Doctor Strange - Film Review
Doctor Strange is directed by Scott Derrickson and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen, and Tilda Swinton.
Plot
After a horrible car accident, brilliant neurosurgeon Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) must find a way and a cure to healing his hands. His quest brings him to Kamar-Taj in Nepal where he studies under the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), who teaches him the ways of magic and alternate realities. With new skills of interdimensional travel and spells, Strange soon discovers that he must protect the world from a deadly enemy who is out to destroy it.
Review
This film is not related to the 1978 TV movie Dr. Strange, which I have seen or the direct to DVD animated movie that I do own but have not seen.
Now about the actual movie, it's pretty great, actually. What I want to talk about first are the special effects, they are some of the best in the entire MCU. I saw this in theaters when it came out and I regret not seeing it in 3D, but it was good enough. The action is really good in here too when they bend reality and it really gives us some creative fighting scenes.
Some of the best effects are when Doctor Strange bargains with Dormammu in the Dark Dimension and he starts a time loop with the Eye of Agamotto, an Infinity Stone used for time manipulation, or just the Time Stone for short. That scene kinda reminded me of Groundhog Day.
This introduced a character than pretty much only comic book fans knew and made him mainstream, like Iron Man and Ant-Man did. Before I knew this movie was coming out I had no idea who Doctor Strange was, as I had just gotten into comics a few months prior.
One of my favorite parts is the mid-credits scene with Doctor Strange and Thor. When I first saw that I had no idea Thor was in this.
Another one of my favorite parts is when The Ancient One sends Stephen into his astral body and he goes through the multiverse and then she kicks him out of the building, but she lets him back in after five hours.
The battle in Hong Kong is really good too.
There's lots of cool parts that I can't list them all, but there are a couple negatives I want to touch on. A usual negative for MCU movies is a lackluster villain. Kaicillius has some intimidating parts and he looks cool, but he's another typical Marvel movie villain.
Another issue is the pacing, some parts it's good, some parts it's a bit fast, and in some parts it's a bit too slow.
Let's talk about the characters. Benedict Cumberbatch is great as Doctor Strange, he's kinda like a magic Tony Stark, starts off as a stuck-up, somewhat narcissistic rich guy, but he becomes more likable over the movie. He does have funny parts, such as when he was using the portals to grab books when Wong (Benedict Wong) wasn't looking, and his moments with the Cloak of Levitation. But yeah, Benedict Cumberbatch is great as Doctor Strange.
Tilda Swinton is really good as the Ancient One, Strange's mentor. She even traps him on Mount Everest so he could open a portal back to Nepal. I really liked her final scene with Stephen, when they're both in their Astral forms in the emergency room and then they go out onto a balcony, she holds his hand, gives a speech, and then just fades away. That's a really good scene.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is good as Karl, another mentor to Stephen. One of my favorite jokes with him is when he hands Stephen a piece of paper and says it's the Wi-Fi password. They're not savages. At the end, when he learns that the Ancient One got her immortality from the Dark Dimension, he decides to leave his fellow sorcerers.
Rachel McAdams and Benedict Wong were good but I can't think of much to say about them.
Overall, Doctor Strange is a fun and very different entry in the MCU, yeah it's's got a rather generic villain and the pacing is off in some parts, but it's still really good.
Doctor Strange gets a 9/10.
Come back tomorrow for a review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Previous review - Ant-Man
Next review - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
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