Hey guys! Dan here and today I'll be giving my review on the Marvel movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness!
Fair warning, there will be spoilers ahead.
This is a movie that's been hyped up for years as part of the next phase of the MCU and I am not disappointed with this film. The fact that they got Sam Raimi to direct this film makes it all the better, for those who don't know, Sam Raimi was the director for the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy from the 2000's and he was a horror director as well and you'll see plenty of horror elements in this film. There will be some jump scares but nothing too extreme just some little jump scares here and there. Not only that, but they got Danny Elfman to compose the music, Danny Elfman also composed the music in the 2000's Spider-Man movies as well so this film was done with the same care and quality as one of my favorite superhero trilogies from my childhood.
The cast of the film did a phenomenal job in their roles. Benedict Cumberbatch once again gave a great performance as Doctor Stephen Strange, always witty, calculated and full of charm for the role. Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda aka Scarlet Witch was a close second to Doctor Strange in this film she went all out here portraying Scarlet witch showing us how powerful she's truly become and her range of emotions. Xochitl Gomez did a great job as American Chavez, I haven't seen too much of her work, but she killed it in this role as the dimension jumping girl. Benedict Wong as Wong (still makes me laugh since that's his literal last name) did a great job in his role once again being the serious character but also having some comedic value and moments I'll always enjoy. There are other characters in this film that I don't want to spoil even though the trailers did show a couple of them but to anyone who didn't grow up with the marvel movies from the 2000's they won't understand I'm talking about. This is where Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox comes into play in the MCU, this is where it all starts to come together for the next phase.
The plot here is pretty good, I like how they're expanding on the concept of the multiverse in the films now. However, since this is the MCU, all the movies and shows are connected. If you haven't been keeping up with the MCU movies and shows then you won't fully understand what's going on here since this film calls back to a lot of MCU movies leading up to that film. My recommendation is before watching this film, you'll need to watch 4 MCU movies in particular as well as two MCU TV series. the movies you'll need to watch prior are Doctor Strange (2016), Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. The two MCU shows to watch prior are WandaVision and Marvel's What If...? series. I think as long as you watch the four films, you'll be fine, the shows are more optional to be honest. So back to the plot, Doctor Strange is protecting America Chavez since someone is trying to take her powers and Strange is trying to protect her which leads to a wacky adventure through the various universes. During this adventure, Stephen Strange starts questioning his happiness since he's not with Christine (his love interest from the first film played by Rachel McAdams). We also learn about America Chavez as well, little spoiler this film will include same sex parents which I think is neat especially considering Disney's stance against LGBT content but its nice to see these studios work around that, Pixar did it with Turning Red and Marvel is doing it here.
Right now there's not a whole lot explored about her in the MCU but I'm sure we'll get more about her in later films or TV shows. That being said, my only complaint about her was how she was able to control her powers, I wont spoil that part but it's not super exciting. This also brings me to the Villains motive for hunting down Chavez, the motive here is kind of weak and how she's defeated isn't that satisfying either, its like Antman and the Wasp levels of Unsatisfying Villain defeats. Like don't get me wrong it does work, but it was somewhat anti-climatic and what the villain ended up doing after that was a little more satisfying. I will also say that there were some characters in here I felt were nerfed badly and the villain just ripped through them all with ease though perhaps they're just that powerful now that's up to you to interpret.
My favorite part about this film were the special effects, the first Doctor Strange had various trippy sequences throughout the film, and this film I felt improved on that a little more going through different dimensions and looking different for each one. I love how creative they got for those sequences and it truly shows how wide a range in various mediums this film has. I'll admit the magic here was pretty standard though I was expecting a little more creativity to it rather than just the magic shields and projectile magic fire blasts but I digress. Overall, it was still visually appealing and I enjoyed every second of it.
To wrap this up, Doctor Strange in the multiverse of Madness was a great film, one of my favorite MCU movies in recent years and a great sequel to Doctor Strange. I felt the hype was justified here and now I look forward to what's next for Doctor Strange and the rest of the multiverse. There are two post credit scenes so stick around for those, especially the second one.
Now to conjure my ratings for this film, I'm giving it:
8/10
If you haven't watched the film yet, I highly recommend giving it a watch. I still recommend watching at least the four marvel films I mentioned before watching this one to get a better understanding for the plot but if you don't care for that and just wanna watch a fun film, that works too!
See ya!