Remember when there was no magic in the MCU? When all magic was just more advanced science? Well, now its time to backpedal on that, because we have a movie all about alternate dimensions, spirits exiting the body, cities being bent around themselves to the point where it looks like a Bayonetta arena is in between what could either be the same building 20 times or 20 buildings so close to each other that it looks like walls. Many have given this movie a somewhat valid comparison of "What if Iron Man was on a s@&* ton of drugs", but where are they coming from? One way to find out.
Doctor Stephen Strange (Yes, that is his actual name and title, he is a real doctor), is a high grade neurosurgeon. Extremely rich, extremely proud, and has an extremely high ego (oh hello Tony, I didn't see you there). After a car accident (don't look at your phone while driving kids), his hands are badly injured leading to severe neuro damage. To put it in a simpler term for those who aren't familiar with it, it basically means that his hands can't recieve signals from the brain as well as they used to, making any activity using his hands (including those related to his work) almost impossible depending on the size of the object and how precice the action. After experimental treatment after experimental treatment failing, Strange travels to Kathmandu, looking for the Kamar-Taj due to seeing someone who was permanently paralyzed from the waist down somehow walking around like nothing happened. There, he meets the Ancient One, who, after several hours of begging, agrees to teach Strange about the Mystic arts. While this was happening, Kaecilius (who I had to look up I didn't remember him by name, but rather as "the Bond Villain in Cassino Royal") is trying to bring Earth into a dimension known as the Dark Dimension, believing it to be the way to eternal life, though the main force of the dimension, Darmamu, plans to destroy the earth once its in his control. Once the Ancient One is dead, its up to Strange and two other scorcerers, one of which "is totally not set up to be the villain in the next Doctor Strange movie", to stop Kaecilius's stupid plan and to stop Darmamu from destroying the planet.
I'll be honest, I am not a fan of this story, and I think in terms of writing, this is one of the weaker MCU movies. It really is Iron Man with magic, but it still feels weaker then Iron Man 1. Kaecilius isn't really against Strange, Strange is just in his way, there's no connection between the two of them. Kaecilius also always feels like a glorified grunt for Darmamu, but all we see of Darmamu in this movie doing something evil, is killing Strange a lot due to a time loop. I do like Strange's interactions with characters like Wong, Mordo (again, "totally not being set up to be the villain in Doctor Strange 2, ignore the fact that he's often portreyed as a Hydra scorcerer"), Christine (who is one of the better female characters the MCU has in the love intrerest role for the main character) and the Ancient One. To quickly go onto that topic, while yes it does suck that they didn't get a Tibetan actor to play the role, Tilda Swinton does do a good job at playing the character. I have nothing much to say on the gender flip because most of the time, gender doesn't play a role in characters so I don't care if the genders are flipped, so long as more is done to give a valid reason. You have to do more then, say "create a all female version of a team that still has the same personalities and all they do is just make more female focused jokes". Overall though, the cast is excellent. Benedict Cumberbatch is probably one of the weaker members of the cast, though not by any genuine margin, its more a matter of still getting used to the character, and he does get better in later outings.The cast though is what helps push the story beyond something generic.
The biggest draw of the movie though is the effects. All the magic done is with CGI, including folding cities onto each other, creating portals, sending an apple between points in time, turing it from half eaten, to fresh from the tree, to a rotting core and back again. While not flawless, there are some hiccups if you're familiar with the cities and I'm not a fan of the trippy face Darmamu has, its all still a delight to see, with one of the most insane looking being Strange's first experience with Astral Projection. These are still gorgeous to watch in action though, and remind me a lot of some of the effects in the Harry Potter films, just blown up more. The effect do push this movie up a lot for me though, I just hope that for the next film, they do more to bring the story up on par with the effects.
As it is though, Doctor Strange is a middle of the road MCU film for me, the good does balance out with the bad, but its not something I'm rushing to see again. Up next for content on Sunday is Thanos' Jewel Encrusted Golden Rocket Fist, and next week here will be Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, as MAYval continues.
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