It’s Sam Raimi’s world and we’re just living in it
After how many ‘Marvel movies’ audiences might be looking for something different and ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ definitely fits the bill. A mix of horror-fantasy-adventure and drama, if you’re a big cry baby like me. The ‘Multiverse of Madness’ goes all in the multiverse as we travel across a number of them and discover alternate realities from the one that we know of. The film opens with a variant of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) escaping a monster with a still un-named girl. We find out that this is America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) who can travel through multiverses by opening star shaped portals and an evil entity wants to take her power.
My issue, without being too spoilery, is with the treatment of Wanda’s character. (We discuss this in length in the upcoming FlipGeeks podcast, so make sure to follow the podcast!) And I guess that’s all I can say about that, before I spoil anything.
Going back on things that I can talk about:
Enjoyed the horror and the camp and the visuals! This is the first time that horror is effectively injected in an MCU film and the praise for that goes to Director Sam Raimi, who is not only the Spider-Man/Tobey Maguire director but he also helmed horror favorites like ‘Evil Dead’ and ‘Drag Me To Hell’ and you can see elements lifted from these films and seamlessly incorporated in the second Doctor Strange film. An example of this is a chase scene through a darkened tunnel, being pursued by a terrifying and powerful entity, complete with a callback to Carrie’s blood soaked look. As my podcast buddy said, it was the only time he once again heard the words: “Dali! Takbo!” (Hurry! Run!) screamed inside a theater.
Even though I can’t discuss Wanda’s character journey in this film, I can say that Elizabeth Olsen delivers in every scene she is in! Her acting is A+++ all throughout! The way she drops every line, the slight tilt of her head, everything is just *Chef’s kiss! Even if the movie is called: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, honestly it’s Wanda/The Scarlet Witch who steals the show.
With the addition of the horror elements and an incredible performance from Elizabeth Olsen Multiverse Of Madness has the signature MCU edge-of-you-seat, high-octane action scenes coupled with impressive graphics. It has to be noted though that this is, by far, the most violent MCU film. I’d hate to be the parents of kids who would be surprised at how the violence level has gone up. But as we did discuss in our podcast, it seems that over the years the tolerance for violence in film has increased. So this is just me, as a mom, giving a headsup to fellow parents that you may need to prep the kids for a bit of horror (really good horror at that) and a bit of violence.
While to me, personally Wanda was the star of the show, of course we can’t do a review without talking about Doctor Strange, in his second Marvel film. We see his character’s journey here from an arrogant surgeon, a broken man because of his injuries, then a reluctant defender against Dormammu. Of course in Infinity War and Endgame, he goes on giving Thanos the TIme stone, betting the entire universe in that ‘one chance, one play’ play. This decision haunts him in Multiverse of Madness when Dr. West (Michael Stulhbarg, he was in the first ‘Doctor Strange’ film in case you forgot) asks Stephen Strange, if ‘it’ -meaning the ‘snap’ really had to happen. If it really had to go that way. Although this isn’t further explored in the film, we see that the question gets to Doctor Strange. Then there is this ‘Are you happy?’ question that gets thrown around a lot. Which I guess goes back to the theme of the multiverse and of the possibility of a happier life somewhere.
A favorite exchange of mine in the film is a conversation between Wong (Benedict Wong) and Stephen Strange (these aren’t the exact words but it goes something like this:
Doctor Strange: Do you ever wonder about your other lives?
Wong: Yes, I do wonder about my other lives but I am grateful for this one, despite the difficulties.
Peter tried to create a reality where he could go to the same college as his friends.
Wanda dreams of other realities where she is with her children.
Stephen Strange (in the animated series ‘What If?’) tries to prevent Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams from passing away).
There are a lot of ‘what if’s’, a lot of regrets, a lot of longing and wishing. We may not be ideally happy with this life that we are living, but it’s the one that we have. And living through it, no matter how difficult, is what makes us all superheroes in our own right.