Once again Marvel brings to life a beloved character in an excellent, fun, adaptation. Doctor Strange is a great movie, not the best Marvel movie, but not nearly the worst and that whole range is pretty high quality. I also recommend seeing it IMAX, it’s got that whole inception thing going (as you may have seen in the trailers) and fits well on the massive screen. It is a bit of a trip though, so while I didn’t, I would imagine watching it under any form of influence would be unpleasant experience, it can be aggressively psychedelic at times. Doctor Strange is definitely worth seeing in theaters and a fantastic edition to the Marvel universe. There are 2 after credits scenes so make sure to stay with that. Also Chiwetel Ejiofor is one of my favourite actors, so also watch everything else he is in.
The Plot:
Doctor Stephen Strange is an arrogant egotistical surgeon at the top of his field, a genius resting on his laurels. He is shown being real smart, performing complicated and show-off-y surgery, and turning down life threatening cases because he thinks they will hurt his perfect record. He experiences a major life changing injury; his hands are ruined in a car accident, effectively ending his medical career. He then goes on a journey to find a mystic solution to his injuries after western medicine failed him. He then begins his path to learn the Mystic Arts, with the help of “The Ancient One” and the always talented Chiwetel Ejiofor (one of my favourite actors, along with the rest of the Serenity cast).
Basically he is Iron Man: magic edition.
He apparently joined the not-cult at a bad time; an ex-master is attempting to crush the magical protective forces that envelop our planet, and protect us from the dark dimension. Villain of the day is giant floating head of evil, Dormammu, consumer of world’s/giant float-y head type bad guy, primarily represented on earth by evil ex-master Kaecilius in a more functional way, who can use magic to bend reality to his will. That’s about it, a standard, really well executed, origin story + good vs evil story, magic edition.
The Characters:
Doctor Stephen Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, begins as an ass. His character arc is effectively the same as Tony Stark’s, arrogant to injured (pride and otherwise) to re-evaluation of life priorities, and the awakening of powers which he needs to choose whether he uses them for good, or for personal gain. Benedict Cumberbatch does a phenomenal job in the role, I’ve never seen him in the ‘arrogant asshole role’ but he does it well. He’s funny, they’re all funny, this is what Marvel does well, they write interesting smart characters, which are most importantly logically consistent. I think it’s what sets apart the Marvel and DC cinematic universes, the DC characters are dumb, no way around it. They make decisions that don’t make sense, that are just contrived for the sake of the plot. Marvel characters are smart, their reactions make sense, when Doctor Strange is confronted with magic he freaks out, he questions it, and he needs it to be proven to him that it is a thing. Chiwetel’s character is confronted with issues with his faith and he questions it, they are logical smart people, and it makes them a pleasure to watch.
Now what is special about this story are the side characters, basically everyone at the monastery/temple/generic mystic place is there because they sought powers to restore something they lost in their life, be it their legs, their hands, their family, or their weakness. So every master is a complex deep character, even the Ancient One herself, the current Sorcerer Supreme (minor spoiler for future movies, Doctor Strange is the Sorcerer Supreme in the comics), is Celtic, and operates in Nepal, we never get an explanation and it makes her more interesting as a character.
Wong is my favourite character, he is amazing and I just want you to watch the movie for him, because he’s amazing, and just to watch him straight face through Doctor Strange’s one liners is a great time.
But Here’s the Thing (spoilers abound)
This will have to get old eventually right … right? This is an excellent film, and I loved it, but every damn climactic moment there is a pause for a character to give a one liner, and you know what? It was funny every damn time. That can’t be sustainable right? They can’t keep turning out movie after movie of this quality, whose soul(s) did Disney sell to keep this up. Literally every major moment has a break for a laugh, and I laughed every time, you shouldn’t be able to do an entire movie that way, but they can.
I could nit-pick the magic, but honestly that sounds counterproductive, magic is magic, and basically anything inconsistent could be explained away. What I loved most of all was the world building, the references to the rest of avengers, the after credits scene with Thor was great, and one glorious throwaway line: “I wouldn’t be too comfortable walking around with an Infinity Stone around my neck”. Damn that changed everything, Infinity Stones are the 6 magic rocks in the Marvel universe that have full control over some aspect of reality, if you collect all 6 you basically turn into God, like full 100% control over reality God. And that medallion holds the one that controls time, that’s pretty big as they are very sought after by not exactly the nicest characters in the Marvel Universe. There is no way in hell that amulet won’t resurface, ignoring the fact that the full-fledged comic Doctor Strange wears it constantly, it’s just been named as one of the most powerful artefacts in the universe, one of the stones that Thanos (Guardians bad guy) is searching for. Hell, the next Avengers movie is called “Infinity War”, that’s not a coincidence.
And that end credits scene, Ejiofor saying that the world has too many sorcerers. I can’t wait for the next Doctor Strange, Chiwetel Ejiofor as the mysterious lone wolf bad guy with a sword, Its Serenity mark 2, hopefully he will drop his name. It’s the plan guys, eventually the rights to Firefly will be bought by Disney, and River Tam can join the avengers mark 800 or something. I choose to believe that this movie is one of 2 things, or both; 1 A long term plan to bring Serenity into the MCU, and 2 Dr. Strange’s time control powers eventually, and convolutedly, make this a prequel to Dr. Strangelove, I don’t know how yet, but should happen.
It’s an awesome movie, go watch it for what is basically a magic trippy-er version of ironman, and let me know who your favourite character was, it should Wong.
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