After Spider-Man: No Way Home, I think it's fair to say that almost everyone's most anticipated upcoming Marvel movie was Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The former gave us a taste of the possibilities of different Marvel universes colliding on the big screen, and the latter looked as if it was going to go even further and take this series into new, even stranger territory.
In the film, Doctor Strange must help protect a young girl capable of travelling between universes throughout the vast multiverse from the dark forces that seek to acquire her ability, namely Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch. That's all I'll say about plot here, I won't be going into spoilers in this review. Any other plot points I mention are things that have been revealed in trailers. But, if you're being extra cautious, I suggest you don't read ahead anyway.
Having seen the film, I'm both relieved at how it ended up, but also slightly underwhelmed. Although I was excited for it, I still had some concerns. I was worried that the film would descend into nothing but cool cameos and crazy visuals for no reason other than for their own sake, and that there'd be no substance to it. That and the film's production of being rewritten to take place after No Way Home and also having reshoots over a considerable period of time indicated that it may turn out to be a bit of a hodgepodge. Luckily, none of this was true. It feels mostly coherent, and although it does have cameos and bonkers visuals, both of which were cool in their inclusions, it prioritises telling a story focused on the characters at the centre of it more so than just exploiting all the substanceless possibilities. This was a relief.
However, even though this is the case, I think the story was a little misguided. I really wish the film did more with the character of Strange himself. I like him very much and Benedict Cumberbatch is great in the role, but he hasn't really experienced much growth or change over the course of all the films he's appeared in since his origin story. In this film, the perfect opportunity for such presents itself, as Strange's pragmatic / logical mindset that we're all familiar with is challenged as he begins to care more for the people in his life, as represented by a recurring "are you happy?" line. That's an interesting arc for him to go through, the film didn't do much to flesh this out and expose his emotional / vulnerable side, which we haven't seen any of aside from that one episode of What If...? What makes this worse is that the film gives more attention to Wanda and how she changes over the course of the narrative. She has very interesting development for sure, but she had a whole TV show where her grief and inner struggles were explored in great depth, so it feels quite frustrating that she's being given the most amount of focus here, especially when considering this is Strange's movie and there's much that could be done with him.
This would also be beneficial for boosting the horror aspects of the film. One I really liked about Multiverse of Madness was how boundary pushing and audacious it felt. This feels like a horror film within an MCU superhero film, thanks in no small part to director Sam Raimi at the helm, whose distinct presence was certainly detectable. There are things that occur in this film that are gruesome, as well as things that are very unsettling. However, that being said, this is the aspect of the film that felt underwhelming. Although I did admire how far the film went from a horror standpoint, I feel they could have gone even further. We see a lot of nightmarish things in the film, but I don't think the full implications of them were explored with the necessary depth. This could've easily been done if the film took a more psychological approach to the character of Strange. For example, at one point he is confronted by an alternate version of himself, who was responsible for bringing an entire universe to ruin, and the film barely scratches the surface regarding just how terrifying that must be for him. Have you ever thought about just how scary it would be to meet a version of yourself that lost everything? It's quite a big, horrifying idea, and I wish the film did more to properly let the impact sink in because there's a lot of potential themes and drama that could be derived from it.
Okay, so the film seems to have its focus in the wrong place and it doesn't go all out with its horrific side as much as it could have. Does that mean it's bad? Absolutely not. Regardless of my issues, the film is still largely enjoyable. While I don't think it went quite as far as it could have from a horror perspective, it certainly ticked all the boxes in terms of being a solid MCU offering. The action is great, a lot of it being just as good as the last Doctor Strange film, but some of it was truly excellent. There's a fight between two characters that involves them using musical notes and it was just unbelievably creative. Additionally, as alluded to earlier, it is more brutal than your average entry in this series, with characters getting killed in extreme ways, characters covered in blood, and more, which I really liked. The visuals in the film were also terrific, bringing the variety of mind-bending worlds across the multiverse to life very successfully.
Also, with the MCU films being largely character-driven pieces, the characters were all great as usual. As I said, Strange is still terrific, and the new side of Wanda is very intimidating. As for everyone else, namely Wong, Mordo, Christine, newcomer America Chavez, and all the exciting suprise appearances, they all worked very well too. Some could've been given a bit more depth, especially America, who unfortunately feels like a plot device more than a character at times, but they were all solid nonetheless.
Overall, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness feels like its being held back a little and is also somewhat misguided in its narrative, but there's still plenty on offer. It has everything you'd want to see from an MCU film, and much that you perhaps wouldn't expect, admirably so.
I'm going to give Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness an 8.0/10
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