| Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) | |
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Rating: 6.9/10 (477,632 votes) Director: Sam Raimi Writer: Michael Waldron, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor Runtime: 126 min Rated: PG-13 Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy Released: 06 May 2022 |
| Plot: Doctor Strange teams up with a mysterious teenage girl who can travel across multiverses, to battle other-universe versions of himself which threaten to wipe out the multiverse. They seek help from the Scarlet Witch, Wong and others. | |
Multiverse of Madness certainly had a lot to live up to. After the cross-dimensional antics seen in No Way Home, audience expectation for this outing went through the roof. Multiple leaks and scoops online, with cameos revealed and hints at what to expect have built this film up in people’s minds to a level that, to be honest, it could never live up to. Thus, when audiences anxiously anticipating certain leaked cameos find that they were foolish for actually believing the click-bait reports of the past month, it is quite easy to see why some folk may feel let down somewhat by the end result. But, and this is important, just because a film isn’t what you expected it to be doesn’t make it a bad film.
Starting pretty swiftly, the Doctor Strange sequel makes no attempt to pander to anyone not versed in the MCU lore so far, and so if you haven’t seen the first Doctor Strange film, No Way Home, and Wandavision in particular, get ready to be a little lost. Opening with Strange (of sorts) and America Chavez, who holds some power that could destroy the multiverse, we swiftly move to a wedding, which is interrupted when a dimensional entity terrorised the streets in pursuit of Amerca, which is where Strange gets involved, and begins a quest to help her. That’s as far as I can really go without dropping really huge spoilers, and so I won’t describe anything else expect to say what follows is a frenetically paced rollercoaster ride of a film that never lets up, and rapidly throws us through encounter after encounter. With barely a moment to breathe until the final confrontation, it is quite easy to get lost in the muddled confusion of mayhem on screen, which sadly seems to bury the emotional core of Strange trying to come to terms with how his powers prevent him from being close to someone, whilst at the same time he has to decide whether he should help one person and put the multiverse at risk, or is it more noble to sacrifice one to save the many.
Sam Raimi is directing, and it shows. The film is packed with his stylings, from skewed camera angles, to zip-pans, to horror themes – yes, this film taps into the darker edges of the MCU, albeit at a 12A level (but let’s not forget that films such as Woman In Black showed that horror doesn’t have to be high rated). No, there isn’t blood and gore, but there is a few moments of, shall we say charred and screaming folk, as well as death, and undeath on screen. There is also a lot of energetic fun, and many “blink and you will miss it” moments. Not forgetting, a Danny Elfman score which taps into a fair few nostalgic moments (and reportedly some reused Justice League moments – tut tut).
But, the energy and pace is the problem. As we know this is a surprisingly short entry in the MCU, coming in a around 2 hours and 6 minutes with credits. Leaving the showing I couldn’t help but feel it needed to be longer – not to pack more in, but to slow it down a little and allow the film room to breathe, and the audience time to care more. As mentioned the emotional aspects are kind of buried in the pure frenzied action of the film, with us not really getting a feel for Chavez in particular, who comes off as a human shaped Macguffin as a result.
But it is fun. In fact, I had the same amount of fun with this as I had with the first Doctor Strange film. Yes, some of the rumours and leaks were so far off the mark it was almost funny, but there are certainly some nice surprises involved. There are also some sterling performances on display, and at least one scene that is packed with fanboy moments that should please many. But, that’s all it is – fun – when it feels like it could have been much more. Being released so close to No Way Home makes this film pale in comparison, even though it does actually do a lot more than that film did.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is a mid-level MCU film, which is maybe enough for an exciting visual treat at the cinema.
