Review: 'Loki' is Stylish, Fresh, and Humorous

When last we left him...

In order to save the universe, the remaining Avengers had to travel to specific moments in their history and claim the powerfully unpredictable Infinity Stones. Following the events in the MCU features "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame," the new MCU series "Loki," starring Tom Hiddleston and premiering exclusively on Disney+ on June 9, reveals what happens from the moment Loki snatches up an alien "Tesseract" and makes good his escape. Banishing in a puff of magical smoke, the God of Mischief lands in the middle of the Gobi desert, but it isn't long before a group of black ops troopers apprehend Loki and whisk him to a mysterious other dimension – and the headquarters of the Time Variance Authority.

After getting properly matriculated, Loki learns that he is a "variant," a considerable threat to the natural order of time and space. His very existence has a serious affect on the timeline, the maintenance of which is the job of the agents of the TVA, a mostly bureaucratic-looking set of G-men who keep variants in check and maintain order. Under the watchful eye of Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) and the Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku), Loki has little choice but to help the organization accomplish a dangerous task: Capture the ultimate "time variant," or risk being erased from existence altogether!

Loki, of course, has an angle: He becomes determined to bring this criminal in, prove himself to Mobius and the rest of the TVA, endear himself to the Time-Keepers (the god-like creators of the TVA), and take over the organization all for himself, giving him total control over time and space. It sounds like that perfect crime caper, but whenever a mischievous trickster like Loki is involved, anything can happen!

Hiddleston is magnificently charming, and is singularly responsible for turning an otherwise two-dimensional comic book super villain into an incredibly textured and densely faceted individual. In Hiddleston's skillful portrayal of the character, Loki is no more an arch-nemesis than the darkly isolated victim of high school bullies who one day realizes his full potential and gets his revenge.

Hiddleston's Loki has been fun to watch from the moment the character was first introduced in "Thor," opposite Chris Hemsworth, and subsequently through each sequel, including the milestone moment appearing in Marvel Studios "Avengers" that brought all the Marvel Cinematic Universe leads together in one titanic blockbuster. The actor, like his alter ego, has a knack for stealing the scene. When he was unceremoniously dispatched in "Avengers: Infinity War," fans suspected they had seen the last of Loki, but that just wasn't to be.

With the launch of the Disney+ streaming service, the MCU heroes have been given a new lease on life, as their stories extend from the theatrical screen into miniseries that reveal more about the characters. Fans got a taste of the new medium with "WandaVision," which brought together the Avengers own Scarlet Witch and the android Vision, and then continued the epic storyline with the recent hit "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," which has continued the legacy of the shield-slinging "First Avenger." With "Loki," Marvel Studios literally breaks every rule, and dares the audience to ride along.

The series is fresh, and has an almost film-noir like style to it that is reminiscent of "Blade Runner," but it's devilishly humorous, and at the same time reveals an emotionally complicated character at its center, that may or may not be the most dastardly and dangerous force in the universe (if not the entire MCU multiverse). As Loki prepares to travel through time and space, will he save us all or destroy the multiverse?

Check out this special premiere message from Loki himself here:

"Loki" begins streaming on Wednesday, June 9, only on Disney+.