Finally saw last Dr Strange last night.
Dr Strange is the latest of Marvel's multitude of characters to get an introduction to their ever growing cinematic universe. The character is over 50 years old at this point and has been the subject of various attempts to bring to the screen, including a bizarre 70s TV movie version that was hoped would spark a Hulk style series, but finally, we get the big screen, big budget release of Marvel's 'Sorceror Supreme', with horror genre man Scott Derrickson at the helm.
Dr Strange is a very odd character in Marvel's stable. He's a perennial supporting cast character. He pops up in most major event storylines, even if only for a page or 2 (in the case of the Bendis Daredevil run, he appears for 3 panels and does... nothing), he's had a few ongoing series over the years, and never really took off like many of the other names we all know and love (or hate). But he's curiously cinematic. A character unashamedly influenced by Vincent Price (and his movies) and magic and monsters and mysticism, it's almost not a shocker that a walking stereotype of huge swathes of fantasy fiction is fit for the screen, but then he's never been a massively popular character. But going right back to his first appearances from Steve Ditko's imagination his adventures tapped into psychedelic influences and stories of black magic and East Asian philosophy, and even this early stuff has bizarre beauty and madness crying out for someone to splash onto the big screen. Yet it took 8 years of the MCU to get here, despite Kevin Fiege, the man spinning the plates at Marvel Studios, being a fan of the character and renowned for pushing to get an adaptation on the screen ASAP.
We open with a dark temple, clearly influenced by Nepalese architecture. Sinister hooded figures sweep in from all sides, corner a monk, and immediately demonstrate their powers in a ritualistic murder. We see the temple is a library, mysterious books chained to odd frames. They take a page from one, but are confronted by another robed figure... Meanwhile in New York, we meet Stephen Strange, at work, utilising his skills as a brilliant neurosurgeon, arrogant and cocky in his ability, his knowledge, and his success. Aloof, sarcastic, a man whose hubris is grating and contemptuous of all around him, from his colleague and ex Doctor Palmer, to potential patients. Tragedy, however, strikes, of his own creation, and leaves this brilliant man broken. His search to regain his skill sees his last penny go on a quest to meet someone who might just be able to offer him a miracle...
Dr Strange has us back in origin territory. Marvel hasn't done a pure origin in quite a while - Whilst Antman last year, a surprise hit, was an origin story they cleverly followed their recent tactic of borrowing other genre conventions to blur the lines and hid an origin inside a heist story, consequently that movie didn't really play as the traditional origin we expect, even if the pieces were there. Guardians was so much the scifi comedy it really didn't have any origin tropes at all. Dr Strange, however, is an out and out origin and we immediately very familiar with where we are. This a very straight story of our hero finding his powers and using them to good if ultimately low key effect. We haven't had that since Captain America: the First Avenger in 2011. Since then we've had 2 Avengers movies, numerous solo sequels, and more than a few event movies, making it feel very odd to be back to the kind of movie Iron Man was in 2008.
That feeling is helped by this movie very much feeling like it's own thing. The references to the wider MCU are very downplayed - a reference to the Avengers here, a completely throwaway line many will miss that refers to the events of Civil War, a glimpse of the Avengers tower. Thats about it. We don't have the crossover appearances we are starting to expect, we don't have the various references to the things that came before, and what little there is has basically no influence on the story. You could conceivably watch this movie having seen nothing of Marvel's output and take as much from it as anyone else.
Being an origin the plot is quite by the numbers and there's nothing to blow anyone's socks off in twists and turns. 'There is a bad that what wants to do Bad Things, and you, curiously gifted new recruit, might be the one to save us'. We expect the heroes journey and we get it. We also get an under developed villain, a bane of the series (and all the more annoying that when they do do it right they're pretty good at it), we get the training montage, we get the introduction of the new cast characters we expect to see again and again... All very familiar stuff.
The plot isn't the point though somehow. The plot here is a device to hang new ideas and characters off, it's the basic framework and first action to push this new section of the MCU in to place. The MCU has busily been building it's structure movie on movie for 8 years and Dr Strange is shuffled in to be the new extension they decided they needed. We're here for characters and new Things. And bloody hell does it manage that.
Stephen Strange is brilliantly played by Cumberbatch. From our opening minutes with the arrogant and cocky Dr, to the broken man filled with seething rage on the verge of pathetic, to the brilliant pupil, its a great performance and it drags the movie along with it. I had concerns about the American accent that sounded hokey in some of the trailers, but those are gone very quickly because they just go with this character. The Ancient One proved controversial with the choice of Tilda Swinton playing a traditionally Asian character, but her inate oddness makes the character work, and she has the sheer conviction to say some of the absolute nonsense with complete believability. Ejiofor garnered less controversy in his casting as Mordo, a traditionally white character invariably at odds with Strange over the years, but is equally unphased by his mentor role. Benedict Wong embodies is staid librarian role as Wong and clearly enjoys himself as a straight man to hang more than a few gags off. And Mads Mikkelson, blessed with a face that just looks evil, isn't given much to do as Kaecilius but does it all with typical brilliance. McAdams has little to do but the relationship with Strange feels real and she can play a comedic scene surprisingly well. This is a fantastic cast and the film knows it. They all follow in Cumberbatch's footsteps and pull the movie with them.
