REVIEW -- Marvel's Doctor Strange (2016)

Doctor Strange is a 2016 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the fourteenth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is directed by Scott Derrickson, who wrote the film with Jon Spaihts and C. Robert Cargill, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg, Benjamin Bratt, Scott Adkins, Mads Mikkelsen, and Tilda Swinton. In Doctor Strange, surgeon Stephen Strange learns the mystic arts from the Ancient One after a career-ending car accident.

Cast: 

Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo
Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer
Michael Stuhlbarg as Nicodemus West
Benjamin Bratt as Jonathan Pangborn
Scott Adkins as Lucian
Mads Mikkelsen as Kaecilius
Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One

Cumberbatch also portrays, uncredited, the villainous entity Dormammu. For the film's mid-credits scene, Chris Hemsworth reprises his role of Thor from previous MCU films, to set up the events of Thor: Ragnarok.

Additionally, Linda Louise Duan appears, unnamed, as Tina Minoru, Mark Anthony Brighton portrays Daniel Drumm, and Topo Wresniwiro portrays Hamir, all Masters of the Mystic Arts under the Ancient One. The latter is based on Hamir the Hermit, Wong's father in the comics who was the Ancient One's personal manservant. The character is neither a manservant nor Wong's father in the film. Zara Phythian, Alaa Safi, and Katrina Durden portray zealots under Kaecilius, and Pat Kiernan appears as himself. Stan Leemakes a cameo appearance as a bus rider reading Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception. Amy Landecker was cast as anesthesiologist Dr. Bruner, but the majority of her role was cut from the film. The actress was ultimately credited for a brief appearance in the final film.

The Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

In Kathmandu, Nepal, the sorcerer Kaecilius and his zealots enter the secret compound Kamar-Taj and murder its librarian, keeper of ancient and mystical texts. They steal a ritual from a book belonging to the Ancient One, a sorcerer who has lived for an unknown time and taught all at Kamar-Taj, including Kaecilius, in the ways of the mystic arts. The Ancient One pursues the traitors, but Kaecilius escapes with the pages and some of his followers.

Stephen Strange, an acclaimed neurosurgeon, loses the use of his hands in a car accident. Fellow surgeon and former lover Christine Palmer tries to help him move on, but Strange, believing he can regain use of his hands, instead uses all his resources pursuing experimental surgeries in vain. After learning of Jonathon Pangborn, a paraplegic who mysteriously was able to walk again, Strange seeks him out, and is directed to Kamar-Taj. There, Strange is taken in by another sorcerer under the Ancient One, Mordo. The Ancient One shows Strange her power, revealing the astral plane and other dimensions such as the Mirror Dimension. Strange begs her to teach him, and she eventually agrees despite his arrogance, which reminds her of Kaecilius.

Strange begins his tutelage under the Ancient One and Mordo, and learns from the ancient books in the library, now presided over by the master Wong. Strange learns that Earth is protected from other dimensions by a spell formed from three buildings called Sanctums, found in New York City, London, and Hong Kong. The task of the sorcerers is to protect the Sanctums, though Pangborn chose to forgo this responsibility in favor of channeling mystical energy into walking again. Strange advances quickly over several months, even secretly reading from the text Kaecilius stole from and learning to bend time with the mystical Eye of Agamotto. Mordo and Wong warn Strange against breaking the laws of nature, comparing his arrogant yearning for power to that of Kaecilius, who believes, after the deaths of his loved ones, that everyone should have eternal life.

Kaecilius and his followers use the stolen pages to begin summoning the powerful Dormammu of the Dark Dimension, where time does not exist and all can live forever. This destroys the London Sanctum, and sends Strange from Kamar-Taj to the New York Sanctum. The zealots then attack there, where Strange holds them off with the mystical Cloak of Levitation until Mordo and the Ancient One arrive. Strange and Mordo become disillusioned with the Ancient One after Kaecilius reveals that her long life has come from her own use of Dormammu's power. Kaecilius mortally wounds the Ancient One, and escapes to Hong Kong. The Ancient One tells Strange that he, too, will have to break the rules, to balance Mordo's steadfast nature. She then dies, despite the best efforts of Strange and a bewildered Palmer. Strange and Mordo arrive in Hong Kong to find Wong dead and the Sanctum destroyed, with the Dark Dimension already engulfing Earth. Strange uses the Eye to turn back time and save Wong, before creating an infinite time loop inside the Dark Dimension that traps himself and Dormammu in the same moment forever. Strange agrees to break the loop if Dormammu leaves Earth, and the latter takes Kaecilius and the zealots with him.

