Review: Doctor Strange
The latest stone in Marvel’s gauntlet – by that, I mean the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - is Doctor Strange, directed by Scott Derrickson. After a terrible car crash, former surgeon Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) seeks out an ancient Tibetan school in the hopes of mystic physical recovery. But once Strange arrives, he must help the school in a war against one of its former students, Kaecillius, a vengeful acolyte who wants to rewrite Earth’s reality.
Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010) is an obvious influence on this film and the way it portrays the warping of reality. However, whereas Inception popularized the idea of having cityscapes fold in on themselves. Doctor Strange amplifies this concept for fantastic effect: instead of cities folding merely at right angles, here skyscrapers wrinkle at kalidescopic degrees. In one battle between Kaecillius and the heroes, viewers watch the surface of buildings crest like tidal waves as the combatants run along a building’s side. Further, whereas Inception had a limited color palette because it primarily bended metropolises, Doctor Strange benefits from more vibrant color scheme in its visual effects. Derrickson not only bends cities, but also spirals them like candles and stain glass windows.
Perhaps even stronger than the film’s visual effects is its casting. Benedict Cumberbatch takes the mantle of the Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange. Strange begins as an egotistical surgeon bent on creating reputation and financial success;. he puts down his medical colleagues and even emotionally abuses his lover after the car accident. Yet, once Strange travels to learn in Tibet, Cumberbatch makes a slow and natural transition to portray Strange’s growing commitment to become a hero. Perhaps, the clearest indictor of this is that Strange’s sharp putdowns become slow sarcastic quips. Strange even has great interactions with his sentient cloak, an item that lifts the magic carpet character straight out of Aladdin and brings a similar archetype to the MCU.
Still, the most prized cast member is Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, a centuries old sorceress and head of the mystic school in Tibet. The Ancient One is not only Strange’s mentor, but a defender of Earth from magical threats in the universe. Swinton’s casting was a controversial decision as the Ancient One is traditionally an Asian male. There’s a jarring line in the film that directly addresses the casting by clarifying that this Ancient One is a Celtic successor to previous Ancient Ones. On one hand, it is true that there are a lack of roles for Asian actors in Hollywood, but on the other hand, a lot of the film’s quality rides on Swinton’s great performance. Nonetheless, Swinton is a veritable movie star as well as an actress who adds a sense that this superhero movie (and the superhero genre) offers serious additions to the film industry while also catering to mainstream audiences. Swinton can fiercely gesture to cast spells straight out of a comic panel, but she also sells the Ancient One as a wise woman. When the Ancient One engages with Strange, Swinton stresses each word to convey a sense of meaning in her mantras.
After witnessing Doctor Strange’s innovations in the superhero genre, it’s clear that the MCU has the capability to continue beyond its current crop of stars, especially if it offers audiences something new. While both the plot of a former student seeking revenge on his master or of a hardened traveler taking to the mountains for spiritual renewal and are old tropes, Marvel’s Doctor Strange succeeds through innovatively building on concepts from other films. It seems as well that the superhero genre should take heed of this film, and boldly find new ways to tell the same story.
More in Marvel Reviews
This might be one of the darkest Marvel films we have seen so far. We always knew that the First Lady of the Avengers, Natasha Romanov AKA Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), had a tragic backstory. It is an entirely different experience watching it on screen.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings stars Simu Liu as the titular character, renowned in the comics for his martial arts abilities. Starring alongside him are Awkwafina as Katy and Chinese actress Meng’er Zhang as Shang-Chi's younger sister Xialing. The film is a lesson on reconciliation and accountability. The story highlights that forgiveness and reconnection are possible following a rift.
As we all remember, the year 2020 was an era of tremendous chaos and great tragedy. One such tragedy was the death of the great Chadwick Bosemon, who previously starred as the lead of Black Panther, T'challa, aka the Black Panther. The second film in this series, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, as much as it is a blockbuster, is a memorial to the late Chadwick Boseman. This sentiment echoes throughout the entire movie, and we feel his presence from beginning to end.
Every now and then, there comes a certain kind of movie. A movie that makes you laugh, that makes you cry, and that makes you shake with excitement, enjoyment, and fear. Most of us love that movie, when it comes along. Unfortunately for my audience, this is not the movie I will be reviewing.
I watched Multiverse of Madness, also called MoM by some fans, with great excitement, only to be let down in many interesting ways. But, nevertheless, the film drastically shifted the trajectory of the MCU and is vital regardless of its divided reception.
Morbius, released in April 2022 and starring Jared Leto as the titular character, has been the subject of many viral Twitter threads…if only because it somehow became a meme completely unrelated to the plot of the movie itself. To be completely honest, I don’t remember watching most of the movie. In fact, I fell asleep multiple times, including towards the very end. So, this review will consist primarily of the little I still remember, why I fell asleep, and why its main character has become a highly successful meme.
This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. It's the final Marvel premiere of the year 2021. And most of all, it's the conclusion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man trilogy. No Way Home has become one of the greatest films that both Marvel and Sony have ever released - but I have got to admit, given the long, complicated history of Spider-Man films, it would have been very difficult for it to turn out any other way.
Long ago, in an unknown dimension, Marvel Studios decided to make a film about characters most of us have never even heard of. Behold, the Eternals — an elite team of ancient, all-powerful immortals who hail from the godly world of Olympia, now on a mission to make the planet Earth a better place… or so we thought.
WandaVision, starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, concludes with a dramatic ending, inducing surprise, joy, grief, and for some eager fans, disappointment. The 9-episode Disney+ series combines sci-fi, drama, comedy, fantasy, mystery and of course, action. Its weekly serialized format makes room for eager Marvel geeks around the world to take to the internet to predict what comes next for the show that starts in a very confusing, open-ended way.
More in Comic Book Reviews
One may be asking, why do we need another Batman movie if The Nolan Trilogy, especially The Dark Knight, still holds up? Well, we certainly did not need this movie, but I, for one, am thankful that we got it! Matt Reeves’ The Batman is a dark, suspenseful reimagining of the classic Batman storyline that features new interpretations of characters like Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), The Penguin (Colin Farell), and The Riddler (Paul Dano).
