Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 2022

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

“Just because someone stumbles and loses their way doesn't mean they're lost forever.” - Charles Xavier

Oh boy, when I heard that Marvel had somehow convinced Sam Raimi to direct another superhero film after the Spider-Man trilogy and that this one would be scarier and more gruesome than anything else that has ever been seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I would be lying if I said I was not thrilled about it. I was sure this film would be my favourite project in Phase 4 thus far.

So, did it live up to the expectations I had for it? To some extent

A great deal has occurred since the first Doctor Strange film in 2016. The Third Phase of the MCU concluded, which in my opinion, was the phase with the most significant level of quality and showcased the most ingenuity. It will always be a challenge to surpass. Along the way, we've lost several of our favourite heroes, and new ones are currently being fostered to take up their mantle.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) brand is no longer just another film franchise since, as a result of the release of Disney+, both their popularity and the amount of material they produce have skyrocketed.

Considering these factors, we'll better understand why certain decisions were made and how the MCU has evolved since the first Doctor Strange film.

And thus, here we are, with the second instalment of Doctor Strange. The movie begins with Doctor Strange fleeing from a fire demon in a dreamlike cosmic realm. Later, he meets America Chavez, portrayed by Xochitl Gomez but does not have a discernible personality; more on her later. Chavez also has the power to travel through the multi-verse.

Along the way, Strange navigates across several universes, comes into contact with many other Marvel characters, and engages in duels with some of them. Oh, and did I mention there is a stunning fight sequence with music and magic. (Seriously, it's excellent)

Unfortunately, around the halfway point, it becomes evident this film is more of a stepping stone to other MCU initiatives than a stand-alone impressionable film. I'd even go so far as to say it feels more like a sequel to "WandaVision" than the first Doctor Strange. Then there's the fan service; please spare us, Disney. Fans will be pleased with the many appearances, but it feels overdone now, though expected after the commercial success of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Ultimately, the biggest issue the MCU faces currently is the sheer number of projects at once, and the writing reflects this. It feels like it's trying to lay the foundations for the next phase of his grand franchise plans while simultaneously trying to tie up loose ends from what's come before, but without the required breathing room and what made the previous phase special.

Early in "Multiverse of Madness," Strange and America travel through various universes, including one in which their bodies are comprised of paint and one where everything is 2D. I believed for a second! With Rami's ingenuity, we were finally going to get something fresh from the MCU after what seemed like a slow buildup. To my dismay, I was mistaken since this film seemed uninterested in exploiting that kind of potential. The Mouse has done something counterproductive to avoid alienating any of the average movie-goers. What irritates me even more, is that the film tries to be "strange", but it's rather ordinary. "WandaVision" and "Loki," on the other hand, were more of a risk and better as a result.

While Raimi's distinctive flair may be seen here and there, it never seems to come to fruition. The Multiverse of Madness is an adventure in that it is available for further exploration. In the middle of all this, an intelligent hire like Sam Raimi's seems like a diversion. It might have been a different story if Sam Raimi and Michael Waldron had been allowed the opportunity to develop something truly strange, one that didn't seem like it was virtually directed and written by the studio. But maybe that's where the madness is. Despite this, the film nonetheless manages to provide the blood, gore, and horror that fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been yearning for in the most family-friendly manner possible.

The writing, in my opinion, is what genuinely stifles this film. As soon as I learned Michael Waldron had been hired as the primary writer, I anticipated some of the complexity and character development he brought to Loki to emerge in MOM. Unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to expectations. Waldron, who employed sharp character work in Loki, approaches character development mechanically in MOM. As for Wanda, she has been reduced to a one-dimensional archetypal desperate mother, while in WandaVision, her character had more substance.

With actors like Cumberbatch, Olsen, and McAdams, I'm not sure what the writers were thinking when they came up with the dialogue since it is either severely lacking or just downright atrocious. We're supposed to care about his relationship with Christine Palmer, played by Rachel McAdams, but their relationship feels stale when contrasted with the drama unfolding around them. The performances are further hampered by the poor storyline and lack of depth in the characters' arcs. It's not that Cumberbatch and Olsen don't deserve credit for their performances, but you can't help but feel they are a victim of the writing.

