Avengers: Assemble - Scene Analysis

The scene I have chosen to do from this movie is undoubtedly my favorite scene within it. Even among all of the frivolous and extraordinarily intense action scenes, my favorite scene begins at 1 hour 42 minutes and 30 seconds into the film, it depicts Thor’s last effort to convince his brother, not to surrender, but to stop, to amend and to go home.

For the first time, we see Loki at equal level with another character.

Throughout the movie, we’ve only ever seen him faces with offensive affronts, and confrontational contact, or the camera angle has placed us at a low point, aiming for a high angle shot, enhancing his superiority, or extreme close-ups that are quite frankly, deeply unsettling.

So, as I’ve said earlier, equal footing, for the first time throughout the movie:

 The camera shows both Loki and Thor, flickering back and forth between the two.

The lighting is deliberately bright at this scene, and also very deliberately done with a close-up shot, so you could clearly see all of the facial features of the two characters.

A shot of a decimated New York is then shown just as Thor shouts, “Look at this! Look around you!”, to Loki, pleading with his brother to see reason, to realize the severity of the situation.

This long-shot CGI shot of New York makes US realize the severity of the damage caused, and that will be caused just as much as Thor is aiming for Loki to see, as we see this from Loki’s point of view, as he glances over. The fact that a point-of-view shot is added puts us for once in a position where we are able to empathize wit Loki. This is essential due to what unfolds further on in the scene.

The rest of the scene depicts a heated conversation between brothers.

Now, for my favorite part, the intricacy of this astounds me:

 Tom Hiddleston (Loki) has very clear, blue eyes. In Avengers, this is enhanced:

This is probably to mimic the effect his scepter has upon whom it touches, indoctrinating them with information solely for the purpose of helping Loki, and in turn, making their eyes a sharp, ethereal blue.

There is a theory that this may suggest, sub-textually, that Loki was under the violating influence of the Tesseract the entire time. The Tesseract is a burden, it gives those who touch it false, malevolent purpose, and as Loki says: “I am Loki, and I am burdened with glorious purpose”. (My favorite line)

 This scene is actually supportive of this theory.

Back to the eyes – So Tom Hiddleston’s eyes are an enhanced blue, this is most apparent when he’s at his most evil, the coldest and most antagonistic.

Now, there’s something I must make clear; I personally don’t believe that Loki is inherently evil. He is a Norse God, the God of Mischief, the Trickster. All of which are not embodiments of evil, which I obviously do not believe him to be. With Loki, Joss Whedon creates a perfect Xanatos Gambit, because even though Loki portrays that he is set out to destroy Earth, the truth is, he couldn’t care less about the Midgardian world of Earth! All he wants is to go home. So, win or loose the prizefight, Loki still goes home, so Loki still wins.

Because of Loki’s intelligence, he is reasonable, so he can be swayed. This scene depicts such a thing.

Canonically, in both Comic and Norse-Mythos, Loki’s eyes are emphasized greatly as being green. Green, always green (except for when he shape shifts or has a eight legged horse baby called Sleipnir, but that’s besides the point – Norse Mythology is terribly befuddling)

When he’s good, at least. And when since we only see Loki (in this movie. Pretend Thor never existed) in his antagonistic role, we don’t get to see him as good.

BUT, when faced with his pleading brother…let’s compare.

The change is noticeable. The scene also has noticeably warmer, greener lighting, this is probably to emphasize that Loki is feeling, he’s feeling, and his big brother is there, and he’s just that little boy with the green eyes again, stuck in his brother’s shadow.

The close up of Loki’s face in this is to make us see that Loki is not unfeeling, not inexorable. And the post-production editing focused on eyes adds to this. And then all of a sudden…BAM! Loki gathers himself, his ‘glorious purpose’, and stabs

Thor:

The music abruptly changed from solemn violins to a jolting, hard melody.

And once again, we are viewing Loki from afar, from a low angle, as he is no longer at equals with Thor; he has regained his superiority.

Lonely superiority that he resigns himself to with a sad smile, a gentle, almost surprised whisper of: “sentiment” and a single tear, falling out of an almost-green eye:

Needless to say, Loki is in fact my favourite character from this particular film.

This film could have easily become just another superhero movie, with cliche' and deus ex machina coming out of it's ears, however, I believe that the complexity of Loki, the antagonist, relieves this movie of the susceptibility of succumbing to any of these unfortunate tropes.



He is indeed a wonderful depiction of an equally wonderful comic book, and mythological character.

- By Islah Jagan.