Hey everyone welcome back to Silver Screen Spectacle! Today we are continuing our MCU Flashback with 2016’s Doctor Strange. The film was highly anticipated with a trailer that featured visuals that evoked Inception and coming after the beloved Captain America: Civil War. The film eventually earned 677.7 Million dollars worldwide and got good critic and audience response. However, while well-liked, the character certainly wasn’t anyone’s favorite until Avengers: Infinity War. With Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness set to be the biggest Marvel movie of Phase 4, let’s look back on the introduction for this character.
This movie is where I would start my mid-level rankings of Marvel films. I love a lot of things in this movie and it’s super rewatchable but there’s one key issue that holds it back for me that we’ll get to. Benedict Cumberbatch is another pitch-perfect MCU casting choice. Cumberbatch is a phenomenal actor and can do dramatic scenes and comedic moments. Chiwetel Ejiofor is an actor I love, and he does a good job with what he’s given. His role while not without standout moments is basically a sequel setup. Tilda Swinton gives an outstanding performance as The Ancient One, her role is fairly straightforward but I love how she delivers her dialogue. Rachel McAdams gives a fine performance, she’s been playing this basic girlfriend character in Hollywood forever and brings nothing new to it. My favorite performance in the movie is from Benedict Wong, his side character is hilarious and one of my favorite supporting characters in the MCU.
As for the villain, a rogue sorcerer played by Mads Mikkelsen, I have mixed feelings. He has next to no motivation and isn’t written very well. At the same time, he has some great comedic moments and an intimidating physical presence, and his screen time that doesn’t involve our heroes is only one brief scene. He is basically a plot device, but an effective one. Dormamu is also nothing but an evil entity, but his one scene is easily my favorite in the film.
Scott Derrickson did a superb job with his first mega-blockbuster. All the action sequences are exciting, inventive, and easy to follow. The script holds this movie back for me. Now it’s a good script with a fun story, likable leads, and plenty of strong action and comedic beats. So what’s the problem then? It’s painfully generic in its overall story. The way they tell Strange’s origin feels more like Phase One Marvel than Phase Three. As for some of the film’s other aspects, the musical score is memorable and the visual effects are outstanding.
As for the credits scenes, we have two still. The first one is literally just a scene from 2017’s Thor Ragnarok, but it was cool at the time. The second one sets up Ejiofor’s character to be at least one of the main villains in Doctor Strange 2.
So overall I do still really like this movie and I’ve watched it tons of times. The overarching generic story holds this back from being top-tier Marvel for me. So guys, that’s it for this MCU: Flashback. I hope you all enjoyed it and I’ll see you tomorrow.
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