I just wanted to point out several things that I think were either not addressed at all or not addressed adequately, as well as other things that are just downright problematic.

(Spoilers Below) WARNING (Spoilers Below)

Strange is not bothered by the fact that Wanda practically enslaved a whole town and psychologically tortured the inhabitants for weeks on end as long as it seems that she eventually put things right.

How do the kids exist in other universes? Clearly, Vision can't have kids. Did those other Wanda's also use Chaos magic to create themselves kids? If so, then why is alt-Wanda so weak?

Strange's laser circles are so powerful that they can sever a bus in two, yet he cannot remove more than one arm from the octopus for some reason!

Why did she choose to take it easy on Captain Carter and Captain Marvel, the two female heroes, when she killed two strong male heroes in a matter of a few seconds? It's implied she was in a rush.

Wanda says, "If there was a universe where you were happy, wouldn't you want to go there?" but when she dream-walks to another universe and assumes the identity of another Wanda, it's not apparent why that isn't enough for her.

Being a stay-at-home mom in the suburbs is Wanda's ultimate dream. This dream seems even more confining given that Wanda does not have Vision or any indication of the things she wants other than her children. It seems that Wanda has just one ambition: to become a mother. It's her one and only essential need, and if she doesn't get it, she goes insane.

Her lack of interest in finding other universes where Vision is still alive is puzzling. The Westview incident was caused exclusively by her grief over the death of Vision.

How did Wanda manage to eliminate each and every Darkhold that existed throughout all of the universes?

When Wanda eventually learns that indiscriminately murdering people is wrong and that the other Wandas would love "her" children, she collapses a mountain on her head. Ladies and gentlemen, that is Wanda Maximoff's character arc. While seeing this, I can't help but think of the ending of Wonder Woman 1984, and that's not a compliment.

How did Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme, survive the fall?

TL;DR

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is like a lime pickle in that it's not quite sure what it is. It has moments of sparkling inspiration and undeniable creativity, but it's ultimately flawed—another lost opportunity in the shaky fourth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Fan Service? Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Multi-Verse? Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Super-Hero Multi-Verse? Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

This movie employs the same ideas like the three movies I mentioned above, but those movies do a far better job of executing those ideas than this one does.

Rating: 6.8/10

I felt like this was missing something and didn't live up to the full potential it could've. Maybe it was the title, "Multiverse of Madness", maybe it was all the trailers that did a great job misleading us while also spoiling all the best parts of the movie, or maybe I just didn't like how two dimensional they made Wanda after she spent an entire show already learning how her power can hurt people and exposing everyone to her grief. How many times did Wanda need to indirectly quote Thanos before we got the point? "I call that mercy", "They'll never know..." etc.

Overall this has kind of cut down my excitement for phase 4 a bit, and coming from someone who LOVED the infinity saga that hurts and worries me to say. I feel like the movie tries to over simplify things and these were characters that aren't simple. This needed to be deeper. I feel like we needed to see Kang here, even if just for a moment or two. I feel like we needed Loki too. The only trouble with opening the multiverse can of worms is now it REALLY doesn't matter when some of these heroes are getting killed, "Oh that's just Mr Fantastic from 818, this is 6 1 whatever".

It wasn't bad, it just wasn't really good either, and with how much hype they put on it I'm let down. This needed a real villain. It's not that Scarlet Witch didn't make a good villain, it's that I didn't want to see her be one after the journey we've gone on with her, and her doing the right thing in the end doesn't excuse her murdering like a hundred people no matter what universes they were in and her logic was flawed from the start.

And where the F is "real" Mordo?

Every time I go watch a Marvel Movie, I leave the cinema disappointed. Still, I keep returning every now and again, hoping that they don't ruin yet another IP that I genuinely enjoyed in its' first installation. With this movie, the cycle ticks forth once more.

