After thirty-four entries into the Marvel Cinematic Universe has the gigantic franchise begun to lose its way? With the newest entry, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Marvel is beginning to feel confusing to even the most veteran of viewers. Gone are the days of direct sequels and instead we are left with films that require homework before you go see them. To fully understand this film you need to be familiar with Doctor Strange, the last two Avengers movies, the newest Spider-man film, and a couple of Disney Plus shows. This is franchised storytelling at its finest.
The first few phases of the MCU were tied with a common thread and overarching story, here we watching new entries unsure of if they tie in or not, and then find that something from a TV show a year and a half ago provides the crucial backstory to the film’s villain. Being a fan of the MCU and finding it to be mostly enjoyable escapism, even I’m starting to feel the fatigue of trying to remember the increasingly more complicated plot points. This isn’t to say that this film is bad, it’s mostly fun but just complex and not in a good way.
Director Sam Raimi (from the Tobey Spider-man films) returns to superheroes and his horror roots here. His directing allows this film to stand out and not succumb to franchise expectations because he is allowed to put as much of his own stamp on it as he can. While it doesn’t feel as Raimi of a film as Spider-man 2, Madness is able to feel different than say Captain America: The Winter Solider or even the first Doctor Strange. There are a few of Raimi’s famous whip pans, montage sequences, and Danny Elfman stingers to make you remember you’re watching a Raimi film. What helps this movie stand out the most though is the horror elements.
I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a horror film but it’s definitely flirting pretty heavy with the genre. There are enough jumps scares, ghosts, zombies, and body horror to maybe scare off some of the younger viewers but delight those who wish for a bit of darker tone. While the film is darker it still sits within the Marvel machine and won’t make anything too heavy. There is still the issue where Marvel won’t allow big emotional moments to land because they have to make a joke.
That doesn’t stop them from trying though and here they try to give the titular hero his own arc. The question becomes is Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) happy? This is a man who bears the weight of giving the time stone to Thanos and allowing half the universe to be dusted for five years. (If you didn’t understand that sentence this is not the movie for you.) It was nice to see Strange actually having to deal with the consequences of his actions but it came at the price of losing emotional stakes or believability with the other characters.
Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) is a borderline one-dimensional and reduced to a single character motivation. Rachel McAdams’ character of Christine Palmer feels a little more developed in this one but her relationship with Strange is hard to be invested in due to her being reduced to just the love interest in the first one. Sadly, one of the most exciting new additions, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), is basically a living McGuffin.
There is still a lot of fun to be had in this Multiverse, and I won’t spoil any of it here, and when the action gets going it can be thrilling. There are moments where you can’t believe they put something so weird and comic book niche on screen. Something that seemed impossible back in the infancy of the genre, when the general audiences might not accept multiverses, magic, and gods in their superhero films. But if you think about these moments too hard they do begin to make less and less sense.
Overall Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a good time, but it’s hard to look past some of its messy flaws with storytelling, and character beats. It’s a good but not great entry into the Marvel cinematic universe and I truly hope they give Sam Raimi the keys to the castle for the next go around.
3/5
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Directed by Sam Raimi
Written by Michael Waldron
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, and Rachel McAdams
In Theaters Everywhere May 6th