Superhero News reviews Marvel’s Doctor Strange. The following review contains spoilers from the film, including plot points and surprises.
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Watched in imax 3D, high as giraffe puccy off good kush and the movie was real good
Saw it in 2D* & was equally trippy/awesome.
The only bit I found really clunky, was the explanation of what the Eye of Agamotto was. How hard would it have been for something along the lines of: “The Eye of Agamotto is a very ancient device, that draws from a power that existed before time & the universe itself.” – Leaving the audience to think: Holy Shizzle, it is the Time Gem/Stone.
Thoroughly agree with the forced feeling, of some of the comedy.
*Due to extensive laser surgery to save my sight, which resulted in the loss of my peripheral vision, most 3D doesn’t work for me.
The movie have great visuals yes and amazing cast but the story which for me is the most important thing in a movie even more than action and spectacle was very thin and boring for the most part. The jokes felt so force and sometimes out of place for me. Also the villain sucks yet again. So even though the visuals are amazing for me Dr. Strange at the end is just flat and a 6/10 type of movie on part with Suicide Squad in where for me the story was also meh but character performances were great. At the end both movies are spectacle no substance. So disappointed this year and I fear that if the quality of the superhero genre keeps going like this it will end sooner rather than later.
Watched the movie last Thursday night in 3D, and honestly overall it was a fun enjoyable time. The best part for me was Benedict as an actor. In other marvel movies I have gone in and seen the title actor in other things and throughout the movie I was like “this is cool, they’re doing a great job” and then by the end of it was convinced of them as the character. This one however was the first time, knowing Benedict and his work far more then any other previous actor, from minute one had no doubt that he was a brilliant arrogant neurosurgeon. I did not think once about his accent or his other roles. The scene when he rises back up from the staircase with the cloak of levitivity (sp?) on, I could not see him as anything else but Doctor Strange and that was a powerful moment for me. Same thing with Tilda as the Ancient One I thought she knocked it out of the park.
Otherwise as enjoyable as it was I was a little disappointed. I could go on forever but I’ll try to keep it short and to the point.
One, there was no need for Dormammu at this point in the story in my opinion. It left us with two underdeveloped villains that made it hard to care about in the finale. I think they should have stuck with Mads, built him up and really fleshed out his motivations and made us believe that he was really wanting the best for the world and trying to save it and why he fell at odds with the Ancient One. As soon as Dormammu was introduced it was hard to see Mads as anything but just insane and unrelatable. I believe it should have played out like GotG with Mads being like Ronan as the present threat, and then you can tease Dormammu as the string puller like Thanos but keep him more unembodied and mysterious.
My second issue was too many unexplained plot points. Why does the Ancient One draw poor from the Dark Dimension, what does the Eye actually do and where did it come from, why is the manipulation of space and matter taboo, and how did that relate to Mads trying to break through to Dormammu? Maybe even explaining more how the magic works, why you need a sling ring to transport but more complex spells involve just waving your hands about? There’s more questions then these but I felt like there were moments in the movie where they expected the audience to be like “ohh shit” knowing the gravity of what was said or transpired but I was left wanting to know more why it mattered and that took me out of the experience.
Third and final major issue was that I was so excited for this movie because like GotG and the upcoming Panther movie, it was all new characters taking place in an entirely unexplored part of the MCU. I was really hoping that it would expand our understanding of the world and where it these things happen, as well as taking us in an entirely new direction and tone so that when they all appear in the upcoming Avengers Infinity War you have not just different characters having to interact but their entire perspective on the universe and world view is challenging each other. I couldn’t shake the feeling this entire movie that it just felt like another Marvel Movie, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it didn’t hit that ground shattering note of reevaluating the whole MCU like I hoped that it would, because it easily could and should have.
At the end of the day, I know I focused more on the negatives but I loved the movie, will 100% go see it again, and still want to see more from these characters and this new corner of the MCU.
As always great job guys, love your thoughts, big fan of the site in general.