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Well, at least this one was a little better than Invincible Iron Man, but not by that much really. It still suffers from the same problems, chiefly that the story spends far too much time getting going without introducing or building its villain or many secondary characters up much before employing them all in the grand finale. Oh, and the animation is still high-quality TV work, and nothing much else.
Funnily enough, I seem to remember Dr. Stephen Strange being more a braggart and a prick but still somehow loveable than the whiny dope he’s portrayed as being in this film. (Think of how Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark, that’s really more like the comic book version of Strange.) And what’s with saddling him with the unnecessary time eater of a backstory? He failed to save his sister as a surgeon, what does this have to do with anything else in the film? Not much really.
I will give the film this, when it’s interesting, it’s very engaging. But at roughly an hour and fifteen minutes, taking up forty-five minutes to setup the main conflict(s) and your main character’s backstory is just poor writing. Dormammu, who is given a radical and unique makeover in this film – I loved it, is mostly just a fiery demonic creature that screams and says three lines. He should have had more weight and presence. Introducing your main villain in brief glimpses at the start of the film, abandoning him for the soggy middle, and then bringing him back for the last ten minutes is not a wise decision.
So what is interesting? Anything involving the world of sorcery is fascinating, even if it is given the short end of the stick. A whole series could have been made out of this concept, why haven’t they done this yet? There’s enough unique and interesting material here to occupy a steady run on Disney XD. The dark magic creatures alone are beautifully designed and don’t quite look like anything else that’s come out of a superhero movie or TV show. I’d watch a show just to see what new dark, twisted hellish creatures come out of the world of our nightmarish imagination to wreak havoc.
I just don’t understand Marvel’s insistence on a paint-by-numbers approach to both their live action and animated movie properties. They have more than anything history and rich mythology to pull from to experiment and play with and truly give DC a run for their money. Even something as atrocious as All-Star Superman kept me engaged because it did something different with the property. Even if it’s an interesting failure, at least make it interesting.
