Doctor Strange Spoiler Free and Spoiler Review
Non-Spoiler Review
Now if any of the trailers, TV spots, clips, or any of the promotional material gave you a bad feeling about the film, then forget that feeling. This movie is spectacular. The actors portray these characters will all their ability. Nothing is half done. These actors bring their characters to life as if they're were real. Everyone gives their maximum effort to make the best performances possible. Benedict Cumberbatch is a great lead. I'm so glad that he's now part of the MCU and I'm curious about his future appearances. I think most definitely he'll get a sequel or two, because everyone gets a trilogy. Iron Man and Captain America have had their trilogies and Thor will get his third one next year and it's most likely that Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man will get a third film after their second films are done. So I see no reason why Doctor Strange wouldn't get the same treatment. The villain is great. Mads Mikkelsen does a great job as the antagonist. Rachel McAdams does a fine job. She didn't have particularly a lot to do, but the scenes she had were great. Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Benedict Wong turn in fun performances as well. All across the board the cast is excellent. The message and some of the lines were very powerful and great lessons to learn and in a Marvel movie no less. The score done by Michael Giacchino is well, strange. The humor is fantastic. There are no lame, corny, or otherwise cheesy jokes said. But it's so funny, which is Marvels specialty. But the action scenes and the magic are phenomenal. So good. I can watch those all day. Also, good luck to Fantastic Beasts to recapture the magical aspect of film, because Doctor Strange has raised the bar for all magic in film. Now on that note, yes. Yes you should see this in 3D. I normally don't like 3D for some films, because they don't use it very well, but the TV spots recommended that I should see this in IMAX 3D and I had a feeling that I should listen. So I did and I have to say. It was the BEST 3D I've seen in a long time so kudos to Marvel for utilizing that well. Particularly during the action sequences. All I can say is that I am so glad that I listened to that feeling, because I would've regretted doing otherwise. So if you have an opportunity to see this in IMAX 3D or just 3D then go for it, but if you don't want to, then that's completely your decision. After all, it's just a recommendation. Don't feel like you have to. Before I make a transition to the spoiler review, make sure you wait to leave after the credits are done, because there are two credits scenes. One takes place in the middle of the credits and another after the credits are finished. I noticed some people leaving before that happened so maybe they didn't know, but a word of advice. If you're seeing a Marvel movie there will always be one or two credit scenes so make sure you wait for that, because they normally tease an upcoming film.
So there's my non-spoiler portion of the review. Let's move to SPOILER TERRITORY to talk spoilers. So from here on out "CONTINUE AT SPOILER RISK!" The only reasons for reading this portion is if you've seen the film or you aren't convinced by what I had to say in the non-spoiler review and want to hear more. Or you just want to be dished all the spoilers in the film. So I'm gonna go character by character and then I'll go from there.
Benedict Cumberbatch was born to play this role. He truly is the Sorcerer Supreme. He's a bit like Tony Stark in the beginning of the film, because he was arrogant, he had big ego, he didn't care about anyone but himself, and he took pride in proving people wrong. He was an a selfish jerk. But unlike Tony Stark, Stephen was willing to change. In all the times we see Tony make a change, he has the world change to suit his needs, whereas Stephen, as a result of his car accident, was willing to change himself and become a better person. When he said to Mordo or the Ancient One, whoever it was, "This is my last hope," I believed him. It was just so sad what happened to him, but it was his arrogance that got him in the car accident so it makes his change a lot more important. Now speaking of his accident, you need to take Mordo's advice and "Forget everything you think you know," because in real life, there is no way that anyone, even Stephen, could survive a crash like that. I mean he spins out of control, falls of the side of the road/cliff, takes multiple spins, and finally crashes in shallow water. Even if at all someone survived that, there's no way that an ambulance or a search party would've found him in time to save him. But that crash was brutal. As it compacts, the dash folds on top of his hands and smashes them and I flinched, because it was so painful to see. I liked that we got to see him act out his skills as a neurosurgeon, despite what we were seeing him do on the patients skull as he pulls the bullet out of the patients head. But let's be honest. He's a better sorcerer than a neurosurgeon. I liked seeing him study and learn how to master his skills. I laughed at the moment when, in the early stages of him training, the Ancient One forces him to learn by stranding him out in the Himalayas and having him use his own skills to get back to them. That shows how hardcore she is. But we'll talk about her when we get her. On that note, I was expecting the Abominable Snowman from Monsters Inc to show up and say to Strange "Welcome to the Himalayas!" But overall, Benedict Cumberbatch was a fantastic choice for this universe and this character. I see that Marvel has cracked a good reason to ignore Edna Mode's specific "NO CAPES" rule, because this cape won't let anything bad happen to its master. Clever. The cloak was funny. When Stephen got stabbed by Kaecilius's henchman and while Strange was trying to get to safety you saw the cloak, in the background, beating up his attacker. I laughed out loud. Seriously, it was hilarious. The cloak was a great addition and kinda partner to Strange. Strange himself was funny. When he trapped Kaecilius and his goons in the mirror dimension at the beginning of the New York battle and mocks him by saying "Who's laughing now?" I laughed at that. He had a lot of funny moments in the film. So I look forward to his character's future in the MCU.
