Superhero movies have the fatal flaw of taking too much time to explain themselves, which doesn’t leave much time for an actual movie to be seen.
Imagine me explaining the rules of basketball to you for hours and then shoot one basket and leave. Thankfully Dr. Strange and The Multiverse of Madness doesn’t suffer from this problem.
Please don’t be late for this movie because once the action starts, it doesn’t stop for two hours straight. The movie doesn’t have time to explain everything that has happened that led up to it, so I strongly suggest you watch the original Dr. Strange, Wandavision, the Dr. Strange episode of WHAT IF, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and if you have time Loki.
Without some general knowledge of those films and series, you will be lost trying to figure out why all this is happening.
Another flaw of Superhero movies is how to make an overpowered hero seem relatable and badass at the same time. It took a while, but Marvel finally did a great job of showing how a fully powered Scarlett Witch can be.
She does some things in this movie that you simply have never seen done in any of the MCUs movies to date.
Director Sam Rami made his bones in the horror genre, which shows in this film. Wanda feels powerful and super scary at the same time. The kills in the movie are very similar to Mortal Kombat and they are a bit shocking, to be honest. You aren’t used to these type of kills in an MCU movie and there was a lot of gasps from the audience. There was one line from the movie which I can’t tell you for spoiler reasons that really shows how far Wanda has gone off the deep and how ruthless she has become.
Thanos often times felt like he didn’t want to do the things he was doing, but they had to be done for the betterment of the universe, whereas Wanda is doing things simply for one selfish reason and taking everyone out in the process. A case could be made that after this movie Wanda should be considered the strongest hero and villain of the MCU, you will see why very clearly as the movie goes on.
If there was a weakness in the film, it was the introduction of America Chavez. She seemed to simply be a handy plot device for Strange and Wanda. There was an opportunity in the 3rd act to show what she could do, and it didn’t come across as heroic as it needed to be. You get a brief glimpse of the type of power she wields, but they never fully give her an opportunity to show it.
That is just a minor complaint that doesn’t slow down the movie. It is time to give WONG his flowers. No matter the scene, he just owns it.
At its core, the movie is a Scarlett Witch movie and a way to get closure from Wandavision. While the movie doesn’t end on a cliffhanger per se, there does seem to be a lot of consequences for the actions that everyone has done throughout the movie that eventually will catch up with them.
As Mordu says the bill comes due ALWAYS. Wanda, Strange, Wong, and Chavez will have to all pay a price for what they have done. There are two post-credit scenes that help flesh out where the story might be going.
You probably want to know about the Illuminati, but I don’t want to spoil anything for you, I will say this you won’t be disappointed by the lineup and what it means for the future of the MCU.
While not as impactful and emotional as Spider-Man: No Way Hold or as funny as, say, a Guardian of the Galaxy or Thor Ragnarok, Dr. Strange manages that fine line of humor, action sequences, and a very believable BIG BAD.
I am already excited about the next installment.
4 1/2 BSO stars out of 5