Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Review
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness is the newest instalment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe owned by Disney. This movie introduces the Multiverse hopping superhero; America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez.) Whilst it’s a wild ride and it’s obvious director Sam Raimi does his best with ever restrictive writing and rules establishing a movie without it becoming a “lazy convenience, get McGuffin” movie. For the most part, Raimi’s directing just about saves the film and it is an enjoyable trip, but not necessarily anything I’d recommend. Very rarely would I suggest someone watch something that left even me feeling empty by the end of it, I’m more than prepared to accept that maybe I’ve just grown out of the MCU now and no matter what they did it would never appeal to me. Though I doubt that’s the case, I still love the older films.
Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of absolute nonsense
Thankfully Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) himself is fantastic in this movie, second only to Benedict Wong (playing Wong,) who is criminally underestimated as an actor who can carry a franchise. If this one film proved anything, it proved that Wong (Benedict Wong) would be an amazing main character for any MCU movie or TV show, especially seeing as he’s Sorcerer Supreme now.
The biggest issue, I felt, is that the whole thing felt less like an experience and more like a distraction. Raimi obviously goes for the horror theme and Danny Elfman’s score bring the world to life, but in the scenes where it’s having to be a superhero movie, it fails, awkward non-funny one liners typical of any MCU movie seem to stand out as particularly out of place here leading to a movie that is it’s own opposite.
When Raimi is allowed to go full horror, the film shines. Without anything holding it back from being as Evil Dead as it wants to be it feels confident and comfortable. However it’s consistently blocked from being as good as it could be by bad writing choices, shoddy questionable editing and characters who stick around for no reason other than “well, why not?” Christine (Rachel McAdams) in particular in the third half had me scratching my head as to why her presence was needed. It’s justified in movie as her suggesting something to Strange so he doesn’t lose himself but this is a guy that thrives on doing exactly what she suggested, they honestly expecting us to believe it never occurred to him? Nonsense.
America Chavez is a fun enough character. She’s definitely doesn’t take from the film and I found myself charmed by her character by the end but she doesn’t feel as central as she should considering everything happens because a certain person wants her power. Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) is fantastic but unlike what I’ve seen from others, not the main event here, there’s a very awkward scene where she explains why she’s coming to do what she’s doing after listing all her trauma, all in mid-air. The whole thing is unintentionally hilarious and clearly put there to refresh minds, it wasn’t needed and made me take Wanda a little less seriously.
Overall the film works for what it is; a popcorn flick but I can’t help but feel like if they’d given full control to Raimi and not worried about the family friendliness of the film and allowed it to get as dark as it needed to, it could’ve been a contender for best ever MCU movie. An unfortunate missed opportunity.