I liked and didn't like the character of Mordo. On the one hand, he was a great friend for Stephen and a nice partner for him, but on the other, I didn't understand why he would abandon everything he knew, because the Ancient One was a hypocrite. I kinda understand that he was being told all the time that you shouldn't draw power from the dark realm and for him to find that she was doing it all this time to lengthen her life and make her more powerful, I hear him, but what he did at the end credits was totally out of left field. I was like "Where did this come from?" We'll get to that when we talk the after credits scenes. I liked that he was the one who gave Stephen the opportunity to learn how to become a sorcerer. He was a great trainer for Stephen to learn from. Mordo was an excellent fighter though. I was impressed his fighting skills. Those are some cool boots though. The way they created steps in mid air was awesome. They reminded me of Channing Tatum's character, who also had the same kind of boots, from the film, Jupiter Ascending. This is a far supeior film compared to that. He gave Stephen a lot of great advice, but once Stephen finally got into full sorcerer mode, he helped out Mordo in his times of trails. They worked great together, but now, courtesy of that after credits scene, it looks like he'll be a recurring villain.
I was worried that the Ancient One would be benched for the action sequences and that it would be Stephen and Mordo would be the ones to do all the fighting. That she would be the typical mentor to train the student and not help on the battlefield to defeat the antagonist, but that was not the case. I was so glad that we got to see her use magic and fight. Especially for that opening action sequence. When she was training Stephen though, she was, as I said before, very hardcore. She wasn't the easy teacher. I liked her explaining to Strange the way of magic and how it works. She pushed him to the limits, despite Mordo doing the physical part. Despite making bad choices, I mean we all do, she was very likable, although that likability, for me, was tested in some scenes of the film. She sadly didn't have a ton to do and that's because she was killed later on, but the scene where she and Stephen chatted on the hospital balcony had a lot of heart. The advice she gave to Stephen that "The important lesson for you to learn is that it's not about you." That was a great line. That scene itself was just loaded with emotion. Tilda Swinton's acting throughout the film was spot on. I like how Marvel is brave to do these bold choices and they just own the choices they make. A key example of this was when Stephen first visits the Kamar-Taj and mistakes the Ancient One for being an Asian master of magic and then flipping the script and saying that this is the Ancient One. I guess there were accusations against Marvel that they "whitewashed" the role of the Ancient One, but judging from Tilda Swinton's performance, I think Marvel had made a good call on that. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they couldn't have done better than Tilda Swinton, because what she did in the role was done so well. Now I'm sad that she died, but I saw that coming when she joined the battle, I was saying to myself "She's gonna kick the bucket isn't she?" Though the way she died was sad. That was a sad death. Why is that when teachers/mentors train a student to do good and defeat the bad guy, that they have to die? Anyways, I'll certainly miss that character.
Now it's no secret that Marvel, the MCU specifically, has had an infamous track record of weak, forgettable, and crappy villains that our heroes face. I mean do you remember these villains such as Whiplash, Ronan the Accuser, the Fake Mandarin, and Abomination? Do you remember how bad, ineffective, and unmemorable they were? Now coming off the heels of Zemo from Captain America: Civil War, yes Mads Mikkelsen's Kaecilius is kinda a step back. But if you take Zemo out of the picture for a second, Kaecilius seems more of a dangerous villain. He was willing to go there. The first bad thing he does is chop off a persons head for goodness sakes. Although to people worried about that. We don't see the severed head. No blood. I don't believe we even saw the head being chopped off. It's just implied. Mads Mikkelsen sells his scenes and his beliefs and why he was doing what with genuine acting. Marvel knows how to round up a great cast and this cast is no exception. He was threatening, menacing, and he sold his magic scenes. Now maybe in two or three years from now, Kaecilius may not seem like a huge deal as initially thought, but for now, my case on him is that he was a worthy, entertaining, and threatening villain.