Like many other MCU movies, this is a wild mix of randomly selected heroes that fight each other multiple times over the span of two hours with extreme destruction and chaos everywhere around them. Compared to the first Doctor Strange, this movie has lost most, if not all of the character traits and special design choices that made it unique. There is only one of the iconic "dream sequences" of Strange, and it's completely lackluster. Even Spider-Man FFH had more than this Doctor Strange centered movie! Over the entire length, Strange does very little to progress the plot, as most of the story happens by either side characters or the antagonists.

As many others have stated, this should be another Wanda title, not a Dr. Strange one. She get's more screen time, more character development, more everything. It's honestly a shame.

During the screenplay, my jaw kept dropping at the ridiculousness of the script in general. Maybe I don't get it because I haven't watched every single MCU installation, but the plot points are completely crazy. The whole movie is ridden with plot-holes and straight up stupid writing, both for dialog and general happenings. It felt like a story written by 10-year-olds and then picked up and "marvelized" by grown-ups.

In conclusion: If you're a fan of the complete MCU and understand any and all movies of that whole universe and still like it, you're probably gonna eat this one right up. But for anyone who just enjoys the isolated Dr. Strange IP without the Marvel garbage around it, skip this one. Rewatch the first one or even Spider-Man FFH, as those two show more and better of Strange than new movie even remotely does.

The horror and gore elements in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness added such a fresh vibe to an otherwise stale universe, it would’ve been a perfect Halloween release. :astonished: I wouldn’t be surprised if Sam Raimi took inspiration from The Grudge school of contortionism for Scarlet Witch vs the Mirror Dimension scenes.

I absolutely LOVED the introduction of America Chavez in the MCU. I think she and Strange played off each other really well comedically. I just hope people get behind their dynamic the same way they do for Peter Parker & Iron Man. If the multiverse is going to continue to be prevalent in the next phase of Marvel content, her powers are gonna be so important moving forward.

Elizabeth Olsen ATE. Even though they had conflicting motivations, I loved the overlapping similarities between Wanda & Strange when it came to wielding their powers. Takeaway message: “just because someone stumbles & loses their way doesn’t mean they are lost forever.”

BONUS THOUGHT: If you're like me & hated the last 15 seconds of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the first post credits scene will change your mind. Without spoiling anything, there’s a major character reveal that flipped my irritation into pure excitement. I’m so pumped for what’s next.

For a film taking multiverse at the center stage there surely is a poverty of creative vision what multiverses could be. Other than vaguely green futuristic city and people blotched in pink paint, there's barely any imagination of what other possible worlds may exist out there, e.g., the most obvious, why is America Chavez's sexuality or her parents no different than what we have now? Of course this is MCU film, not Ursula Le Guin's, so shallowness is to be expected...

... but shallowness creeps all over the segment in this film. Characters can't seem to get over one dimensional portrayal: Strange's looming over his ex-wife, Maximoff's obsession with her children, and Chavez's constant uncertainty with her powers. They went across multiverses but couldn't even get across those simplistic characterization when nothing really happens until the eventual climaxes. Characterizations are dull, featuring a lineup of people with different costumes that is only good for merchandizing but is exhibiting nothing more than simplistic "bad" and "good". Characters made dumb decisions, such as the Illuminati and Richard Reed's scene that has been memed to death. Chavez as the spotlight is incredibly bland and boring, serving as nothing more than talking McGuffin that the characters have to grasp.

I do wish the dialogues are just forgettable, but the level of cringe it induces, especially in the grand finale of the film, really made it hard to forget due to how bad it is. The plot is complete bollocks and nonsensical. Rather than a Multiverse of Madness this film feels more like a Scriptwriting of Madness.

Sure Sam Raimi's directorial touch is here and there with some camera panning and transition, but that's all about it. Visually the first Dr. Strange is better, I say. Won't even recommend it even if you have some hours to kill. Only MCU fanatics would consciously watch this one and give it a good rating.

