LogFAQs > #902667380

Doctor Strange

I had no real expectations going into this movie outside of thinking it would probably at least meet the threshold of basically entertaining that all the MCU movies have hit so far. Coming out, my initial impression was "you know what? That might have been one of my favorites so far," yet when I then went down the list to compare which ones I thought it was better than, there weren't that many. I suppose that speaks to the quality of the MCU that this may still be on the lower end yet was very thoroughly enjoyable. Funnily, it was pretty easily my wife's least favorite so far (she has been watching with me), so our initial reactions couldn't have been more disparate.

I think what it came down to for that difference in opinion is that, well, the movie is extremely cliche in many ways -- powers of light and darkness, Eastern spiritual training and mythology, an ancient teacher, training montages, the works, and that doesn't even mention that Stephen admittedly is pretty much Dr. Tony Stark, M.D. to begin the film. That said, while that understandably grated on a viewer like my wife who was put off by all those cliches, I found it endearing how hard the movie leaned into them. I thought the film was very self-aware and not only embraced those tropes, but injected them with steroids and thrust them into a hyperdrive of crazy, bizarre, over-the-top sequences that were really thrilling to watch.

Worth noting there may have been a hint of bias on my end in one regard; I was at a concert last week and a man had a heart attack mid-show and died about ten feet away from me. On top of that, the band happened to release a record the next day that sort of ends on the note of "is time and mortality what gives our lives meaning, even when it takes our lives away?" The timing of that and the death have been on my mind, and then to hear the Ancient One essentially echo that exact sentiment during her death sequence really got me. The movie admittedly benefited by showing up in my life at a particularly strange time, but nonetheless, I thought that was really powerful, and I found her death to be one of the most effective in the MCU so far.

Ultimately, the strongest parts were the incredibly creative action sequences; I'm not really an action guy, but it's amazing how many ways Marvel can come up with for our heroes and villains to kick ass and take names. Similarly to how impressed I was with how Ant-Man managed to make those powers so entertaining, I never got tired of watching cities and rooms collapse in on each other in an ever-shifting obstacle course. Total feast for the eyes; Inception, eat your heart out. I also totally loved the Dormamu Bargain scene, a meme I now at long last understand. Really clever solution to foil a timeless entity with time itself, something he wouldn't be familiar with.

What holds the movie back when I compare it to others, though, is the overall weakness of the supporting cast. For one, I almost audibly groaned as soon as I saw him make eyes at a girl in the first two minutes of the movie -- it would be really nice for these films to establish an empathetic side for a character without leaning on a love interest for once, especially one that was somehow even more underutilized than Jane in the Thor movies. Didn't care much about Mordo or his weird heel turn, didn't think Wong was particularly funny, and thought Kaecilius pushed Malekith for the Least Inspiring Spoopy Dimensional Bad Guy award (great action sequences helped). Benedict Cumberbatch was a captivating presence as expected, but the script was basically Sherlock for the first ten minutes; him playing brilliant, arrogant guy shifting through life and death cases, dismissing them as too boring was SO shameless I was hoping it would be a gag and Martin Freeman's character would show up.

All in all, a really entertaining and worthwhile entry, but perhaps not their deepest, strongest work? Still fun as hell.
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