Doctor Strange Movie Review
Doctor Strange Review – Jack Fitzpatrick
Being the Marvel fan (ugh… boy) that I am I just had to see the studios latest installment into the franchise as soon as I possibly could. And I did. So here I am on day one of its release writing this review of “Doctor Strange.” And still I remain a perfectly happy fan – I didn’t fall absolutely in love with the film, but it is pretty damn enjoyable – at least for some geek like me.
So “Doctor Strange” tells the story of … Well ‘Doctor Strange.’ The film establishes Doctor Stephen Strange as a respectably successful surgeon – the best of his kind in fact. And to the core as a person he is presented as a bit of a smart-ass while remaining extremely intelligent and engaging. In a way he feels like a person that deserves your attention all while possessing some unlikable qualities such as his strong scent of arrogance. Early in the film however he experiences a severe accident resulting in his hands becoming rendered useless. For him, this means that he cannot work as a doctor anymore – he cannot save people anymore and most of all he cannot be the best anymore. Desperately he attempts to do all that he can to get the motor skills in his hands back and soon learns of a sort of experimental treatment in which he must travel the world to do. While there he learns of a metaphysical world beyond our own in which alternate dimensions belong and the mystical arts of conflict are performed. – uh you know … Magic and whatnot. From here he decides to become his own version of a superhero; Doctor Strange.
So yes, the movie is another superhero origin story, however suitably so. Telling the origins of a character such as Strange feels like a fitting choice and I think that the film was all the better for it. I myself, was not too familiar with the character before seeing his self-titled film, other than his guest appearances in other character’s comics here and there. So there is no doubt that others who are less into comic books and superheroes would be at a loss when it comes to who this character is. And hey, it turns out that as a character, “Doctor Strange” is actually pretty damn cool.
From my knowledge Benedict Cumberbatch embodies the role extremely well. He certainly looks the part, and as a character he manages to be fairly likable, in the same vein as others in this universe such as Tony Stark. Though he perhaps does lack some of that charm presented by Robert Downey Junior, this is ‘Strange’s’ first go at it all and I believe that he’ll soon grow into both a beloved as well as quite a central character in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe.” The rest of the cast also all do great jobs in their roles, especially when speaking of Tilda Swinton playing someone simply known as The Ancient One as well as Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo who was probably my favorite character in the film.
Through ‘Strange,’ the MCU yet again is expanded onto another level. The ‘rules’ are now a little different and the interactivity of the films in the franchise can yet again become even just a little bit stronger. “Doctor Strange” uses its potential well here and in this way, consistently shows off what can be done in terms of possibility. The introduction to mysticism in the MCU feels far from a wasted opportunity, and I think “Doctor Strange” presents just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ when it comes to the where the franchise as a whole could be headed.
That being said we do get to see some very interesting, original and gorgeous imagery throughout this film. You might even say that the visuals offered throughout are… STRANGE. (Oh god, somebody please stop me.) I was constantly impressed by the attention to detail regarding the way that the world within the film worked as well as by the general scenery. “Doctor Strange” presents its audiences with an array of scenes each bringing something new to the MCU. Things such as these world bending abilities that the characters possess, allowing them to manipulate the environments around them as well as the skill to conjure teleportation entrances, alter time and space and generally use magic in creative and original ways. “Doctor Strange” delves heavily into this world of fantasy, more so than we’ve ever seen before by a Marvel property, matched only maybe by “Thor.” I would argue though, that this film takes it one step further than ‘Thor’ ever has.
That being said “Doctor Strange” certainly sends off some familiar vibes. The movie feels a bit like “Inception,” It feels a bit like “The Matrix,” and it also feels a bit like “Ironman,” And you guessed it; It feels a bit like “Thor.” And while never being quite as mind-blowing as some of those films, “Doctor Strange” certainly holds up in their path. The movie feels like an epic, it feels like a story with importance. And while watching, it really does feel like a larger universe beyond our own. The elements of Science fiction and fantasy mix together well as “Doctor Strange” tells its enjoyable tale of spirituality and heroism.
It does take a while to get to that point though… The film begins off slow and at first “Doctor Strange” kind of doesn’t even feel like it fits in with the other Marvel films. It’s much more serious, feels quite mature and is rather slow. However I am not saying this in a negative way at all, the first third of the film feels more like a heavy drama and I think this was a smart move. It eases unfamiliar audiences in to the world of Marvel and magic. It also gives us a realistic insight in to who the character is as a person before he embarks on his super-heroic journey. The only flaw that I would say about the film is that while this is going on and it gets into its second act as he begins to learn the ways of sorcery, ‘Strange’s’ progression soon begins to feel a just a little bit rushed. In this way the movie does feel a little more like a ‘highlight reel’ of ‘Stange’s’ life. It feels more like we are looking in from the outside in an impersonal fashion rather than in close quarters such as in other MCU films such the “Captain America” titles. This however, is understandable as the story that is being told is quite an ambitiously large one for a film running just under two hours.
Another problem that I do have with the film though is unfortunately its villain. Marvel proves yet again that they either aren’t too good at presenting a strong villain or maybe just aren’t very concerned it. The writing is a little better this time around over some of the efforts of the past such as uh… “Blue guy” from “Thor; The Dark World,” however this is still far from the most compelling villain I’ve ever seen. His motivations are intriguing yet vague and the character comes off as a worthy foe yet lacks much personality. And this feels particularly wasted when considering the efforts of Mads Mikkelsen being behind it all in this case, who does bring some strength to the character along with a minimal but enjoyable amount of humanity along with a bit of humor. He is more interesting than some of the other villains of the MCU… but not by too much.
Something that I definitely do love about “Doctor Strange” though is that it’s definitely yet again, another Marvel entry which has its own style and is part of its own genre apart from the other films. It’s different enough to be considered refreshing, yet familiar enough to comfortably belong to the cinematic universe.
I really do have to mention though that the film uses something that I particularly loathe when it comes to films revolving around magic and spiritual powers and the sort; And that is the inherent idea of ‘not being powerful enough or not believing enough yet’ so the character can’t obtain their goal – But then trying harder to believe in themselves or whatever and now supposedly they are good enough to do that thing all of a sudden. This is a problem since the idea of magic is obviously a thing of fiction, so we as real people can’t really compare to the efforts that things like this would actually take. So when the character finally completes their task, or defeats their enemy or whatever else we can’t really understand what it is that they did differently other than ‘believing in themselves’ a little harder. And maybe it’s just me personally, but things like this come across as really convenient and I begin to call bullshit. This is also a gateway into another problem being that the film is sometimes too far removed from our own non-fictional experiences that it can become hard to relate. In a weird way, films like that can be sort of alienating when it came to this. “Doctor Strange” does manage to avoid using this sort of thing too much though and instead Stephen Strange presents us with hints of humanity, we learn about everything as he does and the ‘fish-out-of-water’ introduction does work here as he is introduced to this world as we are. He also uses his other abilities in conflict such as out-smarting his opponents as well as just generally taking them on physically rather than simply being ‘destined for greatness’ or some other highly convenient reason.
“Doctor Strange” is a fun film with enough new to keep you interested, presents some fantastic stunt work and visual imagery and successfully tells its character’s story in a way that comes off as naturalistic and enjoyable. The movie didn’t have a great villain and could sometimes feel rushed, but overall “Doctor Strange” is pretty great. Marvel proves once again that they’re capable of making some great superhero relevant content. It’s not the best superhero film – not even of the year – but it is also far, far from the worst. “Doctor Strange” fits right in despite its differences and I look forward to what the character will bring to the franchise in upcoming films.
8.25 / 10