So mid. So very very mid. I'm not sure if it's Marvel fatigue but all of these productions are starting to feel one in the same. Not even Sam Raimi's Evil Dead-esque styling on this one can make it feel any different from the usual superhero schlock that Marvel have been pumping out 4 times a year for the last decade. By introducing the multiverse, Marvel have given themselves a ticket to introduce fan-wank characters for all of 5 minutes, get the applause from the fans and then remove them from existence entirely. That's cool and shocking the first time you do it, but doing it repeatedly and for characters people are actively waiting for, it just gets tiresome and old. Additionally, it loses all weight behind all of the existing characters because now no one can be truly gone.
Iron Man dead? Well, we'll just get another Iron Man from the infinite universes we now have access to. Everyone waiting for the Fantastic Four? What if we bring in the fan-casting front runner, and immediately remove him for a quick 5 minute shock? Wow, great, you sure got me Feige. I truly believe the multiverse introduction was the cinematic equiavalent of the Death of Superman. All weight and stakes are lost because nothing is truly final anymore.

Ramble aside, I think I'm coming to terms with the fact that the MCU ended at Endgame for me. I've tried to stay onboard with the TV shows and all the current entries from the movies, but they're all just so bland and directionless. All they offer is references for fans and the same wink-to-camera humour that Marvel has been riding for a while now. Starting MoM, I was excited to finally have a movie that would play on the consequences of WandaVision and move on from there; instead all the character growth and development from the show is thrown aside and Wanda wants her otherUniverse kids again? So what was the point of the show?! Why did I invest in that show and Wandas journey if, not 5 minutes into this film, you're going to throw it all away? Just horrifically mid, and I'll probably be skipping whatever the MCU throws out for a good while. MoM was just the straw that broke the camels back.

A disappointment? Well, it took me a while to go see this movie and the first negative reviews didn't get to discourage me, they said that the movie escaped from the "Marvel formula" and for me that was great, "Eternals" and "WandaVision" (the first episodes) are, probably my favorite things from this Phase 4 of the MCU, and it's the most disjointed we've seen in the last nearly 12 years at Marvel. “Doctor Strange” is one of my favorite movies exactly because it is different from the others, the visual aesthetics along with the almost hallucinogenic effects, the presentation of the mythology around the character, the way he deals with good and evil, the evolution of Strange… for me it's an almost perfect movie. Already “Multiverse of Madness” I define as confused. The direction here is wonderful, the construction of the scenes is incredible, even the half-movie transitions from the 90s/80s work well, but the script doesn't. The movie really feels from the time, that kind of action movie where everything happens and nothing is happening at the same time, where coincidentally the protagonists are where they should be at the time they should be and in the end everything is resolved with love, or in this case , the willpower of the protagonist.
---- possible spoilers ----
The opening scene is terrible, a lot of action and little information, it left me lost. Then the script accelerates to show where the protagonist is and introduce the new protagonist, which is ends up being poorly done (in addition to the bad choice of casting, seriously, whitewashing in 2022???) and also the villain and his motivations.
In some parts the movie gets stuck and even regresses, as in "oh but we don't care that the most powerful entity in your universe is behind us, the problem here is you, because in this universe you are evil and bla bla bla" or one of the most powerful and unique objects in the universe is neither so powerful nor so unique. In addition to things that are very poorly executed and difficult to swallow. Seriously, the smartest guy in the world would just try to hold back the villain who just killed his teammate? Which, by the way, only died because that genius opened his mouth and handed over his colleague's weakness to the villain. Or "let's stop here halfway even if there's a death-thirsty being behind us" plus other useless scenes made to fill space, like, I really don't care about Strange's romance and how ridiculous a fight of musical notes. The lines are robotic, the villain seems to just try to launch a new viral catchphrase on the internet, the humor is thrown in your face in a way, often unnecessary and out of time. The visual effects are horrible at times and it disconnects you from the movie, the opening scene seems to be taken from “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D”.
[SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!] Wanda (from the main universe) would work much better as a hidden villain who is only "revealed" her intentions at the end (in quotes because anyone who watched "WandaVision" would already suspect).
The main hits are even the horror and violence parts (the scene with the white background and red smoke is a masterpiece), something in fact never seen in Marvel. These are the coolest moments in the movie and if it were fully made like that it would be perfect. It seems to me that they wanted to give Wanda the spotlight and changed a lot of things at the last minute to fit in with the latest happenings in the MCU

Good, mostly
Soooooo --there is a lot about this I really love! I absolutely love Sam Raimi's work & his signature style was threaded all thru this!
I love Dr. Strange and Wanda, they are 2 of my faves! I loved the first Dr. Strange movie & I was eager to see a sequel.

