Doctor Strange is a fantastical Marvel movie focusing on the origin story for Doctor Stephen Strange.
Doctor Strange tells the story of Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), a prominent surgeon, who is searching to restore his formerly glorious livelihood after it was taken from him.
Doctor Strange attempts to stray away from the Marvel factory formula, but ultimately it's trapped by what has come before in the franchise, therefore preventing the film from reaching the epic heights that were possible.
The characters in this movie are one note characters, bar the titular Doctor Strange. This is not helped by the fact that Tilda Swinton's Ancient One appears to have been a relatively phoned in performance. Chiwetel Edjiofor and Benedict Wong serve their purposes as Karl Mordo and Wong respectively (although I feel that both actors are greater than the roles they were given).
Unfortunately, yet again, the villain was forgettable. Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) is a character that could have been far more imposing than he ended up being. The unfortunate truth is that this film did not require an actor like Mads Mikkelsen to portray the villain, as the villain wasn't essential to the story that the film was trying to tell.
The highlights of the movie were the visual effects. They allowed the viewer to escape into the fantastical universe that director Scott Derrickson was trying to create. Unfortunately, at times the movie is taken over by a deluge of CGI, in order to show off the vastness of the budget.
This, and the cinematography are where the film strains to escape the confines of its franchise. Visually, the world that is created is almost inception like. As eye popping sequences occur and the world the characters changes, one can't help but be in awe of the details thrown into the visual aspect of this movie. However, there are still elements where CGI human models look unrealistic which takes you out of the spectacular visual world that's created.
The story is pretty straight forward, with many elements that are predictable to anyone who has seen a Marvel origin story before. While this serves as an easy entry for the character, the feeling that so much more could be done lingers.
What's annoys me is that the story is told through dialogue as opposed to visually. Visual moments occur to further story, but almost immediately a character explains the events that the audience has just seen, slowing the pace to a crawl. I don't mind this happening every so often, but it feels as if the entire movie is littered with this kind of storytelling.
There is a far better movie hidden in the depths of this very shallow story. One about self reflection and learning to change how you view the world. Unfortunately the story refuses to delve deeper into this thread and chooses to opt for the lighter and breezier tone that Marvel is known for. Personally, I feel that this is a missed opportunity for the brand to evolve beyond what it is.
Number of times I looked at my watch: Four
Recommendation: Watch it in Netflix, among a marathon of movies, when you don't want to concentrate.
I hope you enjoyed this review, please let me know what other movies you would like me to review.
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