Last night I went to the cinema to see Thor, which I thought was pretty good. I couldn't help thinking about how Loki was set up as evil throughout. If you don't know the story a brief here a brief summary -yes spoilers-.
Thor and Loki are raised as brothers and both potential heirs to the throne of the 9 realms (one including earth although we are oblivious to all of this). Thor in his want to prove himself to his father makes a big mistake and rekindles past wars with the ice giants. For this Thor is banished and sent to earth as a mortal, in the meantime Loki discovers he is not really Thor's brother and we discover his jealousy has fuelled him to plot against his people.
Aside from the physicality that from the beginning we learn of Loki's talents of deception in the first fight i realised there are also some visual juxtapositions. Some very obvious and some more subtle.
First of all Thor embodies a youthful projection of his father, the armour and the facial features. Loki with his dark hair stands out as rather different form the offset. However they both wear armour at the beginning of the film. Evidently their abilities require different armour specification i.e. Thor's armour is heavier because he uses force over Loki's mind tricks and deception. However Thor embodies stereotypical colours like red and gold while Loki blacks and dark greens which have connotations of serpents and slyness etc. . Now here's the bit that I loved and devastatingly i couldn't find a single image!
-Spoiler-
When Thor is captured he is wearing cloths that you and me would identify with; Loki appears to tell him what's going on (surprise, surprise he lies), but is also wearing cloths that you or me would identify with instead of his new kingly regalia.
Thor is wearing what you see above which gives him a very relatable and humanistic appearance. Now I'm not saying that Tax Men aren't human; but the cloths that Loki wears resembled just that to be. Smart black jacket and trousers with his hair combed back and shiny. It seems to be set up in this film that those with authority in the human world are more sinister.
Back to their main 'hero' outfits...
Thor's armour represents him in a bold way, you can digest his mindset and attitude but Loki's keeps you guessing a little more. The tough armour of Thor emanates strength while Loki's slippery material reassembling something more suspicious and concealing. Its - not to overdo this connotation- almost like an additional skin to be shed in its overwhelming letheryness.
What I'm trying to say here is that art really is everywhere. I realise that many people have made these assumptions and that this is hardly news to most but I wondered how many people thought about how these basic impressions are given off when they watch films.
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