But . . . I dunno. The story was-- weak, frankly. The jump for Wanda from where we left Westview just to full-on super-villain wasn't explained (plus, I was annoyed at the redundancy- like, she's been a Marvel villain before, DUH! She started THERE! She CHANGED and now we just looped her right back around where she started, making ALL her character development disavowed!) Vision was MIA, and we really needed him to be a part of this if the story was gonna focus so much on Wanda. (also, why the hell was it SO MUCH WANDA?? Like, Dr. Strange was sidelined and less interesting in his OWN MOVIE! If you wanted to do a Wanda story, give her HER movie and give Doc Strange something else.)

It just felt lacking to me. The visuals was beautiful and I loved it when it was a fun ride, but it came at cost of good characters.

"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is the 28th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, directed by Sam Raimi. The movie follows Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch) as he travels through different universes to protect America Chavez (Gomez) from the threat of the Scarlet Witch (Olson). The plot is thin and heavily reliant on its visuals, and the character of America Chavez is underdeveloped and serves mostly as a plot device. The performances are generally good, but the movie falls short in its narrative and fails to live up to its potential. Raimi brings his signature style to the film, and it is undoubtedly a Raimi film that happens to exist in the MCU. The visuals are striking, and there are some good horror elements included, but these moments don't add up to much in the overall story. The portal hopping and CGI are lacklustre and at times dull, and the score falls short of what you would expect from an MCU film. The movie does not live up to its title of "Multiverse of Madness" and the different universes depicted are rather mundane, despite Raimi having creative freedom in other aspects of the film. Overall, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is a disappointing sequel that fails to live up to the standard set by the first Doctor Strange film and is uneven, unbalanced, and unfocused.

"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" es la entrada número 28 en Marvel Cinematic Universe, dirigida por Sam Raimi. La película sigue al Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch) mientras viaja a través de diferentes universos para proteger a América Chávez (Gómez) de la amenaza de la Bruja Escarlata (Olson). La trama es delgada y depende en gran medida de sus imágenes, y el personaje de America Chavez está subdesarrollado y sirve principalmente como un dispositivo de trama. Las actuaciones son generalmente buenas, pero la película se queda corta en su narrativa y no está a la altura de su potencial. Raimi aporta su estilo característico a la película y, sin duda, es una película de Raimi que existe en el UCM. Las imágenes son sorprendentes y hay algunos buenos elementos de terror incluidos, pero estos momentos no suman mucho en la historia general. El salto de portal y el CGI son mediocres y, a veces, aburridos, y la puntuación no es lo que esperarías de una película de MCU. La película no está a la altura de su título de "Multiverso de locura" y los diferentes universos representados son bastante mundanos, a pesar de que Raimi tiene libertad creativa en otros aspectos de la película. En general, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" es una secuela decepcionante que no cumple con el estándar establecido por la primera película de Doctor Strange y es desigual, desequilibrada y desenfocada.

“The best surgeon and the best superhero. But you still didn't get the girl.”

‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ feels like two different versions desperately clashing with each other. It’s almost at war with itself. Most of the movie is very much a Sam Rami movie, yet the other half is the usual, self-contained, often safe, Marvel movie, where we didn’t have many multiverses as anticipated, but there was a lot of madness. ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ is an excellent example of delivering a chaotic multi-layered film while still delivering on its title and telling a moving story.

So, despite that little critique at the start, I still liked the movie. As for now, this is probably the best-directed Marvel movie in terms of camera movement, scene transitions, and having so much visual style. Also, the creativity with Doctor Strange's powers is one of the movie's highlights. One scene is when Doctor Strange fights Sinister Strange, a multiverse version of himself, using music notes from sheets of paper to create attacks, especially how it combines with the score.

