Doctor Strange Review

Success often breeds opportunity to take risks. There is no stopping the cinematic machine that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and their box office smashes have led to them choosing more riskier projects and unknown quantities, all of which still have to tie into their overall plan for the universe. Their latest venture, the 14th installment in the MCU takes us to very uncharted territory in the form of mysticism, magic and the multiverse.

Doctor Strange is actually Doctor Stephen Strange, an incredibly gifted and also incredibly arrogant New York surgeon. He's cocky and big headed and also a rich playboy with the fast car and fancy watches to match. Heading speedily towards a night out on the town he skids off the road in dramatic fashion and winds up in hospital. The accident crushes his hands, after extensive work they are still irreparably damaged and will draw his career as a surgeon to an end. After exhausting all of his money on possible cures he winds up travelling to Nepal where he's heard of those who might be able to help him. There he meets The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) and her right hand man Master Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who introduce him to a world beyond his imagination.

Director Scott Derrickson has to be commended for his work on this film, constrained by the necessary back story he has to tell he has managed to create the best MCU origin story in their entire catalogue. To begin with the performances are a uniformly brilliant, Benedict Cumberbatch is a welcome addition to the Marvel family, his ark is similar to that of Tony Stark's in that he is an incredibly arrogant playboy who goes through a grueling experience and comes out better on the other side. The difference is that Strange gains his powers through study and work rather than the money that Stark throws around, Strange loses everything and doesn't really get it back by the end, he has to make sacrifices. The delivery by Cumberbatch of the cruelty shown by Strange in the earlier moments make his transition and sacrifice all the more effective. Tilda Swinton as a The Ancient One is a stroke of genius, she's an actress that gives off the sense of being other worldly, and if you forget all that its just an absolute pleasure to see Swinton kicking ass left right and centre. Mordo is probably the most complex of the characters, he is a devotee to the teachings of The Ancient One and when she turns out not to be all what she seems Mordo's moral conflict is sold brilliantly by Ejiofor in few scenes to do so. Not everyone gets their fair share of time, Rachel McAdams is as good as you'd expect her to be but she is lumbered with a thankless role as Strange's love interest. Once again the MCU is lumbered with a poor villain, though Mads Mikkelsen is always menacing, his Kaecilius falls onto the pile of other average but forgettable Marvel villains.


What elevates this above so many others of its type is the sheer ingenuity and beauty of the design in the VFX. There is a logic to all the magic that is used and this is encoded by its design, geometric shapes in keeping with the designs in the comic, also the animation of the cloak of levitation, which calls to mind the magic carpet from Aladdin in that it feels like a character in itself. Moments in the trailer were commented on by many as looking a bit like Inception, to compare the two would do Doctor Strange a monumental disservice. In Inception the city folded over a bit, here the cities are tilting inwards, inverting and mirroring, architecture transforming and the characters having to run and fight through all of it. It is without question some of the most impressive VFX work put to screen, combined with the choreography of the fighting it produces some of the most unique set pieces in recent times.

Marvel have always have a pretty rigid formula, no question that the formula works but when they take a risk and break or alter the formula it draws better results. Rather than the usual city destroying battle for a climax Doctor Strange inverts the formula by rebuilding a city as time move backwards, it could just be seen as a wry wink to the critics of the previous films, but when it conjures up something so visually titillating, its very difficult not to be impressed.

People keep posing the question as to when the Marvel bubble is going to burst. Asking that question is assuming that all the films are the same, although they feed into the same universe they are in fact very different, Doctor Strange is unlike others in in the MCU and Derrickson has made something incredibly difficult, look incredibly easy, with good box office numbers so far, audiences will be queuing round the corner for their next appointment with the Doctor.

(Low 5 Stars)