Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Does it Cast a Spell?

As per usual, I had quite the experience watching this movie. Granted, it wasn't as annoying as when I saw The Batman, but it was still something nonetheless. My friend and I went to see this Friday night, so the theater was pretty packed. To my right, there was a dad with his two small children. One of them proceeded to pass out about halfway through and began to snore. The daughter must've really liked the soda she had. She was just sucking the hell out of it. That's not where my troubles ended, no sir. At the front of the theater there was a baby screaming his head off, because why would I be able to enjoy a movie in peace right? I swear this only happens to me. With that off my chest, let's actually talk about the movie.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is directed by Sam Raimi and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Rachel McAdams, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. When America Chavez (Gomez), a girl who could open portals to other multiverses, meets Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch) he must figure out why dark forces are pursuing her. To do this he turns to longtime ally Wong (Wong) and Avenger Wanda Maximoff (Olsen). The answer, however, is not only a threat to this multiverse, but all of them. With all of that out of the way, let's dive into the review!

Before I get too involved, I just want to say that this is a tough review to write. Not only because of the spoilers (a lot of what I want to discuss revolves around them), but because of how I feel about the movie itself. For me it's a mixed bag. I just want to apologize in advance if this review is all over the place. What I really liked about this movie were the performances particularly from Cumberbatch and Olsen. The first Doctor Strange, in my opinion, is severely underrated. It made me pretty interested in the character and it's been great to see his arc in the MCU. That continues, for the most part, here. In this film, we see Strange not being in control. He's dealing with many of the choices he's made over the years. There's one theme that is touched upon quite a lot over the movie that I really liked. Many of the characters ask him, "Are you happy?" At the beginning, he quickly says yes, but as time goes on we really see the toll this superhero job has taken on him. It's actually quite fascinating. We've seen Strange so many times, but many of his appearances have been in supporting roles (Infinity War, Endgame, and Spider-Man: No Way Home). This is the first time in almost six years that we've seen him in his own movie. Cumberbatch did a great job showing the effects his experiences have had on him. There's a scene early in the movie that perfectly shows this. I won't go into it too much, but it involves Michael Stuhlbarg returning from the first movie. Another thing I really liked was Strange's dynamic with America Chavez. At first, they're not on the best of terms, but as the movie goes on, she really warms up to him. Again, this adds to Strange's character development that we've seen over the past few films. He's not the arrogant jerk from the first installment. He genuinely cares for her and wants to help. Another standout was Elizabeth Olsen. My god, she's fantastic here and steals the show. In my opinion, Wanda is one of the best characters in the MCU and Olsen doesn't get enough praise for her performances as her. Forgive me but I have to put a minor spoiler ahead even though it's heavily hinted at in the trailers. In this movie, Wanda is pretty much the villain of the story. She crushes it. What I really liked, however, is that you get where she's coming from. Wanda has been through a lot in these movies. She was orphaned, her brother got killed, she inadvertently caused Civil War, she had to kill Vision, only to see him brought back to life and be killed again, and that's not even covering what happened in WandaVision. In other words, she's been through the wringer. It would make sense for her to snap, and it's a very human reason why. I felt bad for her. When she does go full villain, it's kind of terrifying. This leads me to another thing: the direction. Scott Derrickson, the director of the first one, was originally supposed to make this movie. When Madness was announced at Comic Con 2019 he said this would be the MCU's first horror movie. Unfortunately, he stepped away from the project due to creative differences. Sam Raimi (director of the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies and Evil Dead) took his place. His style is felt a lot throughout this movie. I wouldn't go as far to say that this is a horror movie, but there are definitely horror elements in it. There are certain scenes that are pretty scary. I wouldn't take little kids to see it. It can get a little gruesome at parts, which I was surprised with. Some people may not like his style (crazy angles and weird spins), but I thought it was a unique take. That doesn't mean it always worked, but it was cool to see something different in the MCU. This movie also looks great too. The visuals (especially the action sequences) are gorgeous to look at. It's vibrant which suits the tone of the character. The action sequences were well done also. They were pretty unique. Again, not all of them worked, but it was cool to see Doctor Strange use his abilities. There's one scene that really stuck out to me that involves music (you'll know it when you see it).