And big props to Sam Rami for pushing the age rating for the movie to its very limit because there are some brutal character deaths here. The horror elements were also delivered, as the creepiness and Gothic horror were effective. Rami sneakily made an MCU Evil Dead.

Another thing to note here is how good the score is. When the track ‘A Cup of Tea’ played and the guitar riffs hit while showing Wanda dream walking, it captured the uneasy feeling of something wickedly dark, almost like a Satanic ritual. Whenever Danny Elfman hits the right mark with composing, it's fantastic.

Benedict Cumberbatch once again nails it as the title character. Also, in this movie, he gets a brief but impactful chance to play different versions of the Doctor and the little changes to the characterization. So, in some cases, a variant of Doctor Strange may look like the hero we know but are different and, well, strange.

During his fourth appearance in the MCU, I have always liked Benedict Wong and his character, as he makes for a solid supporting role, and there is no difference here.

Elizabeth Olsen returns as Wanda, who’s the main villain of the movie, and a cold one as well. There were some eerie and often time terrifying scenes with her. I like this approach to the character; the traumatic hero turned villain. It’s a tragic character arc. My only problem with this is that I feel like we needed a few more steps for her to spiral into madness. Between "I accidentally hurt people" and "I'm willing to murder my alternate self, and just in case one of my stolen kids catches a cold, I will murder a child to absorb her powers, so in another universe where there’s a cure." Like, I know she is affected by the Darkhold book that’s corrupting her mind and actions, hence the massive switch in character, but I wish they didn’t do that, and slowly throughout the film, she descends into villainy.

While this review has been positive, I do have some negatives.

The movie does feel rushed, as the runtime is 2 hours, and it flies by. However, this can be a positive and a negative, with the positive being that it's an entertaining rush of an experience. On the other hand, any character development felt undeveloped, such as the switch in change with Wanda that I brought up above and not enough time in different universes. The writing was questionable at times. I feel like these were two movies that got combined.

In the two post-credit scenes, the first ends on a shocking Sam Rami cliffhanger, but not long after that, the second post-credit started that felt so outplace and goes against the cliffhanger. I believe this was the perfect example of the studio vs. Sam Rami.

And the character of America Chavez is such a useless character and does not do anything of note until the very end. The actress who played her wasn’t good either.

Although one of the parts of the movie that stood out to me the most, amidst all the chaos, is the message of acceptance, improving yourself, and letting go. It’s one thing to be self-aware of your issue with attaching yourself to something, similar to being aware of your problems, and it’s another when someone openly tells you, but it’s otherworldly to imagine seeing another version of yourself with the personal issue on clear display, consumed them to their lowest form, which in the movie, Strange and Wanda see first-hand, with the message being: accept, improve yourself, and the hardest one of all, to let go. So, the line "I love you in every universe" is cheesy, but to me, it works, as there are multi-universes and ties into his love for Kristine, but in every universe, he cannot be with her, as there are not soulmates; it is hard to accept and even harder to move on.

But that’s just my takeaway from the movie.

Overall rating: The MCU gave us something different, and I cannot help but support that.

A sort-of companion piece to both Spider-Man: No Way Home and the Disney+ original series What If...?, Multiverse of Madness represents Marvel's latest, deepest dive into the functional possibilities of an alternate reality. Several realities, in fact, as the title should inform. While fighting to derail the latest dark, magical threat to our universe, Strange and company are sucked through a portal and tread upon dozens of similar, but distinct, versions of the MCU.

This serves as a fantastic excuse to get creative, with the brains behind the project energized by the chance... no, the directive... to be as crazy and weird as they wanna be, without the worry of resetting any pieces after the game's through. When you've got a closet full of Dr. Strange variations, the essential mandate that Dr. Strange must survive the latest Dr. Strange flick doesn't really hold water. Of course, there are ethical questions involved with all this - at least, from the characters' perspectives - but to a large degree, it feels like a loosening of the handcuffs.

