Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness – its madness that Disney think they can keep getting away with this
Rating: 6/10 at a push Contains spoilers
Having found the third Spider-man film to have exceeded expectations, my excitement was prolonged when the second post credits scene for the film was a teaser trailer for the new Dr Strange movie. To my surprise, there were no quippy jokes in what alluded to a rather serious Marvel movie. My assumption was that given the culmination with the prior Marvel phase, Disney had entered a new era for the franchise – stepping away from their light-hearted nature and turning to a more dark and serious setting. However, shortly into the film I had realised that the tiger had not changed its stripes and it was all just a cheap marketing ploy. I was not alone in anticipating a more serious film, but like much of what Hollywood churns out these days, I felt let down slightly.
I will start by saying that I genuinely believe this film had a huge potential. The idea that an avenger could become blinded by a wholly natural desire, that this could cloud their judgement and lead to them employing any means necessary to achieve it really did appeal to me. That said, as someone who is rather reluctant to become a member of yet another streaming service, Disney+, I found myself as if there was a chapter missing in the book I was reading. Having not watched the Wanda vision show, of which good things I have heard, I felt like the overarching plot had taken a huge leap without my knowing, as I was expecting a continuation of what had occurred with the multiverse in the prior Spider-man film. Needless to say, this was not an overly fantastic first impression.
With the first scene of the film harking back to the McGuffin hunt from Star Wars Rise of Skywalker, I was disheartened to see the rest of the plot continue to bring in copious magical items that were somewhat unexplained and seemed to exist purely for the sake of moving the plot along. Whilst I am sympathetic to the fact that in a film relying heavily on magic it can be hard to execute this well, my overwhelming feeling here is that they relied too heavily on the continual introduction these items, and it was to the detriment of the film.
On this topic, I yet again felt disappointed with the lack of time given to Dr Strange having to utilise the dark magical item whose name has escaped me. I thought this was a momentous moment, with Strange having to turn to the very entity that in the alternate universe wreaked havoc and is knowingly categorised as wholly evil. Considering that he was walking the first steps of the same path that Wanda had, I felt like this went overlooked, with the focus being on the big CGI action scenes instead.
Perhaps my biggest gripe with the film, and what I dislike most about these enormous conglomerates, is poor utilisation of their vast budgets, casting certain actors in minor roles for audience effect. Seeing that in an alternate universe certain Marvel characters like Captain Marvel and Reed Richards getting completely recast both through me off and caused me a little chuckle at this cheap move. It does not make sense to me, that in an alternate universe, I can be someone other than myself. Unless Disney have really chosen to recast Captain Marvel to Lashana Lynch, I fail to fathom why they did this. This is even without mentioning the appearance of Dr Charles Xavier, which while on the face of it was big bonus, soon turned out to just appear ridiculous. I think this is largely in part to the mode of transport he was placed in – it really just did not fit the environment, and the everyone in my screening proceeded to be amused by his ‘exit’.
I must admit I am losing faith in big franchises like Marvel, I feel that the best from these brand names has come and gone. The archetypal stories that once held a great sense of meaning have been played out, and I think that it is time the industry moved on, and try and just be a little more original.
