Movie review: Doctor Strange

 

So, Marvel now moves into the mystic realm with Doctor Strange. It’s a visually spectacular film that lacks a bit of narrative push and suffers from origin story syndrome.

Hand on heart time: I’ve never, ever read Doctor Strange. So I was able to go into the film fresh without any pre-conceived ideas. After an amazing physics bending fight involving Kaecilius (Mikklesen) and his goons, the film starts off introducing us to Stephen Strange (Cumberbatch), a brilliant master surgeon who also happens to be an arrogant, ego-maniacal a-hole. After a horrific car crash, in which Strange’s hands are crushed, Strange tries to find any way of fixing his hands so he can continue medicine. This is when he is told of a place that could heal him, so he travels to Kathmandu in search of ‘The Ancient One’ (Swinton). It is here that Strange learns of infinite universes and multiverses, from ‘The Ancient One’ and her offsider, Mordo (Ejiofor). During his training, Strange discovers that through study and practice he can astral travel, create weapons out of thin air, and control time (which is a big no-no).

I am going to talk about the star of the show, no not Swinton, Cumberbatch or Ejiofor – I am talking about visual effects. This is hands down, and by a long, long way, Marvel’s most creative film. GotG had a lot of great other worldly, alien effects, but Doctor Strange is something else. There are times that you feel your eyes either can’t keep up or that your brain is processing too much information. Strange’s first travel through the multiverses is amazing, a magic eye, kaleidoscope, marrow of space and time trip that has to be seen on the big screen. The later cityscape fight is again a delight to watch and more than justifies the choice of Scott Derrickson to direct this film. Derrickson has a bit more room to play with than your usual Marvel universe films because a) it’s an origin story, so the rules haven’t been set yet and b) it is in a world that is removed from The Avengers and therefore he can afford to get a little bit darker, but being Marvel, it’s never going to be too dark, even in the dark corners of the multiverse.

The acting is good enough, but only Cumberbatch and Ejiofor (to a degree) get to really try and branch out. Despite the pedigree of actors in the film, no one really takes the characters and owns them. Some actors star in a role and you can’t imagine anyone else in that role. Doctor Strange doesn’t have that. Mikklesen’s Kaecilius is just there to cause problems and doesn’t get a lot to do, despite being a main villain. A problem that is really prevalent in the superhero films since this whole shared universe thing began. Therein lies the problem with Doctor Strange: the writing and the story don’t carry enough propulsion.

There is nothing wrong with the plot per se, however, being an origin story I felt it really didn’t give it a lot of room to move. With so much information to try and cram into the audience, I got frustrated with the story because…I mean come on…we have all seen so many origin stories that they have become rote at this stage. This (and I assume also time constraints) led to characters being VERY accepting of the totally weird happenings and a less than spectacular climax that fizzled and seemed to happen abruptly. Doctor Strange’s powers are currently really untapped and I would be very keen on seeing a sequel because the rules are set out and you can let the characters run free. The now expected post credit scene(s) set up both an upcoming Marvel sequel and a Doctor Strange sequel as well. It was in the post credit scene that I felt Cumberbatch became the Doctor Strange I wanted to see and hopefully that will continue into the sequel.

Doctor Strange is a feast for the eyes, but not a hell of a lot more. At times occasionally humorous, Cumberbatch doesn’t really make Strange his own, but hopefully he will in subsequent films. The film is another step in an ever expanding connected cinematic world, which now has multiverses, so the possibilities are endless.

Ryan Morrissey-Smith

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