Story: Dr. Stephen Strange's (Benedict Cumberbatch) life changes after a car accident robs him of the use of his hands. When traditional medicine fails him, he looks for healing, and hope, in a mysterious enclave. He quickly learns that the enclave is at the front line of a battle against unseen dark forces bent on destroying reality. Before long, he's forced into choosing between a life of fortune or a life of being the only defence for the world as the most powerful sorcerer in existence.
The 14th film in the ever growing Marvel saga, we now see magic introduced to the cinematic universe. You are spellbound from the moment the movie starts, even with the new logo for Marvel they had my heart pumping.
A new origins story now having come after one of the biggest hits of this past summer, Captain America: Civil War, Strange had a lot to live up to, and it did its part. Coming into Doctor Strange I really was unsure of where the film would go. I went to see the film in both IMAX 3D and 3D so I have seen the film twice now, it is a joyride of a film. But, on first viewing, I found the film was going so far into the recesses of unknown realities that my own mind started to bend.
Visually, the film is astounding, strange and scary at parts (one should note that the director is known for his horror films such as Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose), man does Marvel know how to pick them. The sequence where Strange is first given a taste of the ancient one's abilities, its like going on a roller coaster. Hold your breathe and prepare to be flown across the known universe. So much visual creations are thrown at you that it was hard at times to keep focus. If you keep your eyes from melting you'll see some visual references to the work of Steve Ditko (Spider-man, Doctor Strange), who did some crazy designs within the comic book that they included them in the film. The bending of realities and the way they are able to visually portray magic is beyond amazing. Every time they fight its like re-watching Inception. Yes, there are some huge fight sequences that seem to take visual cues from that amazing mind bending film by Christopher Nolan. I am sure it was all just coincidence, its great anyways too and makes the fight scenes even crazier. The end battle is also flipped on its head and is another visual achievement, Doctor Strange and The Jungle Book defiantly deserve Oscar nods for their work. An note to the director, get out to New Line Cinema about doing A Nightmare on Elm Street, with what you've done on Doctor Strange and Sinister I am sure you'd be able to make Freddy scary again.
Let's get the whitewashing controversy over with shall we. Tilda Swinton plays the ancient one, there has been more than one ancient one, so there are different ethnic groups who take on the role of the ancient one. Tilda is terrific, amazing and was a thrill to watch. She brought a smile to my face as her and Ben meet. Its a great back and forth. Benedict is by far a unique choice to star in a film such as this. He brings a certain melancholy to his role, and his accent is actually pretty good. He trys to make Wong (played by funny enough Benedict Wong) to laugh, get into Beyonce. He does do both, when he laughs its at a surprising moment. Rachel McAdams, who stars as Strange's estranged lover and college plays her part with great strength and realism. Its the scenes she and Ben share that I loved the most. The two have a very powerful scene in Strange's apartment when he accuses her about wanting to get back with him. Christine trys to tell him that there's more out their than just his hands and then he bluntly asks "what, like you!" The power in this scene is so real, so emotional. It just proves the strength and pure talent these actors have. Its not like that scene in Spider-man 3 between Mary Jane and Peter, the actors play to their strengths and play the characters with real push. Chiwetel who plays Mordo, friend to Stephen, goes mysterious with his role and does a great job at keeping Mordo from going too evil or too good. He's in-between, neutral. He sides with what he believes the ancient one stands for. He and Wong are powerful in their roles, they play their characters with true strength. As with the whole cast not one of them plays it hammy or sloppy or cheesy. Again, going back to Spider-man 3, the scene where Peter and Mary Jane are on the bridge as she has to break up with him, they both are crying but it feels forced, it doesn't feel real. What I wish happened was that Tobey played his part less with forced tears and more power, some angst. Again, I love that movie but in Doctor Strange the actors are serious, no funny business. They play the parts like their life is on the line.
Mads Mikkelsen (who played Hannibal Lector) plays Kaecilius, that goes against the ancient one in order to bring the dark force Dormammu in order to keep people from dying. He plays his part, like the rest of the cast, with true strength and vulnerability. I felt Mads played a great role and was the most engaging villain since Jeff Bridge's turn in Iron Man. It has been an issue that Marvel never seems to have any villains that are very engaging or interesting. I feel Mads does break the chain, he's an astounding actor and thats what is needed more of. A good villain consists of either one who was a friend or ally to the hero or a very character driven actor. Here's my list of favourite villains: Jeff Bridges from Iron Man, Tom Hiddleston from The Avengers, Robert Redford from Winter Solider, and Sebastian Stan from Winter Solider/Civil War.
Doctor Strange has astounding 3D visuals, a great musical score, a strong cast and a brilliantly original well written origins story. This film is the best movie so far in the marvel series. I love DC and their movies too, Man of Steel was a grande action packed superman movie and suicide squad gave us the cinematic representation of Harley Quinn!!! Plus Batman v Superman, while the battle was short it had a great performance by Ben Affleck, but Marvel sadly started out sooner, 2008, and while they have had films that are mediocre (Thor: The Dark World, The Incredible Hulk) but they learned from their mistakes and kept trying to make better films, Thor Ragnarok looks to improve on what went wrong in Thor 2, Iron Man 3 mostly made up for Iron Man 2 and Winter Solider defiantly improved on Captain America: The First Avenger.
Rating - A
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