Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness may be a shameful name for the second Dr. Strange picture, but it’s a fantastic title in its own right, promising pulp-fiction excitement and midnight-movie wackiness. The movie, fortunately, delivers on that promise.
With all due respect to the visually stunning psychedelic effects in the first Doctor Strange film, which was released more than five years ago, the screenplay stayed true to what was then considered standard fare for the studio, in that it told the origin story of an arrogant white man who acquires his abilities and then defeats a forgettable bad guy. While the sequel is a completely different story, it initially appears to be rather familiar.
Beginning with Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), a prominent neurosurgeon who has transformed into a Master of the Mystic Arts, attending Christine Palmer’s (Rachel McAdams) wedding and realising that, had he not been so arrogant, she may have chosen him as her husband. A huge one-eyed octopus monster is following after a young woman named America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) through the streets of Manhattan, and he suddenly finds himself in a hurry to get to the bottom of things.
Strange and his companion sorcerer, Wong (Benedict Wong), are shocked when America informs them that she is from another universe during a crazy, tentacle-lopping fight sequence. In reality, she possesses the ability to travel between different realities, which explains why the creature was chasing her down the street.
Its demonic lord desires to seize control of America so that it can rule not just one reality, but every reality that exists on the planet. This demon can only be defeated by tracking down the most powerful spellbook on the planet, which is why Strange contacts the one magic-wielding character who might be able to assist him, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) from the Avengers. As is customary in these situations, the journey begins.
Despite the fact that there is plenty of CGI-dependent action to enjoy, the film does not appear to be essential viewing for anyone other than diehard Marvel fans for a while. Because it follows directly on from the events of WandaVision and the What If…? television series on Disney+, it’s tough to understand why it wasn’t also a television series on Disney Plus.
Slowly but steadily, though, the film becomes stranger, sillier, more emotional, and more imaginative, with more ludicrous jokes and even more macabre shocks thrown in for good measure. In other words, it becomes clear that Sam Raimi is behind the camera.
A special mention should be made of the scriptwriter, Michael Waldron, who has woven together an enormously convoluted yet fairly understandable plot involving dimension-jumping. He has given McAdams and Wong significantly more to do in this film than they did in the previous Doctor Strange film, and he has inserted a slew of massive surprises that the company has managed to keep under wraps. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, on the other hand, feels like a Raimi production from start to finish.
It’s possible that it’s the Raimi project. When he directed Tobey Maguire in the Spider-Man trilogy, his admiration for Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s superhero comics was evident, and same nerdy affection shines even brighter than before in this film. And, of course, he’s the filmmaker of The Evil Dead trilogy and Drag Me to Hell, and he doesn’t hold back when it comes to delivering ludicrous horror-comedy horrors.
Final product is a strange journey that includes tender-hearted zombies, a green-furred minotaur, an armour made of the souls of damned, and a duel fought entirely with musical notes. Raimi hasn’t released a new film since 2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful, so it’s possible that he poured all of the strangest ideas he’d had over the previous decade into this project.
Yes, it is still a Marvel blockbuster that meets all of the prerequisites of a Marvel blockbuster and that expects its viewers to have a working understanding of all of the Marvel blockbusters that have come before it in the Marvel franchise. In addition to that, it’s as delightfully absurd as any independent cult film – and there’s no way Raimi could have done anything like that without Marvel’s support and assistance in setting the stage. It is possible that some people will dismiss the film as nonsense, and they may be correct. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, on the other hand, is a tremendous amount of fun.
Aside from that, the film’s popularity isn’t entirely based on the director’s contagious excitement for genre thrills. Underneath the huge walking statues and the strange squids, the prickly Strange and the depressed Wanda can be seen peering into alternate realms where they are happier, and wondering whether they would ever be able to experience such happiness in their own. Cumberbatch and Olsen provide such heartfelt performances in the calmer passages that you feel about the individuals who are caught in the centre of all the synthetic effects. Raimi and his colleagues have created a kind of sorcery of their own in the process.
Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness will be released on May 5th in the United Kingdom and May 6th in the United States.
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