I disliked Tom Hiddleston after seeing him as Loki in the Avengers. I just thought he looked like a gigantic soppy pussy, pummeled silly by pretty much everyone else. Which might be more of a character design fault, than the actor's. However, even just a look at his facial expressions was a disappointment. He looked weak and I could not buy him as a Norse trickster god in a thousand years.
That whole movie, the Avengers, I really wanted to enjoy it. I was poised for some mindless fun. (Also Whedon did it, and I loved Firefly.) It was a huge letdown, about as boring and pointless as the Transformers movies. I'm not a snob (even though the list of films above is my 'snobbish artsy list'), there's plenty of silly stuff I watch and adore. Just... superhero movies aren't one of them. I can buy Iron Man because of RDJ's charisma, but that's it.
In Only Lovers Left Alive, Hiddleston was perfect. So sexy and attractive, and charismatic, I could barely recognize him from the Loki image. He also had great chemistry with Tilda Swinton. I think it's the kind of movie you can watch in bits and pieces, to draw inspiration from the imagery and atmosphere. You gotta watch it for a different purpose, not as a story but a prolonged painting on a reel or a super long music video. Jarmusch is just a weirdo, most of his movies I can't stomach.
Byzantium was good because it was a slightly more artsy take on vampires, and I loved it for that. Recently I've watched the new season premiere of American Horror Story: Hotel, and I was impressed. It also does vampires well!
But yeah, you got me.
