Doctor Strange Review

     This is definitely a long overdue review. Doctor Strange was definitely a movie I wanted to see on the big screen and although it wasn’t anywhere at the top of my most anticipated of the year, I was still very curious how it turned out. I heard so much about its trippy visuals and thought its trailers did a good job marketing the movie. Director Scott Derrickson horror background gave me hope that this film could set itself apart from other superhero movies. In all honesty, I’m getting more and more tired of the genre and am not a fan of all these connected universes.

     In that sense, Doctor Strange succeeds with flying colors. You can tell that it’s a big-budget blockbuster type of movie but aside from the references to the greater Marvel universe, I wouldn’t have guessed that this is a superhero flick. It feels much more contained in terms of the stakes set forth and I’d liken it closer to a Harry Potter film as than a superhero one. That’s in the sense that it focuses on Cumberbatch mastering magical spells and techniques, rather than developing unexplained powers. The villain was a bit generic but I’d put him toward the top for Marvel. We get some backstory and he comes off as extremely menacing. I felt that his motivations were laid out clearly. Aside from that, as you’ve probably already seen or heard, most of the visuals are stunning and really unique. The scenes in London and Hong Kong were standouts for me. I also want to commend a scene in the film towards the end between Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton. The dialogue they share brings up a lot of meaningful and relevant messages about humanity and the general behavior of certain people. Michael Giacchino’s soundtrack ties it all together and while some of it is generic, there are songs played with what sounded like a harpsichord that sound awesome and fit the tone of the film.

     Now, even though Doctor Strange sets itself apart, it still has a lot of similar problems I’ve had with other Marvel films. First off, I wish that with such a contained story, there would have been no references to the Avengers or infinity stones. I know they are building a larger cinematic universe, but nothing they could have omitted would have changed the overall story. Also, the supporting characters are pretty generic and the movie never fully gripped me. Certain scenes did, but not the whole thing. A lot of the imagery was cool but some of it, especially at the beginning, seemed like it was simply there to shock people and get them to say “wow, that’s so weird.” Other times, it served the story in a nice way. I also felt that a lot wasn’t explained. Through the beginning, it seems like Doctor Strange is the worst student at the temple by far. However, they seem to take a particular interest in teaching and helping him over the other apprentices. Another thing that bothered me me was what and when the outside world can see what’s going on in the magical universe. It was partially explained but a lot of times I still wondering about it. For example, they can enter the “mirror dimension” that separates themselves from the outside but sometimes they weren’t in that realm and people didn’t seem to react. A few other small things were the car crash seemed extremely unrealistic in the sense that the CGI looked off and he would have died for sure in an accident like that. I don’t like to completely bash things but the humor was garbage. It had no place being there and felt like the writers were trying way too hard.

     Doctor Strange isn’t a home run but I appreciated its unique qualities separating itself from other superhero films. It has some definite flaws but in other moments it really shines. I give it a 7.5/10.