Doctor Strange Is A Flawed Super Hero Movie, But Its Brilliant Visual Effects And Some Strong Acting More than Make Up For It
Director: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams Mads Mikkelsen, Benedict Wong, Benjamin Pratt, Michael Stuhlbarg and Tilda Swinton
Studio: Disney/Marvel
Rated: PG
Running Time: 1 Hr, 55 Mins
Well, that was a wild trip.
First things first, there are a lot of things Doctor Strange misses. It has plenty of warts and a lot of missed opportunities, but for every wrong turn it makes it has at least one redeeming quality to make up for it. But the story, for all its potholes and interesting quirks, takes a back seat to its mind-blowing special effects.
Doctor Strange is an incredible spectacle and its groundbreaking FX and visuals will overwhelm you enough to make you forget its numerous shortcomings.
Video: Marvel Entertainment
Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is one of the world’s most brilliant neurosurgeons. He splits his time between performing complex brain surgery (while playing games of musical trivia) and doing groundbreaking research that redefines his field. His genius is equaled only by his professional vanity and ego. He is just as quick to dismiss patients as he is to accept them, scrutinizing the difficulty of each challenge while keeping a close eye on his batting average. He isn’t above lording his superiority over his peers or humiliating them in front of others.
But when tragedy strikes, Strange soon finds himself on the other side of the equation. A horrible car accident renders his once invaluable hands useless, ending his career. He exhausts his wealth on experimental treatments that all fail and he’s soon chasing a ghost story across the world to Kathmandu. There he discovers a secret world of mysticism and sorcery that challenges and defies everything he thinks he knows. It isn’t long before he finds himself caught up in a war between the agents of order that protect the Earth and the nightmarish forces that threaten it.
Doctor Strange follows the standard Marvel formula for super hero origin stories so much that at times it felt like it was an obligatory chore they had to get out of the way to lay the groundwork for a new movie franchise. There is an interesting parallel between Stephen Strange and Tony Stark; a pair of global geniuses who are shaped by tragedy, their shells of ego and pride stripped away by suffering. And while Strange’s transformation is more emotionally intimate, it also feels more rushed. His transition from a brilliant yet arrogant man of science to a student of the mystic arts to a virtual Master of sorcery happens in a handful of scenes while Stark’s transition to hero took half his film.
Cumberbatch also seems a little shoe horned in as well, as though director Scott Derrickson and Strange’s producers were trying to replicate Robert Downey Junior’s charm. It feels awkward and clumsy until Cumberbatch is able to settle more comfortably into the role. The first post scene credit feels like an afterthought, something tossed in because they felt they had to. Doctor Strange lacks the same rapid-fire approach to humour as many of the other Marvel movies as well. It isn’t for lack of trying but some of the attempts fall flat. Most of the moments of levity come from Strange’s interaction with Sanctuary librarian Wong (Benedict Wong).
But the movie has some storytelling strengths as well. There’s plenty of intelligence infused into the script (the reconciliation of sorcery in the real world and how that fits into the larger narrative context of the Marvel Universe, for instance). How Strange defeats his opponents, many more powerful than he, is a clever little twist (at the risk of potential spoilers, he essentially outsmarts the devil). And while the first post-credit scene was a disappointment, the second one (coming at the very end of the credits) reminds us all why we stick around for these little tidbits.
But without taking anything away from Doctor Strange’s successes, the true star of this movie is the breath taking special effects. Words can’t really do the outstanding visuals in this movie anything close to justice. When I reviewed Ant-Man last year I was impressed by how the film was able to break new ground in the visual effects department, mostly because it introduced us to a brand new world (the microverse). Doctor Strange pulls off the same trick (pun intended) but on an entirely new level, introducing audiences to the Multiverse and the Mirror Dimension.
Remember how mind blowing the reality warping, world bending effects in Inception were? Well take those effects and crank the dial up to twelve because Doctor Strange takes them to a whole new stratosphere. And the thing is, the reality shaping scenes aren’t even the only ones of note. There’s an entire fight scene that takes place on the Astral Plane and Strange’s initial introduction to the world of magic makes you feel like you swallowed enough LSD to take out a heard of elephants. And then there’s the time manipulation. Your inner geek is going to fall in love with this movie, if for nothing more than the visuals. But while other movies just use their stories as clotheslines to show off expensive effects, Doctor Strange uses its effects as they should be used, as a tool to carry the plot.
At the risk of sounding nerd-giddy, the effects truly are a piece of cinematic art and it wouldn’t be surprising to se them get some Oscar love next February. See them in 3-D or Imax to appreciate them.
Cumberbatch literally becomes the Sorcerer Supreme once he’s allowed to maneuver outside RDJ’s shadow (ironically, while Cumberbatch injects adequate life into Strange’s egomania and emotional distress, it isn’t until he’s on the path to becoming a hero that he really sells the part). Word is Marvel wanted Cumberbatch for this part so badly it rescheduled production so they could accommodate his other obligations. Now we see why. Chiwetel Ejiofor is just as impressive as the driven, by the book warrior-sorcerer Mordo and Benedict Wong is the movie’s comedic conscience. Mads Mikkelsen has the potential to be a chilling villain, but gets ignored in favour of the film’s need to tell Strange’s origin (something all Marvel’s villains outside of Loki have suffered from). It feels like there’s a genuinely scary guy just bubbling beneath the surface and it would have been nice to see hum unleashed. McAdams unfortunately, is relegated to the supportive love interest but she does manage to offer a nice counter balance to Strange in their few scenes together, illustrating just how far he has to go to be a hero.
Doctor Strange isn’t the worst origin movie in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, but it isn’t the best one either. But having said that, of al of Marvel’s solo movies, it probably does the best job of setting up the franchise for bigger and better things. Because if the villain teased in the second post credit scene lives up to their potential and the actors are allowed to sink their teeth deeper into their respective characters in the sequel, the next chapter in Doctor Strange’s movie saga will be a hell of a ride.
All in all, not bad for one of Marvel’s C list characters.
Photo: Marvel Entertainment
