DR. STRANGE REVIEW

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Doctor Strange hit the cinemas worldwide on November 4 and after missing the early screening a week earlier, yours truly was on hand to witness the second entry in Marvel’s phase 3.

 While the Sorcerer Supreme (in the making) is definitely not one of Marvel’s most popular titular characters he is in no way a lightweight in the Marvel universe, he’s actually one of the very powerful human beings (of course he is, they wouldn’t call you ‘Sorcerer Supreme’ if you weren’t). I won’t pretend to know so much about him though, as I’m not grounded in Doctor Strange books, I’ve mostly come across him in cameo roles in the comics and TV shows; if I remember correctly, I first encountered the character in the spectacular Spider man TV shows circa 1995.

 ‘While the Sorcerer Supreme is definitely not one of Marvel’s most popular titular characters he is in no way a lightweight in the Marvel universe’

So with my limited knowledge in Dr. Stephen Strange’s affairs I thought it would be quite exciting and objective going into the theaters like any other casual movie goer…with a fresh canvas.

 So where do I start? Ah yes, some 411 about the protagonist…

 Like most superhero origin stories Doctor Strange starts off with some misfortune, he’s a brilliant but egotistical, self-absorbed Neurosurgeon who desperately seeks out a cure to his ‘shaky’ hands after a car accident threatens to ruin his career and high end life. Strange’s motivations to learn magic are purely selfish at first  but he eventually realizes that he’s become part of something more and ultimately goes down the path of selflessness. That’s basically the gist. Without giving too much away, well not as much as the trailers already did, let’s talk some Doctor Strange.

 After the motor accident which robs him off the ability to have proper use of his hands, Dr. Stephen Strange is desperate for a treatment and after most modern medical procedures have been explored and failed, he ventures to Kamar-Taj in search of spiritual healing, where he meets the Ancient One; The current Sorcerer Supreme (Tilda Swinton) who shows him that there is so much beyond what he sees and knows and is unassumingly grooming him to be the next Sorcerer Supreme if he’d have it.

‘Marvel have once again failed in giving us a memorable villain’

 Doctor Strange stays true to its source material, with a decent and well executed plot owing a lot of that to its simplicity and the top quality of its cast, there isn’t too much to get it all muddled up, giving the Director ample time to flesh out the characters a bit (which isn’t well done), however the flip-side to this, is it makes them very transparent and sadly, quite forgettable; they are too simple and will hardly strike a chord with anyone after the movie.

  Marvel have also once again failed in giving us a memorable villain, Kaecilius is a former protégé of the Ancient One who in his bid to know more becomes influenced and poisoned by the darkness (where have I not seen that before?...yea wait, almost every magic/mystic villain). You fail to identify with him and his motivation can’t really be understood, we know he’s just a lackey in the big picture but he just goes on and on about death and time that you never really get any of it.

 Baron Mordo or just Mordo as he is still known (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is dickishly stubborn and stuck in the old ways, ‘have some flexibility man!’ It actually becomes annoying. (Like you almost died but are somehow bothered about the ethics of how the entire world was saved). This obviously being the reason he eventually becomes a villain and setting him up for a sequel return.

  Dormammu, the evil entity pulling Kaecilius strings, is hardly impressive failing to live up to the evil he was built up to be, in my opinion not very menacing or threatening. 

 Most characters in the movie don’t really register with you, even when the Ancient One dies you don’t feel anything it just happens and it’s like ‘ok she’s dead, and you just move on, which I found quite disappointing as I thought her quite interesting.

 The Romance between Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Christine (Rachel McAdams) however, is well delivered, we didn’t have it forced down our throats like previous movies (Thor and Jane Foster, Steve Lang and Hope, Black Widow and Bruce Banner etc.) They have apparently been bonking buddies before the movie and the resulting complications of that relationship is what plays out in the movie.

 Doctor Strange boasts a cast of top notch actors and actresses who do a really good job out of the scripts they’ve been given, shame these weren’t a bit better. With the all the script bashing thus far, it doesn’t make it all bad as it contained little or no plot holes, infused with adequate humour, action and drama, cheeky one-liners and banter, scenes were perfectly edited and the sequencing seamless, you never had to think ‘how did they get here from there’.

 Being a movie about magic it was always obvious this was going to be a CGI fest and this movie boasts some really good CGI, just as the trailers teased, the movie delivered, I especially loved the Inception-like world altering scenes and how they were used to do battle (The Ancient One vs The Zealots) simply amazing!

 This movie does justice to  IMAX 3D, and I recommend you see it on that if you haven't,  totally worth it! All in all, Doctor Strange was beautifully presented and a fun ride into the world of mysticism and magic, making it largely entertaining and a sequel would definitely be welcome.

RejectRating: 6.5/10   

Disagree? Drop a comment and let me know why this deserved more or less.