My main problem with this movie is the pacing. It clocks in at a little over two hours, which, for me, was a problem. There was a lot going on in the movie but it never gets a chance to breathe. When it ended, I turned to my friend and said, "I feel like I just had the shit kicked out of me" (pardon the language). What I mean by this is that the movie throws so much at the audience, but never gives us the chance to step back and assess what happened. We're whipped around from location to location and, right when we start to settle in, we're off to somewhere else. Like I mentioned earlier, a lot of what bothered me has to do with spoilers so I can't really get into it. Something big happens towards the end, but the characters don't really get a chance to react to it. It was a pretty important moment, too (I hated it). Another place where this applies is to Wanda. We don't really see her gradually transition into being a villain. She just is one. This bothered me because she's a character we've known for years. If the movie spent the time showing the audience, maybe I would've liked it a little more. In my opinion, what they do with her is a disservice to the character and kind of contradicts the end of WandaVision. While I liked the dynamic between Strange and Chavez, I really didn't care for her as a character. She doesn't do all too much and some of her dialogue isn't the best (she asks if Spider-Man can shoot webs out of his butt at one point). With that being said, I do hope that we see more of this character. The response to people who have been critiquing this movie has generally been, "Well you just expected too much." The movie is called Multiverse of Madness, so, yes, I did expect some crazy stuff to happen. Doctor Strange is that kind of character. For all the talk about multiverses, we don't see a ton of them. We spend most of the movie in two I think and briefly see others. One thing that really bugged me was the character of Mordo (Ejiofor). The last time we saw him was in the first movie and he was hunting all magic users. When I saw him in the trailers, I got really excited because I thought that was an interesting plot point. It's completely forgotten. Spoiler, the Mordo we see in this movie isn't even the same Mordo from Strange's universe (I'm really sorry about posting that, but it's an example of why I'm mixed on this movie). It's as if the filmmakers completely forgot that plot thread which could've had some pretty major consequences. Mordo doesn't even do a lot in this movie except stand around the Illuminati (I won't spoil you about who's on that like it was for me). This again comes back to the pacing. Characters are introduced quickly and we're expected to just go along with. This movie is kind of a good representation of what Phase 4 of the MCU has been so far: Some really great moments, but others have been pretty dull.

Earlier I touched upon WandaVision and this movie sort of confirmed my fears I've had about this phase of the MCU: If you haven't watched the shows (not all of them), you're gonna be lost. There's a scene in the movie where Strange says to Wanda, "I'm not here to talk about Westview." This is a reference to pretty much the entirety of WandaVision. I'm not gonna get into it because this review will go on forever and I'm not here to talk about shows. If you're just seeing Madness and haven't watched the show, you might be pretty lost. That's what I was worried about going in. Not everyone has watched the shows. Casual fans, like my uncle, don't have time. "But Ben, you can say that for the rest of the MCU." When it was just movies, that's a pretty big difference. You don't have to sit down every week and watch something that may or may not be the best. With movies, it's only a few times a year. People also might just not care enough about the shows, either. To be quite honest with you, they've been pretty lackluster. Even the ones I really did enjoy weren't things that I loved. I think the MCU is getting to a point now where it's too big. If you want to be completely caught up, you have to watch the movies and the shows. For many people, that's gonna be a chore. When the movies do reference their small-screen counterparts, as in the case of Madness, it feels a little disjointed and disappointing, kind of like Phase 4. Can we talk about that for a second. I was talking to my friend about this the other day and I've gotten to the point with the MCU where I'm not really excited about the whole thing any more. Granted there are certain projects I'm pumped about (Thor: Love and Thunder looks like it's gonna kick all kinds of ass), but as a whole I'm kinda meh on the whole thing. After Phase 3, there has been a noticeable drop in quality. When it was announced that the shows on Disney+ were gonna play a part in the overall story of the Marvel movies, I was interested. Like I said earlier, though, the shows have been lackluster. At least we have the movies, right? Right? Since this new era of Marvel has started, we have gotten five movies: Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Eternals, Spider-Man, and now Doctor Strange. Out of all of these I've only really loved one (Spider-Man). Everything else, I've been pretty eh on. I just don't know where this is all going. The multiverse thing is interesting, yes, but it's starting to lose its appeal. Hopefully future installments could bring me back in again. With all of that being said, I don't hate the MCU (which seems to be a pretty common trend nowadays), I've just been disappointed. Thor better shock me.

To wrap this mess of a review of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a mixed bag for me. Don't get me wrong, I had fun with it, mainly because of the two leads performances, the direction, most of the action, and the visuals. What really holds the whole thing back from being a great film is the pacing issues, story decisions, and how it was kind of all over the place. If I were to rate it, I'd give Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness a 6.5-7/10. As always, make sure you stick around for the credits! I definitely want to see it again to see how it holds up after a second viewing. Also, feel free to reach out to me if you want to talk about it more!