Rachel McAdams as Christine PalmerRachel McAdams didn't have much to do in the film. She was largely sidelined for most of the film. In the beginning of the film, she was terribly treated by an arrogant Stephen Strange, and we didn't see her until Stephen came back to her, because he was badly wounded in the aftermath of the Sanctum battle after she more or less patched him up and then he left her and didn't come back until he brought the Ancient One to ineffectively heal her. Then he left her again to defend the Hong Kong Sanctum. So she was underutilized a bunch, but to be fair, she did good with the scenes she had. Although since Stephan is a bit like Tony Stark, Christine seemed to be a bit like Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts in a way, but on the bright side, Marvel doesn't seem to be showing signs of her return after she was literally mentioned in Civil War as apparently Tony and her broke up. But she was ok. I don't know a lot about Rachael McAdams, but she was great with what she got.
This was a funny character. Benedict Wong is playing well Wong. I chuckled a bit when I found that out. Wong, despite having low signs of humor, was hilarious. I liked his discussions with Stephan. Also when Stephen was trying to understand the purpose of Wong's name and made references to Adele or Beyoncé, I laughed, but it was only made hilarious when we saw Wong listening on a pair of headphones to Beyoncé's song, Single Ladies. That was hilarious! To top it off, we see portals opening and Stephen pulls book after book off the shelf with Wong unaware of what he's doing. A lot of funny moments revolved around Wong. Another one worth mentioning is when Wong finally gets a sense of humor and laughs at something Stephen said. Wong had a lot of serious moments too, he had a serious exterior. He didn't laugh out all, minus the moment just previously mentioned. He was like a sphinx, he didn't emote, which was his character. We didn't see him fight at all. We were teased that, but didn't see it happen. I hope he returns for the possible sequel that hopefully will be made. I think that he was a great addition so please bring him back.
Stan Lee's CameoNinety nine percent of the time, the creator for most of these
Marvel characters makes an appearance or cameo. Most of the time you blink you blink and you miss hum. Other times, where he has lines of dialogue, he's more visible. The cameo he made in this film falls on the later side of that. During the New York fight when Kaecilius is bending the road to keep Stephen and Mordo from entering the escape portal, they fall to the right and they hit a bus, which you can see from the picture on the top right. Inside the bus, you see Stan Lee laughing and exclaiming at something he's reading "That's hilarious," as Stephen and Mordo look and wonder what he's laughing at. It's not one of his best cameos, but it was funny. I thought it was ok.
Favorite Action Sequences
Now that we've gone through the cast and their respective characters, I thought I'd go through the different action sequences. I loved the action sequences in this film. The effects assisted that really well. Not to mention the added quality of IMAX 3D. I was really impressed with the quality of the actor's performance doing magic hand movements and their acting during the action sequences. They were also inventive, creative, and had you on the edge of your seat. So I'll go action sequence by action sequence and I'll talk about them.
Strange's First Magical Experience
So the first one I want to talk about is Stephen's first introduction to the wonder of magic/sorcerery. This was a mind blowing sequence. This was the one that made me think that paying for the IMAX 3D was worth it. When the Ancient One pushed his astral form out of his physical body, I was like okay, this is it, but when she sends him on his little trip, my eyes were wide open and focusing on every thing that we're seeing. I was like wondering what I was looking at. It was that cool. How space was folding in and out and the way he was hurled through all these different dimensions and realities. Some things we saw were odd, but others kinda made sense. It gives you that realization of that's how that works. Then for him to come back to the Kamar-Taj and then leave again. I was in awe on how gorgeous everything looked. But little did I know, that that scene was just the appetizer.
This was one of the more clever action sequences. After that hilarious "Mr Doctor" banter and when the fight began, I was eager to see all his training pay off. The weapons in his arsenal were few, but when you add the Cloak of Levitation to the mix, stuff just got real. When Stephen was using the doors that lead to different environments as a weapon, that was both funny and smart. Because it was so simple. When you have things like that at your disposal, you use them. That's where my whole creative action sequences statement comes from. When the Cloak got in the fight, by blocking Kaecilius's attempts to kill Stephen, I got excited. But the Cloak was smart too and it nonverbally telling Stephen to go for those body restraints instead of the axes, that was another example of the film be inventive, because sometimes the best weapons are the ones that seem like it and that ended up trapping Kaecilius for a period of time. Then of course he got wounded by one his henchman, which directly led into another exciting and somewhat thrilling action sequence.