Unfortunately, those freer stakes also make everything seem more artificial and trivial. The film appears to sense this, fighting to retain a degree of importance despite dozens of major, throwaway onscreen deaths, but isn't quite crafty enough shoot the gap. Instead, the pacing suffers for the attempt. An editor's nightmare, Multiverse of Madness is prone to long periods of lush, exciting visual concepts, followed by equally long periods of dull, plodding exposition and glacial character development. It's fun, actually lots of fun in shorter bursts, but very thin and entirely too long. And, while the geek in me appreciates just how thoroughly Marvel Comics the whole premise looks, acts and feels, I fear it's wandered too far from what made the MCU's earlier films so successful.

I'm not sure they could have come up with a more appropriate name: Madness describes this from start to finish. I've been a Marvel comics fan for years - beginning with the comic books and decades before "streaming video" and the Marvel Comics Universe were even thought of - but frankly, I just miss the early days of "superhero vs. supervillain": Spiderman vs. Doctor Octopus (or the Kingpin, or the Lizard, or the Rhino, et al), or The Fantastic Four vs Dr. Doom, or The Incredible Hulk vs. everyone else... I've been a fan of almost all of the Marvel screen adaptations (yes, even those horrible early attempts at Fantastic Four) but they started losing appeal once all these "alternate universe" storylines started to happen. It just seemed to be a way to continue milking a story that they couldn't figure out how to conclude without alienating a lot of fans, i.e. "Let's kill off a bunch of the good guys...but let's leave a loophole to bring them back just in case our fanbase threatens to walk away." I loved the original Avengers movie, and was even a fan of the Age of Ultron but my attention span started waning with Infinity War and finally I stopped when they killed off Iron Man and a host of others (including the indestructible Hulk) in End Game. While I was delighted with the first Dr. Strange movie, this one is just far too convoluted, too busy, to ridiculously difficult to follow for me to even begin to enjoy it. I watched it from start to finish and still don't understand 90% of what I just witnessed. How is it that a "witch" with infinite power is still limping along trying to play catch up to the ones she's pursuing? I mean, seriously...if you've got all this "power", why bother chasing people down tunnels and having to stop for closed doors? If Stephen Strange is, indeed, the "Master of the Mystic Arts", why is he getting his butt handed to him by some PMS-laden chick whose biological clock has ticked out and she can't have kids of her own so she's going to cyber-nap some other version's kids? What's up with all these nonsensical stories? While I found the special effects "interesting", they were far too busy to keep up with, and the "fight" scenes...well, I guess if you consider throwing a bunch of SpiroGraph circles and sparkly fireworks at each other "fighting", this would probably be right up your alley. Not my cup of tea, though; I consider this one a very lengthy waste of time.

This film was a pretty massive disappointment for me. The plot was a mess, jumping from one contrivance to another in order to manufacture conflict and push things along. At the center of it all, were two of the most eye rolling McGuffins ever brought to the screen: the Darkhold and the Book of Vishanti (i.e. the super evil book and the super good book). McGuffins were always intended to be plot devices that matter only to the characters, not the audience. This film seems to disagree, as it constantly hits us over the head with exposition devoted to these books. And of course, it doesn't help that they are unbelievably nebulous about what they actually do. It's uninspired comic book writing to the absolute max. And don't even get me started on the mindboggling whiplash we get when a virtual extra sacrifices her life to destroy the Darkhold, only to reveal moments later that "lol, no big deal, that was just a copy". This is unbelievably frustrating writing.

The only meaningful new character, America Chavez, is also the victim of frustrating writing. Through most of the movie she is not much more than a McGuffin herself, i.e. if the bad guys were chasing after some magical widget with the power to travel between dimensions, I'm not sure the plot would really have changed that much. They try to solve this with a tragic backstory, but for me it was rushed and ineffective.

Some other miscellaneous critiques: Raimi's horror influence felt forced and out of place. The battle at Kamar-Taj felt like a weak excuse to inject some action, and more critically, that action was a bland, uninspired CGI-fest. Finally, for a movie that references the multiverse in its title, this film really needed to lean into the multiverse more. If Into the Spider-Verse can give us anime Spider-Man, noir Spider-Man, and Looney Tunes Spider-Man, than the MCU should be able to pull out something more creative than what we got here. Because the "big" multiverse payoff in this case was essentially a mid-movie action scene cameo that proved inconsequential to the plot.

