Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

“The most horror Marvel movie” tag is about as meaningful as “the hottest ice-cream”. Sure, the second Doctor Strange isn't as funny as, say, the latest Thor or Guardians of the Galaxy, but it won’t make your stomach churn, so to speak. While there is a Sam Raimi feel to it at times, I personally was hoping for a wilder, bolder, and well, crazier ride with a film subtitled "in the multiverse of madness", but it sticks within the safe confines of harmless fun and classic Marvel template. And it's a shame, because the potential was immeasurable and for the first time in a while Marvel could have operated with a non-generic "new" villain (clearly the film's strongest point). On a scene-by-scene level, it's occasionally great (Raimi's directorial input), too bad it's not supported by a more polished script. (05/06/2022)

With great power comes great responsibility and with almost unlimited power comes ... MADNESS! The new Doctor Strange could have been made in pretty much any way given the storylines in the recent MCU films and the central character's abilities, and I was curious to see how Sam Raimi, creator of Spider-Man as well as cult horror films, would handle it. The film is not lacking in some decent scares, imaginative scenes (a "musical fight" like in Scott Pilgrim) and creepy characters, yet Raimi could have easily pushed the envelope further, as some of the characters were dispatched out of frame in a grimly manner. The multiverse also certainly had more potential, on the other hand, the film fortunately didn't become an outright mess. The newcomer America was more rather bland, but I enjoyed more than one cameo, which the film was brimming with. The first end-credit scene brought another Oscar-winning actress into the MCU, though I wonder if it wasn’t a "one-off". It's not a pure four stars, but I was entertained in the cinema for the full two hours, and that's what counts. (05/08/2022)

Of all the Marvel superheroes, Doctor Strange has the most potential for visually wild and appealing films. Filmmakers can get awfully crazy, and especially now that Strange is supposed to travel to other worlds and universes and where everything was once again based on magic, so the boundaries of normalcy were pushed a lot further than, say, in Black Widow. In that respect, there's nothing to fault in the Multiverse of Madness. Sam Raimi enjoyed his return to blockbusters and, unexpectedly, Kevin Feige allowed him to be his typical self. There are a few horror and scary moments, references to the visual style of the first Spider-Man and even Evil Dead, and it's nice to watch. The trouble is that there's not much interesting stuff going on. The story this time around is fairly banal, the characters uninteresting, and the whole time I felt like there was a missing minute here or there where it could slow down and go a bit more in-depth. I didn't get the sense that the universe was at stake or that Strange himself had to undergo some major transformation. It's simply a nice attraction, but it wraps up a not very interesting plot. It should have been better. (05/04/2022)

I'd say the new Doctor Strange film is extremely big-headed, in every way. Ever since the announcement, they've been trying to promote how groundbreaking it will be by making it the first "Marvel horror movie", but holy crap, I have no idea why they would even want to say that. Overall, I have mixed feelings because the bad wasn't outright bad, but the negatives probably outweigh the positives, and I simply can't be fully satisfied. A lot of things don't make sense, and they break the rules as they see fit (one minute the main villain has a problem with several apprentices, and then the next minute she's crushing the most powerful five heroes // nonsensical use of abilities // in one scene she's flying and in another she's limping slowly, but she just won't use flying - and these are just a few of the many glaring things). There's no time for dialogue, and no time for emotion, so there's a rushed jumping from scene to scene with only terse sentences that just come across as awful, and in a field of only two hours, the film is just insanely rushed and would have been better suited to a slower series. Motivations and character development are leaps and bounds transformations that don't feel consistent and the multiverse itself is also without rules, allowing the filmmakers to do and make up whatever they want, from all sorts of new variations on old characters to bizarre worlds to comically laugh-inducing scenes in the cinema. In the end, it's just a terribly weird-looking affair that still has its quality, but when I ask myself "Where have we come since The Avengers?", I find that I've grown very uncomfortable with the MCU's development, and it looks like it's heading into a very big mess that's going to be very hard to climb out of. (05/08/2022)

Somewhere in the multiverse, there's a better movie version of Doctor Strange. Marvel is fading and you can feel it. Spiderman was still a cool coda for the Avengers), but Black Widow and The Eternals are just mediocre concoctions in my opinion, and so far it doesn't look like it's going to get better in the future. In contrast hand DC with Suicide Squad 2 and The Batman are on a better path. Personally I wasn't too happy with the first Doctor Strange either and was hoping the second would grab me more due to the horror feel and multiverse madness. It's a hair better, but as a whole still not entirely satisfying. The performances are fine, Benedict Cumberbatch does his thing, Elizabeth Olsen is probably the best thing about the film, and the new character of America Chavez unfortunately didn't impress me much. Visually the film is without a doubt solid (although some of the CGI craziness was a bit not- so eye candy for me), the action again is not much but it is shot decently (the duel with the music was very original and imaginative, the Illuminati, the opening fight with the demon and the jump through different worlds was visually great). The humor is completely absent and the cameos seemed a bit unnecessary. In a few scenes you could even tell that Sam Raimi was directing the film (references to Evil Dead, the demon scene, a couple of jump-scares and one badass action sequence). Story-wise, the film doesn't have much to surprise, it lacks proper fatality and the MCU is not really moving anywhere unfortunately. Personally, I was hoping for more insanity in the multiverse, it's surprisingly not used that often and when it is it only gets interesting towards the end. I have nothing downright bad against the film, I enjoyed it, it goes by quickly, but I have no desire to watch it again. The trailer for Avatar 2, however, is amazing Story 3/5. Action 4/5, Humor 1/5, Violence 2/5, Fun 4/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 3/5, Emotion 2/5, Actors 4/5. 6/10. (05/05/2022)