Astral Plane Hospital Fight
That was some funny action sequence. A bit short, although you know what they say. Good things come in small packages. As a matter of fact, it was one of my favorite parts of the film. The added bonus of the two fighting in their astral forms was awesome. However if they are both essentially spirits, how can the two make contact with one another? The humor of them hurting each other, but their damagge doesn't affect the world at all was hilarious. Luckily, because Christine was using defibrillators to revive Stephen's body, whenever she activated it, Stephen's astral form got a spiritual power up, which also had no affect on the real world, but boy did it blow his adversary to bits. But there was a bit of affect that their fight caused on the real world. For instance, when they flew through the vending machine and another one of the snacks fell down along with the one the guy paid for and he took the extra with expression of nobody's looking. That made me chuckle. Added to that sequence was Stephen hopping in and out to assist with the healing of his own body, so it was also a funny sequence. Sorry that there are no pictures to accompany this sequence. This was the only action sequence that hasn't been advertised.
New York Fight In The Mirror Dimension
Now we get to the fight that proved problematic for Marvel, but I thought the sequence was executed beautifully. There were points made early on when some of the parts of the sequence was shown in the promotional material, that it looked too similar to the 2010 film, Inception. I can't speak to that fact, because I haven't seen that film, but from what I understand, yes some of the visuals look the same, but other than that I don't see any other complaints. Anyways, let's talk about the sequence. Now one of the things I wondered when I saw the parts of the scene that was teased, I wondered how does this happen without the people in New York freaking out about it? Then they introduced the Mirror Dimension and when Stephen trapped Kaecilius along with Mordo and himself in it, I got it. As for the sequence itself? Wow was it thrilling. Buildings folding on top of each other. They turned New York into something awesome. It looked great. The magic that was done was top notch. The fighting sills presented had me on the edge of my seat. There was genuine danger. It lasted a little too short for my liking, but what I got was nothing short of epic.
The concluding action sequence where Stephen and Mordo go to Hong Kong to defend the final sanctum from Dormammu's invasion was the cherry on the top of all the mind bending magic that we saw. Yes, Dormammu made an appearance in the film. We'll talk about that next. But this is the most we saw the Time Stone used in the film. If you didn't know already, the Eye of Agamatto houses the Time Stone, which is the fifth out of six Infinity Stones we've seen introduced thus far. As you could guess from the name alone, it of course has the ability to turn back or forward time. So I loved this sequence because of the use of the Time Stone. The way Stephen was using it to fix up all the the damage made to Hong Kong, including its wounded and recently dead citizens. Somebody call the Avengers. You can tell them that there's someone who can clean up all their messes. I know Wong said that it quote " Would break the laws of nature," but it's for a good cause. Also how can the universe be destroyed if you can just turn back time to stop that?
Fun fact. Benedict Cumberbatch did the motion capture for Dormammu. Like he did with Smaug in the Hobbit films. The filmmakers were clever about this. Really clever. People would wonder how this fight could ever take place. It's Doctor Strange going up against, essentially, a god. But how do you beat a god? You trick it. It was so clever that Stephen would create an endless loop, using the Eye if Agamatto, to make "a bargain" with Dormammu. It's so simple. What makes the scene better is that Stephen was willing to sacrifice his life, which was something that was his primary concern, to save the world. That was great. That shows that he had learned that lesson. It was great character development for him. It was also funny. He couldn't win against Dormammu, but as Stephen pointed out, he could lose over and over and over again. What a great concluding action sequence.
Score
Composed by Michael Giacchino
When Marvel, on their official YouTube channel, released a snippet of what the score would be like for the film, I listened, and to make a corny pun for a moment, it was a bit strange. I was wonder what I was listening to. I didn't hate it, but I didn't particularly like it either. I seem to really like a films score after I see the film itself and what it's used for. Then I seem to understand the score. There was a ton to like about the score. It's unique in a way.
Conclusion
So that's my fun, albeit long, review of Doctor Strange. What did you think of the film? Did you like the after credit scenes? What was your favorite thing about the film. To those that haven't seen it that read the spoiler portion, are you gonna see the film. Write those answers down in the comments as well as what you would like to see done on this blog. I appreciate you reading such a long review. Thanks for reading, I'm the film fanatic, bye-bye.
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