far so there’s no need to make me wait until the very end to figure out this wretch. I have a feeling that whatever they do with her will still be underwhelming in the next episode because of this.
  • The CGI and the AliExpress-tier costumes. I know, pandemic budget, but still, what an eyesore.

In the end, my feeling about this episode is that the story is ass, but the cast makes this episode so much fun and brings on the feels so, so well. Journey Into Mystery and the last few episodes of Loki have been such an enjoyable blast that this is easily the best MCU show on Disney+ so far. Of course, there is not much competition for that title to date, but a good thing is still a good thing.

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