All right! I finally watched the new Doctor Strange film on Disney+. It's quite a doozy and worth a lengthy discussion. This movie is available for viewing at home and I think a full spoiler review is a good idea. I liked it overall, but The Multiverse of Madness has a few glaring issues. Let's talk about it!
You guys probably know the plot already. America Chavez is a superhero from an alternate universe and she tries to escape from a demonic creature through a portal that brings her to our current dimension. Doctor Strange and Wong try to save this girl when Wanda Maximoff goes on a bloodthirsty rampage to resurrect her children from WandaVision. After the characters travel through an endless loop of alternate dimensions, Doctor Strange convinces America Chavez to harness her powers and save the day. It seems like Wanda changes her mind, destroys the Darkhold book, and sacrifices herself to eliminate additional dark threats. Do you really think she's dead? I seriously doubt it, but that's how superhero stories work. They bring back dead characters all the time. In the end, Doctor Strange mysteriously develops a third eye and encounters a sorceress named Clea, before departing on his next adventure. Are you confused yet? I found the ending really weird and confusing. Despite having some issues, I enjoyed The Multiverse of Madness quite a bit. Some people might disagree with me, but I believe Sam Raimi was the right director for this movie. His projects have a lot of showmanship, entertainment, and camp, which works very well for this type of film. Let's face it. The Multiverse of Madness has a million different universes, variants, and realities with nonsensical sets of rules. It can't possibly make sense, but Raimi keeps the audience entertained with a decent amount of action, strong visual effects, humor, and cool oddities. This movie is weird in several positive ways. Some of the characters were enjoyable and well developed. Wong is always great and I actually thought Doctor Strange was a decent protagonist. Usually, I think Doctor Strange is better as a supporting character, but he held everything together and showed emotional range. As expected, his powers are impressive and his multitude of variants are quite entertaining. America Chavez is a brand new character and I found her utterly delightful. She has a lot of personality, spunk, wit, and very unusual abilities. Somehow, she can open gateways to other dimensions, which is pretty scary and fascinating at the same time. Maybe we'll see her on a Disney+ show one of these days. I didn't even mind seeing Baron Mordo again, even though his role is small. The first half of the film is awesome. It falls apart halfway through, but the movie starts out really strong. The Multiverse of Madness has a really interesting premise and the plot holds up for the first hour. Keep in mind, alternate universes and timeliness are extremely difficult to portray in cinema. Normally, everything turns into a huge mess, but it came together in a surprisingly sensible way for a decent amount of time. It incorporates major story points from WandaVision successfully and reveals Wanda's full transformation into the Scarlet Witch. This film throws a menagerie alternate dimensions at the audience with relative ease and I'm curious to learn more about some of these locations. Unfortunately, the momentum doesn't last. Once this movie reaches the halfway point, the story falls apart and certain elements keep getting worse. The plot makes less sense in the later stages and it becomes a lot more confusing. The grand finale is interesting and fun on a visual level, but I was pretty dazed at that point. Toward the end, it’s better if you watch the movie without thinking about anything. I felt disappointed with a handful of characters. Wanda is just another Marvel villain who doesn't work out very well. She's a far cry from the comic's epic villainy and grand power. I understand her motivations, but she's completely one dimensional and totally evil without a single redeemable quality. It's hard to believe she went from a reliable Avenger to a demonic witch in a short time window. Most importantly, I don't find her particularly powerful. The Darkhold has a lot of power, but she's very weak compared to her counterpart in the comic books. Also, I don't think we needed to see the Illuminati in this movie. Th Illuminati includes an alternate version of Peggy Carter, Reed Richards, Professor Xavier, Captain Marvel, and Thunderbolt. Supposedly, they're the most brilliant people in their universe, but I thought the entire group was completely incompetent. They didn't believe Wanda was a threat at all, which is both insane and unobservant. So, she killed them all within a few minutes. I didn't think it was necessary to bring back Christine Palmer either. Her character is exclusively a love interest for Doctor Strange and beyond that point, she serves no purpose. Did you like the ending? I just thought it was weird and confusing. For some reason, Doctor Strange has a third eye in the middle of his forehead. I'm familiar with third eyes in mythology, but it doesn't have a clear purpose in the MCU yet. Here's one of my pet peeves about Marvel films. Many of them preoccupy screen time to set up sequels, Disney+ shows, and conflicts in other movies. I want a film that can stand on its own without relying on a connected universe. That's why movies like Black Panther, Shang-Chi, and Guardians of the Galaxy are some of the best viewings in the MCU. With that said, I appreciated seeing Clea in the mid-credits scene. Wanda introduced an interesting point early in the film. Doctor Strange breaks the rules and everyone declares him a hero. Wanda breaks the rules and the public views her as a villain. Granted, they have entirely different motivations. Doctor Strange wanted to save the universe and Wanda tried to revive her children, who were a product of black magic anyway. However, her point makes sense in the third act. Doctor Strange uses the Darkhold, creates a zombie, and harnesses the power of demons to achieve his goals. It's okay because he's the protagonist. I heard grumblings from critics and people on social media about misogynistic double standards, but my interpretation is a little different. Basically, Doctor Strange is the protagonist and Wanda is the antagonist. That means his intentions must be good and her intentions must be evil, regardless of the outcome. I'm just chalking it up to lazy writing. You probably think I disliked The Multiverse of Madness, but it's actually pretty good with new ideas and a multiverse that makes some amount of sense. Overall, it's a decent film with a few cringeworthy elements. Nobody is perfect. What did you think about the new Doctor Strange movie? Leave your thoughts in the comment section. This was a fun post. I'll probably write more spoiler discussions in the future. Be safe out there and come back again next week. Good night!
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