Dr. Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness - Movie Review

Critics Score - 7 of 10

General Audience Score - 8 of 10

Since the insane hype surrounding the Avengers Infinity War & Endgame movies from a few years back has died down, I’ve found myself far less enthralled with Marvel filmmaking. I still enjoy some aspects of these superhero movies, but I’ve been shaken out of Disney’s spell of enchantment that was over me. I’ve been freed from my need to see these films immediately, standing in lines and waiting in virtual queue’s to be among the first people on the planet to witness what Marvel secrets were waiting for the masses next. Doctor Strange was the first time I’d been in a theatre for a Marvel film since Endgame. After so many disappointing efforts last year from the studio, it was almost astounding how the direction of Sam Raimi is able to shine through the Marvel/Disney blanket that has stifled so many other unique directorial voices. Sam puts his propensity towards darkness and even the undead into a syringe and injects it into Doctor Strange 2, making a Marvel film that’s very uniquely his own. While it follows most, if not all, the same emotional beats and hits all the storyline cues of the typical Marvel films, the dark and creepy elements that he’s known for shine though and breathe some much needed life, or death in this case, into the Marvel superhero franchise. While Doctor Strange is predictable in the way they all are, the execution and elements he draws from make the Multiverse Of Madness one wild ride that’s entertaining and creative enough for cinema lovers and a blast for the masses.

SYNOPSIS - This tale of twisted universes begins with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) leading a fresh new Latino face, newcomer America (Xochitl Gomez) as they jump across platforms in another dimension. A demonic nightmare creature is in pursuit, naturally, because that’s the way these films work, no beginning sequence is ever complete without someone in the middle of a fight for their life. But things don’t go their way and when the monstrosity captures America, she goes berserk and a star shaped portal opens behind her, pulling everything in. At which point Doctor Strange wakes up in bed, the old nightmare relief camera shot of Cumberbatch gasping for air and sitting straight up, thank goodness none of it was real. Or was it? Strange gets up, slips into a suit and tie and heads to a wedding, sits down and the orchestral music starts. But as the attendees rise, he stays seated, facing straight ahead as the bride begins to come down the isle. Cumberbatch isn’t delivering a Power Of The Dog, knock it out of the park, academy awards performance, which nobody is expecting given the source material. But he’s such a good actor in general, the distraught is written across his face and he eventually gets up and turns to watch his ex-girlfriend Christine (Rachel McAdams) walk down the isle. We then skip to the after party where Strange and Christine are able to catch up and reminisce over where their relationship went wrong. But they’re interrupted when the five minute timer buzzes, the audience needs another fight sequence to stay engaged and Strange must jump off a balcony to fight a giant, green, one-eyed octopus.

America is a being chased by the eight-legged freak, Strange and Wong (Benedict Wong) do their thing until at last the octopus soup is ready and we can move forward with the actual plot. It turns out the dream Strange had was a real alternative universe, insert audible gasp, and America was escaping through the multiverse, being the only superhero capable of jumping from one universe to another. “How much experience do you guys have with the multiverse?”, she asks Strange and Wong. A nice question to setup some weak dialogue and exposition for answering all our universe traveling questions. Personally, out of the two multiverse films we’ve gotten this spring, I prefer the Everything Everywhere All At Once treatment of the subject where it just smashes the gas pedal on the floor and hopes you can keep up with everything they’re showing you. But next up Strange must visit Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) to ask her for help, at which point the film shows you it’s cards and we begin to see that everything with Wanda Maximoff is not what it seems. But in short order, Raimi whisks us off on a multiverseal ride that’s as full of ghosts, demons, zombies and hopefully non-lead based paint as it is of the generic Marvel superhero stuff that Disney insists we need more of. Even if less and less people are asking.

The visual effects are one of the film’s strongest aspects. While it doesn’t enter into the realm of revolutionary, like say Inception, some of the CGI heavy worlds we’re taken too, like the brief splash into a world of paint, are incredibly impressive and wildly imaginative. The fight sequences are fine, normal cgi monsters must be defeated, but after about the halfway point, Strange engages in a yawn inducing hand to hand combat fight with Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor). It was as if the film had a fight quota it needed to reach and they looked for any opportunity to throw one in. The original score by Danny Elfman is perfectly acceptable, it’s really just standard fare for the superhero genre films and is generally unnoticeable and easily forgotten. But all the props for the decent amount of entertainment and originality must go to the director Sam Raimi, who’s vision and eye for the dark side of a script were able to take this sequel in fun and interesting directions. While the delivery of the Multiverse fails in some aspects, it breaks some new ground (insert an evil dead pun), and is able to make Strange one of the more watchable Marvel films from the newest phase. 

SUMMARY - While this trip into the Multiverse isn’t as good as Everything Everywhere All At Once from last month, it’s a serviceable outing from Marvel enterprises that will give the average cinema goers their moneys worth. Special credit to Sam Raimi for really forcing his brand of Strange past the executives at Disney and into Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness.