The Doctor Strange Review

A new Marvel movie has graced our screens so time yet again for me sing their praises as onlookers sweep my opinion aside as bias. I jest. A bit. I really didn’t like DC’s 2016 pair of car crashes. I wanted to though, I blooming love comics and the superhero genre. Not just Marvel. My desire for these films to be good is the half the reason I get so worked up and angry when they’re not good. I’m still maintaining that Suicide Squad and BvS are awful films, but I’ve seen a lot of awful films I don’t want to rant about or inflict physical pain when folk they tell me they were good. The point I’m labouring over is that I’m not biased towards Marvel films over DC’s…

Do you believe me? Good. By the way Doctor Strange is way better than this year’s DC movies. Obviously. 

What does it get right? The main thing is the visuals. The spectacle. Reality warping, gravity defying gymnastics as cityscapes warp to the whims of our leading characters. Peeks at other dimensions that are presented like some kind of massive drug fuelled vision. A twist on outer body projections used for fun set piece. Time slowed and reversed, like the bullet dodging scene in the Matrix but with 100 plus bystanders instead of one leather clad Keanu. It’s Marvels most visually inventive film, taking the crown from Ant-Man before it (criminally underrated) It has to be as yet again we have  a hero the average cinema goer hasn’t heard of, in a genre filled with people who can fly and hit things very hard. That’s not enough anymore. Our eyeballs need massaged by some new trickery and Strange delivers it in abundance.

Next good thing: the jokes. Well most of them. There’s a few that did nothing for me, like a certain one around names but it eventually paid off. Marvel films always have jokes but what they’ve really perfected is getting humour into action scenes. Avoiding spoilers here, but I enjoyed the flip out of the set piece involving a certain red, floaty accomplice. 

The supporting characters work well enough too and a lot have some nice moments (though moments are what some are restricted too, see the next paragraph). Avenger’s references are littered all over the show and the obligatory Stan Lee cameo was fun.

Bad stuff? Well it is another origin story. The love interest hasn’t much to do and the villain is pretty much there as someone to be beaten in a finale. Standard first film mechanics but you can’t really fault it for that. That’s stuff to correct in Doctor Strange 2. Benedict Cumberbatch is enjoyable in the role but his story is that of an arrogant prick who has to learn to be a selfless hero for the greater good. Basically he’s Tony Stark. Unfortunately he’s’ not as witty or charismatic as Robert Downey Jr so again I’m hoping the sequel improves this facet, making him a bit more unique.

Other bad stuff… My wife hated it. Just in case you want a balanced opinion. Her reactions included “all that magic stuff is too weird,” (because gods of thunder and super soldiers are perfectly normal) and the fantastic conclusion that because some visuals take you through time and space, and because it has ‘Doctor’ in the title… “It’s too much like Doctor Who, I don’t like Doctor Who”

I’d like to clarify that it’s nothing like Doctor Who.

Overall then… I really, really enjoyed it. It’s a Marvel movie but it’s different enough to stand out as something fresh. It’s brimming with confidence and flair and as foundations it’s sturdier than Banners purple trousers. Bring on an Avengers movie with Strange and Spider-Man, biased me will lap it right up.