Disgusted by Strange and the Ancient One's disregard for the consequences of defying nature, Mordo departs. Strange returns the Eye, which Wong calls an Infinity Stone, to Kamar-Taj, and then takes up residence in the New York Sanctum to continue his studies. In a mid-credits scene, Strange agrees to help Thor, who has brought his brother Loki to Earth to search for their father Odin. In a post-credits scene, Mordo visits Pangborn and steals the energy he uses to walk, stating that Earth has "too many sorcerers".

The Verdict: 

I think I've put off this review long enough, haven't I? Let's get things started, shall we?

Without a shadow of a doubt, Dr. Strange is easily Marvel's most visually impressive film to date. Viewers are selling themselves short to not see this film in all of it's glory in 3D/IMAX 3D.

Cast

I understand that there was a HUGE controversy surrounding this film given how Hollywood has "whitewashed" the Ancient One's casting with Tilda Swinton, but who cares? This is a new interpretation of this universe and continuity so they have the creative freedom to change these characters' ethnicity and races if they see fit. Marvel Comics has been doing it a LOT in the comics continuity (i.e. there's a female Thor, a black Captain America & black Spider-Man, a Muslim Ms. Marvel, and an Asian kid is the Incredible Hulk now for starters...) and I don't see any reason for them NOT to do so with these live action films. Plus, I didn't see people complaining when Jessica Jones' team changed Jerry Horgath's gender from male to female and made her sexual orientation lesbian instead of straight. I don't have to like all of these changes but it's obvious that Marvel isn't catering to me nor my age group nor group of nerds who followed this stuff for the decades prior before it became mainstream, so whatever. Hollywood is going to do what they want at this rate. Marvel Studios is the biggest cash cow out of the superhero genre lately and they've had more hits than duds, so that gives me a lot more faith in these changes instead of someone else doing them, like I dunno... FOX with Johnny Storm being black in that colossal fuck-up that was Fantastic Four earlier this year and 80% of the casting decisions for the DC Expanded Universe, but that's a conversation for another day.

This film is full of excellent performances by the cast from top to bottom, but the standouts were Mads Mikkelsen and Benedict Cumberbatch without a shadow of a doubt. Cumberbatch owns the role as Strange as well as RDJ as Tony Stark/Ironman and it makes me excited in anticipation of their pending future of sharing screen time together. Cumerbatch even thrilled as Dormammu's voice, but that's not too surprising as he did well as Smaug in The Hobbit.

Narrative

The first quarter of the film feels like we are being treated to an alternate reality take on the original Ironman film with Stark and Strange's egotistical or rather arrogant, personalities are pretty hard to distinguish from one another until Strange's fateful accident that strips away his intricate use of his hands for complex medical procedures due to severe nerve damage.

No lie... seeing Strange's hands fucked up made me bust out laughing in the movie theater because I thought about Hulk crushing Strange's hands during their battle during the World War Hulk storyline in the comics.

Speaking of Strange's accident, there was a clever Easter egg with the list of patients that were being ran by him from his assistant on the phone. They mentioned characters who were killed or critically wounded from incidents in the Marvel Netflix shows as well as Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. It's small tidbits like this that give me hope that Marvel will eventually give the small screen stars their moment in the big leagues down the road.

As for the conversation of the magic in this film, I felt that this film kinda glosses over that conversation. That saddens me as this film is supposed to be the formal introduction to the realm of magic being introduced into the MCU for mainstream fans who aren't watching the current season of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD that is getting into the meat and bones of magic. Sorry, Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff's "powers" don't count as they haven't classified them as magic... yet. They just refer her as "freaky" as per Maria Hill in Age of Ultron. On top of that is that there's little to no sense of time in this film to say that's the main plot device at the end of the film that ultimately defeats Dormmamu and his pawns.

