Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here!
Marvel's latest movie, Doctor Strange, takes us into a world of dazzling new dimensions
and amazing magical powers that look truly extraordinary up on the big screen.
Over the course of the film, director Scott Derrickson leads us creatively through a wealth
of exceptionally striking, wildly out-there images of fantastical events, and as he does
so he sometimes draws in intriguing ways on his background as a writer and director of
horror movies like the consistently creepy Sinister.
In fact, for both the characters and the audience, the movie's visuals and action scenes frequently
blur the lines between waking nightmare, dream, and hallucination.
The movie manages to literally up-end action genre tropes like on-foot chases and ticking
clock scenarios, and gives them a nicely inventive spin to create totally trippy, wacked-out
sequences.
Forget your boring old laws of physics; in Doctor Strange practically anything goes!
Streets, buildings, walls, ceilings, floors, and more bend forwards, backwards, and in
on one another, and turn upside down, and twist around in constant motion.
Yes, there are Inception and Matrix-style moments, but there's much more than that.
Doctor Strange is a wondrous whirl of mind-bending movement, coupled with a kaleidoscope of fractured
shapes and colours that sends us hurtling through different dimensions.
There are even times in this Steve Ditko-inspired, psychedelic world when you actually feel like
you're looking at a moving comic book page.
The visuals are so spectacular, and there's so much going on in them at the same time,
that it's almost hard to know where to look.
In fact, it's such a feast for your eyes that it's a movie worth seeing more than once on
the big screen.
And just like Jon Favreau's live-action Jungle Book, Doctor Strange is a movie that really
does reap the rewards of 3D.
Scott Derrickson and his super-skilled visual effects teams have clearly gone all-out to
make the very most of that technology – and it shows.
Also, on the visuals side, I've got to give credit to production designer Charles Wood,
and the movie's art direction and set decoration teams for creating beautifully detailed sets
including Hong Kong streets, New York homes, and Kamar Taj.
Then, of course, there's the movie's actors.
And what a captivating cast Marvel's managed to assemble for Doctor Strange.
Obviously, we already knew that Benedict Cumberbatch could play a charming, arrogant genius in
his sleep – we are talking, after all, about the man who brought Sherlock Holmes to 21st-century
life to such well-deserved critical acclaim.
And he does an equally top-notch job as the self-important neurosurgeon Stephen Strange.
Yes, Doctor Strange is a role that fits Cumberbatch like a glove, just as was the case with Iron
Man and Robert Downey Junior.
You'll remember there was a good deal of controversy over the casting of Tilda Swinton in the role
of the Ancient One, given the character's an Asian man in the comics.
Focusing solely on her performance in the film though, Swinton manages to be ethereal,
bad-ass, and sharply witty, all at once, even when she's having to explain so much of the
movie's mythology.
Chiwetel Ejiofor brings poise and a certain class to the character of Mordo, who's studied
under the Ancient One, and whose function in the film is too often exposition.
By tweaking the comic-book role of Christine Palmer, played by Rachel McAdams, the movie
quietly acknowledges that if you're a woman working in a hospital, you may actually be
a doctor, not a nurse.
However, the character of Palmer as it's written isn't particularly scintillating, and it's
a testament to the talents of McAdams that she makes the part work, giving Palmer a level
of emotional depth.
As for Benedict Wong's character Wong, he gets a welcome makeover from the comics.
So instead of being Doctor Strange's manservant, he's now a steely, rule-enforcing librarian
at Kamar-Taj.
The scenes the two Benedicts share together are a treat, and I'd love to see more of them.
Just like the rest of the cast, Mads Mikkelsen is an incredible actor, but as the movie's
baddie Kaecilius, the script doesn't give him enough opportunity or on-screen time to
connect with us.
Sure, he gets to be part of some cool, visually stunning scenes, but in terms of dialogue
and motivation, it's pretty thin stuff.
Having said that, when Mikkelsen does appear on screen, it's still always a pleasure to
see him.
I just hope his role in Rogue One is more worthy of his talents.
This being a Marvel superhero movie, you can expect a good deal of comedy.
As is often the case with comedy, some of it works, while some doesn't land.
For me, the better comic moments come from the interaction between the two Benedicts,
Tilda Swinton's at-times-almost-gleefully-winking Ancient One, and Doctor Strange's Cloak of
Levitation, which has a playful air of Aladdin's magic carpet meets baby Groot about it; though,
let's face it, it's hard for anything to outdo a talking, dancing tree.
As you may have gathered from everything I've said so far, sadly, Doctor Strange's script
doesn't live up to the promise of its spellbinding visual design and its incredible cast.
We're fourteen films into the Marvel Cinematic Universe now, and, I guess, unsurprisingly
in some ways, Doctor Strange's story feels more than a tad familiar.
In fact, it's almost like we've come full circle, back to 2008's Iron Man movie as this
latest film basically follows Tony Stark's character arc.
Of course, there's always a certain amount of "been there done that" in any superhero
origin story, and perhaps there was a sense among the scriptwriters and producers that
the outrageously off-kilter reality of this movie's world was more than enough to make
it different.
Or maybe, they thought that that stunningly surreal world and its bizarre mythology was
already more than enough for the audience to cope with, without adding further deviations
from the already well-worn origins-story route.
And, to an extent, they're right on both counts.
After all, the film's dizzying visuals do make it stand out from Marvel's other movies,
and there's so much head-spinning craziness in Doctor Strange's story that it would be
rather a tall order to do what Civil War did so well for Black Panther and, the admittedly
already well-known Spider-Man, and just plonk Strange in the middle of Avengers: Infinity
War without giving him a proper, feature-length introduction like this one.
However, with a stronger, more daring script from Derrickson and C Robert Cargill, who
worked together on Sinister, and their co-writer Jon Spaihts, Doctor Strange could have been
one of Marvel's very best movies ever.
Still, this Doctor Strange movie does show much promise for future outings of the Master
of the Mystic Arts, and if Marvel keeps up this level of eye-popping imagery and finesses
the scripts, we're in for one hell of a trippy ride in later instalments!
By the way, Doctor Strange is such a stand-alone story that you could even enjoy it without
ever having seen a single Marvel movie or TV show.
That said, there are Easter Eggs and references in there for fans of Marvel's wider work on
the big screen and in the comic books, though I've got to say, there've been so many brilliant
Stan Lee cameos that this one pales somewhat in comparison.
To sum up: Doctor Strange is a dizzying, dazzling visual delight with stellar work from the
design, art, costume, and effects departments under Scott Derrickson's capable direction.
And the wonderfully accomplished cast squeeze the very most out of the script's predictable
plotting and reams of exposition.
Doctor Strange gets 3 and a half out of 5 Flicks.
Now, what did you think of Doctor Strange, if you've seen it already, or what are you
most looking forward to about the film?
And how do you feel it compares to Marvel's other movies?
I look forward to reading your comments below!
I've got videos coming up explaining the post-credits in Doctor Strange and my full guide to all
the movie's Easter Eggs.
Click on the links below to check those out!
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Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!