Bland and too rushed. Infinity War had better pacing.

Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange is at his weakest in terms of performance here in the MCU.

Elfman's score was good but nothing really felt at home (Possibly the point due to the context of the film but nothing stood out really) besides that one fight scene (you know).

Wanda for me stole the show and I really liked her character in the first two acts. I loved what they showed here.
Then the third act comes and you realize that you've seen this ending before way too much recently.

And I know this is not an exact fair comparison but; Everything Everywhere All At Once does the same thing but much much better because it is given the time to.

This film just needed to be longer and had a possibly better director to take over the job.
The script just did not fit his style I believe.

And no, this movie isn't scary like Kevin hyped it up to be. It's just a bit intense in the imagery it shows with a cheap jump scare here and there.

I am a fan of the direction Marvel is moving with its media, so don't get me wrong on that part as I actually liked Eternals.

This film just rubbed me the wrong way. No doubt a fun flick though.
Enjoy your time in the madness.

5/10

The cynical side of me wants to call this Everything, everywhere all at once for consoomers.
The optimistic side of me sees Kevin Feige finally pushing the boundaries of his own franchise.
I guess it’s a little bit of both in the end.

Undoubtedly, the best thing the movie has going for it is the Sam Raiminess of it all. His fingerprints are all over it; you’re getting the weird camera angles, camp, his sense of horror, etc. It definitely has more style than some other Marvel movies, though there's also still some of the usual blandness. I'll give it to Marvel for putting in a scene where a talking corpse gives a heartfelt, sentimental speech. There's more of a psychedelic feel to it than the first film, but every time it tends to get really interesting it feels like Raimi's being reigned it to adhere to Marvel's demands. Elizabeth Olsen and Benedict Cumberbatch are giving some of their best performances as these characters to date, and the music’s really well done. But ultimately the film’s Achilles heel is its own script, which is complete junk. The story is thin, messy, nonsensical, and at times flat out embarrassing. The set-up in the first act is very rushed, while the second and third act feel like they’re written by a Reddit fanpage (you just know for a fact that Marvel only went in this direction because of the 2 Batmen that have been announced for The Flash). It’s Marvel at its most ‘producty’, and it’s going to trick a lot of people into thinking the film is better than it is. Regardless, I hope Patrick Stewart got a big paycheck for ruining his own perfect send-off in Logan at the very least. A lot of the story beats don’t make sense either, with most of the characters arcs feeling rushed and nonsensical, even despite the copious amounts of exposition that are desperately trying to tie everything together. The choices made with Wanda in the third act are baffling, and I still don’t know what the takeaway is supposed to be by the end of the film. Her motivation is problematic in general, and I don’t like the use of the [insert plot device] corrupts the mind of the villain trope, which is becoming very overused in the MCU (Ant-Man, Winter Soldier) and just a lazy way of forcing a conflict where the villain stays redeemable. The new character (America Chavez) is a boring, underdeveloped plot device, while Strange himself doesn't even have a real arc. It's the kind of film where a lot happens, but very little leaves an actual impression. I’m not sure what happened, but I get the impression that a significant portion of this film was reworked and rewritten during post production. The action didn’t impress me whatsoever, but that’s been a case with these films for a while now (some of the stuff in Shang-Chi excluded). Some of the visuals look tacky and unfinished, the action’s a bunch of people shooting flashing lights at each other, shots don’t linger enough, people move like animated characters, it’s all the usual bs (and this is coming from someone who thinks the action and effects in the first one are still underappreciated to this day). Inbetween the first film and the sequel, Marvel has become a machine that’s now collapsing under its own pressure. If Disney would allow it, they really should go back to making 2-3 properties a year. The consistent mediocrity of their current output is killing their own longevity.

4/10

Oh, and your kids will be fine watching this. I’ve seen some uproar about the ‘horror’ and violence of the film, and it’s honestly not that shocking. There’s way more creepy stuff in some of the Harry Potter and Indiana Jones films (or just your average 80’s kids film in general).