As many of you I wasn't really familiar with Doctor Strange when the movie was first announced, so I started reading up on him and became more and more excited when footage was released. (really who even knew who Ronan or Thanos were before the movies)
This is also something that bugged me a bit though, Doctor Strange's marketing was a bit much for my liking, we got over more than 40 TV-spots and 3 trailers for this movie. Given that the movie itself didn't have a big run-time I thought this was a bit much.
So let's get started with the review:
2016 was not a good year for ComicBook movies, only Civil War and Deadpool lived up to people's expectations, while BvS, X-men and Suicide Squad were terrible.
So I had mixed feelings about this movie, is this something we need? is this movie going to be succesful?
Those doubts clouded my anticipation for this movie, mainly because of the let down Batman v Superman was, I had such high hopes for that movie that it totally distraught me when it tanked.
I have seen this movie as adviced in IMAX-3D, if you had any doubts of doing so, don't it's an amazing visual feast.
There are alot of problems with this movie, especially around the villain side of it.
Dormmamu was a big pressence in this movie, it really was just about stopping Kaecillius fr
om bringing him to Earth, it was just a flat-out lame villain, I mean Mads Mikkelsen is an amazing actor, why give him such a lame point of view? He wants to live forever, and he beleaves Dormmamu will bring it to him.
That's it, that's the whole point of his character, it is beginning to feel like Marvel doesn't even care to try with their villains anymore.
Sure he had some cool fighting skills and was somewhat funny, but the whole thing about a good villain is the ability to feel for him or her. I didn't care at all about his demise, he didn't even had the effect of me hating him for wanting to bring the Dark Dimension to Earth.
Still after 14 MCU movies, Loki is still the only villain that's good, and that is really worrying, because Thanos is on his way and they sure as hel should do him justice or their entire universe was all for nothing. Building this universe since 2008 all down the drain because Marvel lacks the ability to do villains justice. I still have my hopes up because of Josh Brolin but godamn the foresights are not looking good.
Now back to the movie, I actually did like it.
The visuals are indeed epic, the character-arcs for Stephen, Mordo and The Ancient One were really interesting and good.
The reports about Christine Palmer being wasted aren't entirely true, she was in more than 5 scenes and she had plenty of screen-time and really was a comic relief (as was Wong), but what I liked most about her is that she and Strange have a good chemistry, sure I would like Clea to be his love interest, but I wouldn't mind if he ended up with her.
The first act of the movie was terrific, the movie begins good with introducing us to Kaecillius and the Ancient One.
Stephen Strange was basically mimicking Doctor House at the beginning of the movie, something I didn't mind but what did bugged me is that I at first just saw Sherlock playing a doctor.
That feeling stopped when he went started to learn his magic tricks.
The final battle was okay at best, I never felt that he was in real danger from Kaecillius, but when he went to the dark dimension I thought wow this looks amazing, now pray to god that they don't waste Dormmamu.
He was a giant face killing strange on a time-loop, which began to become tiresome after three times.
I am not calling death on this villain yet because I've read what Scot Derrickson said about him and what his plans are for the upcoming Doctor Strange sequal. Which does sound interesting, and I think that would work.
Making Mordo the Two-Face of the story good guy turning bad, and Dormmamu the Joker of the sequal (his words not mine).
So in conclusion:
Another succes for Marvel? Sure, I really enjoyed myself while watching this movie, is it the best MCU movie? no, not by a longshot.
The visual effects are Oscar-nomination worthy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Benedict Wong were great in this movie. I like to see more of them in the upcoming movies, especially the Wong and Stephen dynamic was verry funny.
The only real problem was/is are the villains in this movie and some plot-holes. (how much time did Stephen spent in Kathmandu?)
I will rate this movie a 7,3/10.
Leave your thoughts on the movie below!