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Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Madness - NON-SPOILER Review

I love the MCU. I love how integrated the stories are. Having been a comic book collector and lover of that media, I don't always care for the things Marvel or Disney change. Still, I do understand most of these changes based on making something that the general audience will not only understand but actually like as well. I didn't care for Black Widow, The Eternals, or Shang-chi so for me, I wanted, no I needed a film to bring me back to the MCU. We're a few films into phase 4 now, and there doesn't seem to be any real build-up to a "big bad" like Thanos. We've had teasers of big enemies in some of the Marvel shows but nothing concrete yet. Surely we'll see something in the Multiverse of Madness right! Right? Right. About that.

Photo via The Direct

Let's go ahead and say I enjoyed the film, but I didn't love it. I wasn't in awe of the imagery of the Multiverse. I wasn't shocked or taken aback by most of the moments or events within the film. Most of the film was fairly predictable. With a name like Multiverse of Madness, I expected, well, more. I expected to see more of the multiverse, more varients of MCU characters, more locations, more destruction, well, more. I expected madness, like ensuing insanity that is hard to get your head fully around. I expected to walk out of the theatre saying something like "OMG I loved that. What was that? What did I just see?" and that just didn't happen. 

Photo via IMDB

I'll have to do a spoiler-filled review because I can't really talk about my issues with the movie otherwise. It was a fair example of the teacher/student relationship as they conquer all odds. But, that isn't new. That isn't exciting. 

The movie is also being labelled as the MCU's first horror film, and although it certainly has horror elements, it is not a horror movie. The moments are very few and extremely far between. There's only a couple scenes of real suspense. 

I think my largest issue with the movie as a whole was a lack of a sense of urgency. For the first film dealing with the multiverse in its entirety, I expected the stakes to be as high as they ever have been. During Infinity War, you felt what was at stake. You knew what Thanos would do if he got all those stones. In this movie, you were TOLD what COULD happen, but then you are reminded many times that is not the real intention anyway, so the stakes never get higher than a "maybe this could happen if you really squint hard at it". 

Photo via Tech Advisor

I both liked and hated the characterization of Wonda. In a way, her story is beautiful and well constructed, but in a whole other way, her overall MCU story arc was kinda' retconned and dehumanized to a Terminator-like machine obsessed. Her powers are shown, but still lacking in the real intensity that a comic book lover knows the Scarlet Witch has. Since her introduction into the MCU, I have been waiting to see "Wanda unhinged", and I am still waiting. Also, her actual reason for being in the film is a little strange, superficial and out of character for her. That line will make more sense in the spoiler-filled review.

Photo via The Wrap

America Chaves was...ok I guess. I understand that Marvel is likely setting up the Young Avengers with the inclusion of Morgan Stark, Cassie Lang etc in other films and media, but do they need to be prominent roles in every MCU film now? Honestly, I miss the beginning days of the MCU a bit; When the heroes had their movies, and you knew they were tied together, but they were still allowed to be their own movies. Now, most the movies have several cross-over characters and it really takes away from the named movie's hero, in this case, Doctor Strange. To me, America's point to being in the movie was more "Look! Another young star you'll see again in 15 films" and less about her really being needed in the story. She was there to move the plot along as needed but doesn't really do much at all. I lost count of how many scenes there were with America literally just looking on in amazement as the things happen around her. She didn't appear to really have ideas of her own, nor was she ever really given a chance to shine in this. Her arc was weak, and her character was criminally underused.

Photo via IndieWire

Now having said all that, Doctor Strange himself shines in this movie. We have never seen Strange so powerful, except maybe if you watched the ...What If series. His powers are amazing, and his character arc was great. He really had to give up a part of himself in this movie. Sure, there's a few cringe moments and a few eye-roll moments as there always are from Strange, but overall I was very happy with how he was used and how his character developed throughout the film.

Photo via Empire Online

Lastly, let's talk about the director for a minute. Mr Sam Raimi. This is easily a Raimi film. His unique presentation of films is present and accounted for here. If there are elements of horror in the movie, he put them there for sure. Raimi fans will surely pick out the scenes that are almost direct callbacks to some of his early work on Evil Dead, Drag Me To Hell, The Grude etc. His touch is ever-present and it's a blessing. I feel like if someone else was behind the camera, we would have lost the few, but absolutely amazing scenes we got in the movie.

Photo via TheThings

Overall, I liked it, it was great. But it wasn't amazing. The film did do the job of getting me excited for what's to come again. It hit some of the notes I expected and wanted, but left out a whole lot that I thought they could do. I just left feeling like there was so much more that could have been done. Like someone somewhere said "Oh no, no, no. You can't use all that." Unfortunately, the choice was likely made to leave a lot out so that more movies can be made towards the grand finale again, which is Marvel's way of doing things certainly. 


Overall score: 7 out of 10 stars

Pros:
- The Raimi touches of horror are excellent.
- The film's humour was spot on for MCU. Plenty of it, but not overwhelming. 
- Doctor Strange shows why he is the master of the mystic arts.

Cons:
- For a film titled The Multiverse of Madness, it's not very mad or multi.
- Most character developments were bland at best and others were just not well done.
- Weak horror elements.
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