Much of the talk that hasn't praised the cast has spoken of the visuals. With merit. Usually when the visuals are the first thing people praise a film for it usually means nothing else is going on. Transformers is visually impressive (Bay's really weird tastes in cinematography aside) but the rest of those films is garbage. You can't say that of Dr Strange, but you still have to admire how this film looks. The visual effects are incredible. Theres the flashy stuff from the trailers, morphing bending streets and skyscrapers bending in on themselves, all of which looks brilliant, and then theres the small moments like Kaecilius morphing a church with a few sweeps of his hands into something more like a kaleidoscope. Even the smaller things look incredible. Many effects have a look of firey lines, but this is done brilliantly. I'm a particularly big fan of the fire whip used a few times - a great effect that is seamlessly tied to surprisingly tactile performance - when Cumberbatch is seemingly wringing fire from his finger tips it immediately feels right. The highlight is much discussed trip through the multiverse Strange is fired through early on - this entire scene is riddled with imagery taken from Ditko's early work on Dr Strange, but also lots of LSD imagery. It's a bizarre, beautiful scene that plays like the Stargate scene from 2001 given a lot of acid. But it's more than just the visual effects. The cinematography is more sumptuous. Marvel has become known for a quite flat style, which some dislike or find lazy, in the way it shoots it's movies. Compare a shot from a Zach Snyder movie to a Marvel film and you can Snyder has more of an extravagant style in the way he uses the camera, light, frame. Strange feels like a departure in that respect from Marvel. Every shot feels a little richer. It's a really good looking movie in every facet. The film also benefits from a big screen and, unusually, from 3d. The effects on that scale and with that extra bit of 'mind bender-y' adds to the film.
The action is fun, with some light martial arts (Sutton's own martial arts man Scott Adkins has a very minor role) bashing into the mad effects work to great effect, and whilst the influences are there for all to see, it also has some imagination - Strange's use of a door in a fight is a nice example. We also get the Cloak of Levitation which damn near steals the film in a few sequences and has thought put into the way this object might be able to influence a fight (although one moment of out and out slapstick is right on the line of too much for me and I could see much eye rolling in some audiences). Particularly keep an eye out for the sheer physicality of the way it is used to subdue a villain, which is just a brilliantly done minor moment.
It's also quite funny. There are a number of one liners, Strange being pegged as more of a Downey Jr Stark than his slightly dour comic inspiration, although tinged with a little arrogance and cockiness than RDJ's Iron Man.They're hit and miss, most got laughs in my screening, I grinned at more than a few, but never found more than a couple genuinely laugh out loud. This also raises a problem with the movie - a number of the jokes feel heavily shoe horned. Because they were. The script was given a last minute revision by another writer specifically to add in the humour and a few bits really do feel like it. But generally this doesn't massively harm the film.
Another criticism would be the underused villain again. Mikkelson is a brilliant actor and can do this character in his sleep, but its a shame they don't develop him further. Kaecilius was discussed before release as a man who isn't evil, but who sees a different path. And truth enough there are small moments of that in the script, but it doesn't explore that. We are give his backstory in a brief piece of dialogue between other characters, and it really feels like a missed opportunity. The story isn't an earth shattering one, but just a brief few minutes showing us his backstory, in the second act perhaps, might have made him into a far more memorable villain, and also a more relatable one. As much as the film nudges us towards thinking he isn't a bad guy, just misguided, it doesn't ultimately have the conviction to show us that, and it feels like they just missed the chance to grasp a really good villain, instead leaving us with a quite forgettable one. The same can be said of another character. But this isn't uncommon with Marvel, who have made a habit of wasting villains, and the concern was there the moment they announced a Dr Strange movie with a character from the comics nobody has heard of as the villain.
The film also perhaps isn't as weird as it needed to, nor as horror tinged as you'd hope. Derrickson made a lot of having an horror influence in the movie and I just didn't feel that whilst watching. There is a chance to nod more openly to the paranormal with Dr Strange that this movie doesn't take up, which is a shame, and whilst it is a weird movie, its not quite weird enough. I wanted more of the dimension shifting to appear, I wanted more of the taste of the bizarre the dimension jump shows us in the first hour. Dr Strange comics have dealt with really weird stuff over the years and this movie ultimately doesn't mine those seams far enough. I expect this will be something they investigate further in a sequel as there are hints there throughout the movie they are holding things back. I would also say you would be disappointed by this film if you wanted the powers to be explained - the mechanics of the magic is not given more than a line in movie. This didn't bother me at all but given how much this series has sought to explain things in many cases Strange does largely ask you to go with it and not worry about the ins and outs of exactly how and what Strange is doing works.
I haven't enjoyed a movie quite this much for a while. I was transfixed by every minute, which flew by. I was struck as we left the screening how much I had just enjoyed being swept along with those performances, and those visuals. It might be Marvel's best solo movie, for me. Certainly its up there with the best. Its miles from perfect, it glimpses being a classic more than once and just falls short or swerves away, but nonetheless its just so much fun. Go see it. If you like the MCU, this is the movie that marks another change for the series, and also quite clearly is the foundation of replacing RDJ's Iron Man as the front man of the series. If you've never watched a Marvel movie before, you can watch this without the need of the seeing anything else, and you'll probably enjoy it. If you hate comic book stuff, don't go anywhere near it.
There are the expected 2 post credit scenes. The first connects the movie more overtly to the wider MCU and is good fun, laying some nice foundations for a movie to come. The second is an addendum to the film which teases develops for Dr Strange in future films, and is probably the longest post credit scene they've done, but establishes some pieces nicely for the future, which I greatly look forward to.
