The MFU scores another hit with an update on the mystic 70s cosmic acid-laced character, Dr. Strange. Like Ant-Man, it’s a great stand alone movie.
The big problem with a lot of super hero movies these days is that they’re long and crammed with way too many characters. Was Captain America: Civil War a good movie? Yes. Was it way too long and did it have way too many characters? Absolutely. It was really another Avengers film more than a Captain America film. The “too much of everything” trap has captured good comic book movies of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Batman v. Superman, keeping in mind that Batman v. Superman wasn’t “good” in the traditional sense.
The better big budget comic book films in the last few years have been Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man. These films are focused on a specific story that does play into a larger concept but isn’t beholden to it.
Enter Doctor Strange.
This is a movie about a wealthy, brilliant man who is ultimately destroyed by his own ego and arrogance. He then finds a new path using that same intellect, allowing him to become the hero he always should have been. That hero’s name? Iron Man. Wait…that’s not right. Still, you have to admit there are more than a few subtle similarities between the arcs of Stark and Strange. They even have amazing facial hair. But this movie is about Stephen Strange, not Tony Stark. And Doctor Strange uses magic, not technology. So this movie is waaaaaay different.
All sarcasm aside, it actually is its own thing. Doctor Strange is like watching someone take Iron Man, wrap it in The Matrix, and then beat it about the head and genitals with an Inception covered bat. And that laboured analogy is meant in the best of ways. Doctor Strange is another breath of fresh air into the MCU, like Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man before it. Guardians is a straight up space opera. Ant-Man is a comedy heist movie. And Doctor Strange? It’s movie about kung fu sorcerers fighting to protect Earth from dimensional aggressors with bad intentions.
After movies like this and Guardians of the Galaxy, you finally feel like anything is possible in a cinematic universe where everything should be possible. Well, apparently except for a Black Widow solo movie. Or Wolverine showing up to help out. Or the Fantastic Four finally being absorbed into the MCU and a watchable film being made out of these core comic book characters.
The mystical aspects of Marvel have been left by the side for a while. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has dipped into that realm this season with Ghost Rider and the Darkhold. But Doctor Strange represents the first big screen MCU inclusion of what is a major Marvel Comics aspect.
And it works across the board.
Benedict Cumberbatch always delivers big and he does so again here. He is the perfect Doctor Strange on every level. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, and Mads Mikkelson are all outstanding. And Benedict Wong is pure brilliance as Wong. He provides balance when necessary and levity when the story needs it. This movie absolutely would not have worked without him.
One of the most surprising characters in the movie is Strange’s Cloak of Levitation. In this movie, it is virtually sentient, offering support, defense, and non-verbal guidance. And it actually fills in the role of comic relief on more than one occasion. It’s oddly comparable to the flying carpet in the classic Disney animated feature, Aladdin. It’s a weird, unexpected angle that actually works in this film.
Then there’s Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One.
The Ancient One is the sorcerer who trains Doctor Strange in the comics and is that teacher again in this movie. In the comics, the Ancient One is an older Asian man. Tilda Swinton, in case you hadn’t noticed, is neither male nor Asian. Marvel and Disney came under fire for inexplicably whitewashing the character when the casting news came out. Swinton did a great job as the Ancient One but there is no reason the part absolutely had to be played by her. There are several Asian actors who could have played the Ancient One, each putting their own spin on the role. If they wanted to make the character female for the movie, that’s a great idea. There are never enough roles for Asian women in big budget Hollywood films. But the Ancient One still could have been played by an Asian actress. The whitewashing of Asian characters on movie screens is a more than justified sore point, particularly in comic book movies. There was no reason to throw gas on the fire in this case. Whitewashing, particularly of Asian characters, is a serious issue the MCU needs to address in the future.
But if we’re going to talk about problems with Doctor Strange we also need to talk about Strange’s photographic memory, one of the easiest plot devices out there. To an extent, they explain away his success as a surgeon and as a sorcerer due to his photographic memory. But that fact doesn’t really come up until midway through the film and at a very convenient moment. The idea of a photographic memory is one of those plot devices that get used without really understanding what it is because the phrase conjures up an easy mental image. It’s also a little lazy. Rather than giving us a reason for Strange’s mystical affinity, we just have to roll with the idea that he super memorized everything.
That being said, going into an in depth explanation adds to the movie and the tight, under two hour run time of Doctor Strange is greatly appreciated.
One of the MCU’s biggest issues also persists in this movie, that of the disposable villain. Mads Mikkelson is fantastic but, as one would assume going in, he is defeated and it does appear that this is the last time we’ll be seeing him based on how he goes out. So far, only a small handful of villains have survived their films. It’s hard to build an ongoing story without a significant cast of ongoing villains. There are a few who persist but not that many, and only a small percentage of those characters ever return. Take the Abomination from Edward Norton’s Hulk film as an example.
But these issues absolutely do not overwhelm what is, for the most part, a fantastic film. It’s a tight, well-paced narrative that stays focused and adds another dimension to the MCU. It even manages to set up plot points for a few future Marvel films without detracting from its own story. This is the last MCU blockbuster in 2016 with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Thor: Ragnarok all out next year, each wearing their own brand of weird on their superhero sleeves.
Doctor Strange sets that weird tone perfectly.