And the award for the craziest, wildest movie of the year goes to…Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. Yes, Marvel have gone full Inception with the latest Doctor Strange sequel, but despite how utterly insane and weird that sounds, the movie mostly works. (MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW IF YOU HAVE YET TO SEE THE MOVIE!)
In fact, I’d go far and say that it is the wackiest Marvel movie ever made. “Wow! That’s a huge claim,” I can already hear someone say. “How can I say that this new Doctor Strange movie is better than Infinity War, Endgame, original Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, Spider Man, Thor, Guardians of The Galaxy, Black Panther, and the other 18,000 (well, maybe not that many, but it certainly feels that way) Marvel movies?”
To that I’d say…I’m not. In truth, I’d say there are at least five Marvel movies I can think off the top of my head as I’m writing (Infinity War, Spider Man: No Way Home, Iron Man 1, Thor: Ragnarök, and Black Panther) that are better than Doctor Stranger 2.
(Disney/Marvel: Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness-Official Trailer)
Those movies I have just listed all have better stories, better emotional moments, better developed characters, and better action sequences.
Nevertheless, they come nowhere close to matching Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness in creativity. Doctor Strange 2 is, without doubt, the most wackiest Marvel movie ever.
Now, some elements of the movie are staples of every Marvel entry and cannot be included as a new creative idea. For instance, the plot revolving around America Chavez’s uncontrollable/misused powers being fought over by the Scarlet Witch and the hordes of Doctor Strange variants is seen in nearly every single Marvel film. It is just shown in different ways.
In the original Avengers movie, the “uncontrollable/misused power” was the Tesseract, which the Avengers and Loki were fighting over. In the original Iron Man, the arc reactor was the “uncontrollable/misused power” that Tony Stark fought Obidiah Stane to take it back under his control.
Finally, in Infinity War and Endgame, the time stones were the “uncontrollable/misused power” that the Avengers and Thanos battled relentlessly over.
But that is not what was so great about Doctor Strange 2. What made Doctor Strange 2 brilliant, for me at least, was its setting, cross-genre mix, and its nuanced use of the Avengers.
First, the setting. This was the easiest thing for the director and set designers to master, and they did so brilliantly. Universe 818 looked phenomenal, showing what New York City would have look like if some important moments in Marvel history had ended differently.
The floral-based New York set harkened to the Planet of the Aps and how the overgrowth due to a lack of human activity (or purposeful human activity, in Doctor Stange’s case) affects a huge city like New York.
What was the most surprising change in Doctor Strange was the use of horror, sci-fi, and classic superhero elements all in one movie. At points, Doctor Strange felt like a normal Marvel movie.
Yet, when we were following America Chavez and Strange through what I can only explain as an underground tunnel/gravity-altering void chase scene, I felt like I was watching Blade Runner.
(PS: I know that chase scene description sounds weird, but you have to see the movie to understand what I’m trying to describe.)
However, the cross-genre mix that I enjoyed the most, was the use of horror. Director Sam Raimi’s horror background shone through Strange’s interactions with his Darkhold-corrupted self, the undead Doctor Strange, the demons, and the Scarlet Witch.
That tunnel/gravity-altering void area chase scene at the end of the movie was unbelievable, as Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda/Scarlet Witch) truly looked like a Jason Voorhies/Carrie-like slasher villain.
Oh, and how could I forget Professor X’s death with the demon-version Scarlet Witch jumping from the red mist to snap the leader of the X-Men’s neck. Yeah, this movie was terrifying and utterly brutal.
That now leads me to my next point: the nuanced use of the Avengers in this movie. Sami Raimi and his writing staff achieved something no other writer or director in the Marvel Universe has done. He conveyed the true, destructive powers the Avengers are capable of, and he allowed them to use it (ie: Scarlet Witch).
(Disney/Marvel: Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness-Official Trailer)
In my opinion, the Scarlet Witch has been the best Marvel villain since Thanos. Elizabeth Olsen masterfully portrayed how the death of Vision totally broke and destroyed Wanda’s mind and sanity, allowing her to be easily corrupted by the Darkhold book.
She was an awesome villain to watch, though I wish she could have survived the movie.
Wanda/Scarlet Witch really could have become the next big Marvel villain (if she really is dead). As for Doctor Stange himself, he was just as captivating as a villain as he was a hero/anti-hero in the three different versions of him we saw. Benedict Cumberpatch (Doctor Strange) was easily able to convey the various personalities of the Doctor, showing how even the Avengers could fall into evil and corruption under the right circumstances.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness has been coolly received by film critics (by Marvel standards; it has a respectable 74% score on Rotten Tomatoes). Nonetheless, I feel that is unjust as the movies creative liberties and gambles far out way the downfalls in its plot.
Plus, Doctor Strange 2 has broken away from the increasingly repetitive Marvel movies released nowadays (more on that story in a future article) and should be commended for it.
I give Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness an 7.8/10, and definitely recommended everyone see it at least once. I understand the nature of the movie will not be for everybody, yet it’s creativity deserves to be seen.
Images Source: Feature Image: (Disney/Marvel) (Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | Official Trailer – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (Disney/Marvel) (Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | Official Trailer – YouTube)
In Text Image 2: (Disney/Marvel) (Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | Official Trailer – YouTube)
