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Praise be to the comic book gods, because Marvel finally made a film that embraces the entirety of cinema’s possibilities. Prior entries, and by that I mean practically all of them, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe lazily drifted towards a basic televisual style. These films are basically entertaining enough, although unfortunately drifting towards a sameness, but often free of idiosyncratic personalities and vibrancy. Doctor Strange does not entirely shake free the script problems and lack of diversity that the entire franchise is burden with, but at least it will distract you with outré visuals and a fun sense kookiness.
Another movie in the Marvel series, another origin story about a douchebag white dude that needs to be humbled before he can become a great hero. Thankfully we blow through these early portions of the film and focus more on his training in the mystic arts. What does this mean? It means we spend a lot more time bouncing between realities, soaking in various psychedelic landscapes and eye-gouging colors that frequently disorientate you in the best of ways.
Doctor Strange shows it hand early with the opening battle scene between the under-cooked villain (a problem they’ve never managed to shake off) and the wise elder with deep ties to journeys of both the hero and villain. As these two powerful sorcerers meet, they engage in a battle that turns London’s buildings and streets into a living Escher drawing, or maybe a series of eternally moving clockwork parts. This one breaks free from any grounding in reality right out the gate, and thank the cinematic gods for this. (Say what you want about DC’s cinematic universe, it is half-baked narratively and tonally, but it came roaring out the gate with beautiful, painterly images that linger in the mind more so than any Marvel movie until this one.)
It’s not that all that Doctor Strange has is a series of increasingly wild, weird, and vibrant images and locations, but this is the strongest selling point. The cast is uniformly strong, and how could it not be when it’s top-lined by three Oscar nominees (Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams), an Oscar winner (Tilda Swinton), and one of our great underrated actors (Mads Mikkelsen) breathing life into these characters. Despite all of that great talent on display, Doctor Strange continues on with Marvel’s female problem, with only two characters given names, dialog, and anything to play. It’s a shame that McAdams is wasted in the “girlfriend” role, but she brings a pleasing seriousness and smarts to the undercooked role.
Even worse is how Marvel has taken a franchise that leans heavily on Eastern mysticism and failed to give any Asian actors but Benedict Wong something to do. Diversity is not the strongest selling point for the MCU, and Strange had several chances to shake things up in this regard but failed to do so. Once again, any and all characters of color are regulated to supporting players and sidekick roles. Would it truly have changed the character of Stephen Strange to cast an Asian actor? I’ll give them props for thinking outside the box in gender-flipping the Ancient One and race-bending Mordo, but not enough to overcome making them merely the supporting, training players to the hero.
At least Doctor Strange takes the final act, normally a series of ever-increasing collateral damage and rubble, and literally uses magic to undo it. Instead of a gigantic, scenery-destroying battle between Strange and the demonic Dormammu, this film has them stuck in a time warp replaying the same moments over and over again. It’s humorous to watch the various ways Dormammu kills Strange before giving up and agreeing to bargain with the sorcerer. This isn’t the only memorable fight sequence in the film, but it’s refreshing how it swerves right on the typical Marvel formula when all signs are pointing towards another sequence of massive property destruction with debris falling from the sky.
Despite my criticisms, Doctor Strange is the first entry in this particular subsection of the wider franchise, and I look forward to where his further adventures will take him. The mid and end-credits teasers give us plenty of clues, and I look forward to them. This film is finally a Marvel product that embraces the insanity of the comics in a more profound way than many of the others have up to this point. This is more of what I’ve wanted from Marvel films. Now if they could just fix their female and racial diversity problems.
