Doctor Strange Review

Doctor Strange

I think I’m starting to get MCU fatigue. As a standalone movie, Doctor Strange probably wouldn’t have been that bad, but the whole time I was watching it, I couldn’t help but wonder how much this is going to shake up the Marvel universe. Doctor Strange adds a huge amount of magic to the proceedings. Not that magic hasn’t been at play before, but past Marvel movies (especially the non-Avenger ones) felt at least a little more grounded. Poor Hawkeye might as well retire for good if he’s expected to fight alongside Doctor Strange.

And this late into the MCU, I’m getting kind of bored with origin stories, too. The last origin story I liked was Deadpool, because it played around with the timeline. Doctor Strange walks a very straight path from normal guy to magical dude, and his transformation isn’t even that fun to watch. Sure, Benedict Cumberbatch plays the perfect smarmy asshole, and we get the occasional Marvel zinger, but it wasn’t as relatable as I thought it was going to be. We jump right into, “Oh, I guess magic is real now,” followed by, “And here’s your generic villain to beat.”

So the story is pretty weak, but the movie is still fun for no other reason than the visual effects. This is like watching Inception through a kaleidoscope. Fights take place while entire cities fold in on themselves, and one scene plays out in real-time and backwards… at the same time. It’s the most impressive-looking Marvel movie to date. Of course, it’s also the weakest in terms of character development. I never felt like I understood why anyone was doing anything or why we should care about Doctor Strange as a person. I know he’ll show up in future Marvel movies, but unless he brings his effects team with him, I don’t really care.

Reviewer

Clark
I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.

Published by

Clark

I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.