Think about it... From the instant after Strange recovers from his tragic accident to arriving to Kamar-Taj there's no sense of time passing by. The casual fan would be easily fooled into thinking that all of the events in this film transpired within a single day or week, given how the film progresses. Then again, this parallels back to the same progression of the narrative in the original Ironman film.

I thought it was odd that no one thought to just strip Strange of his relics in combat. Compared to the other practitioners of magic, he is clearly the novice of the group, despite his mastery over the Eye of Agamotto. Speaking of the Eye, I thought it was bizarre that they regarded it as one of the Infinity Stones in this continuity, but whatever. Kevin Feige as described the Time Gem being a part of the Eye but not completely the relic, so I wonder how that will affect Strange's mystical abilities in the future.

That being said, the biggest takeaway from this film is that Marvel Studios finally said/referenced the "M" word that was off-limits until now. No, I'm not talking about "mutants" - FOX still has the rights to that unfortunately. I'm talking about the "multiverse" concept. In her introduction to the realm of magic, the Ancient One introduces the idea that multiple realities exist outside of the current reality that we have known outside of the MCU. This is not to be confused with nor limited to the nine realms from Thor's Norse mythology. The Ancient One specifically mentions that there are more realms and realities than just those concepts - endless possibilities, which brings her to the discussion of Dormammu and his Dark Dimension.

I thought it was funny that no one points out that while the Ancient One has been drawing power from the Dark Dimension for centuries, but the Sanctuaries' logo on those locations all have a variation of Dormammu's emblem in the spell that Kaecilius used to empower himself and his followers with Dormammu's "blessings". I would have desired to see some explanation on that as that was kind of a dead giveaway that the practitioners of magic were drawing from him in some extent.

I'm still scratching my head at Mordo's descent into darkness in the post-credits teaser. This departure made little to no sense. While I'm at it, they didn't even really need him nor Wong for the final battle. They were just convenient props/accessories to even the odds for the inexperienced Strange against Kaecilius. My only guess for the direction that they are going with Mordo is that Marvel Studios are going to make Mordo what Scarlet Witch was to the X-gene in mutants in the comics continuity to an extent. He's going to go around committing mass genocide to the practitioners of magic around the world so that it's down to him and Dr. Strange that could be the only two people could vie for the title of Sorcerer Supreme.

I did love that this was the first solo MCU origin story where the hero hasn't come anywhere close to reaching their full potential of their powers by the end of the film. Strange has managed to learn how to use an Infinity Stone, but he hasn't tapped into the full potential of what the Eye of Agamotto is truly capable of outside of time manipulation.

Speaking of time manipulation, the battle between Dormammu and Dr. Strange stuck in the endless loop was my favorite part of the entire film - hands down. We were given a sample of what Dormammu is capable of in battle while at the same time, we're shown how inexperienced and unmatched Strange is against his powers. Strange showed some promise here for what is yet to come but still horribly outclassed here.

I wasn't too crazy about the Ancient One's demise as I felt that it wasn't really necessary, but I can live with it as her role doesn't stop at the end of her physical life. She can exist in future films throughout flashbacks and via the astral plane. I don't see her demise as a major shake-up for this universe.

Last but not least, let's talk about this one major plot hole. Why is there such a lack of security on all of the "forbidden" spell books in the library, not to mention with a fuckin' Infinity Stone sitting out in the open? Hell, even Asgard kept that stuff in a vault in Odin's castle with guards keeping their eyes on that shit. The Ancient One only has herself to blame for her stupidity there. You'd think she wanted that stuff to happen. Then again... she might have, given that she's seen all futures and possible outcomes up to her own demise.

Also, is Palmer (Rachel McAdams' character) supposed to be Clea? For those wondering, Pangborn is a completely new character made just for MCU.

I thought the Thor reveal in the mid-credits teaser was funny, but expected as Thor: Ragnarok is one of the last stops on this road to Infinity War.

Watch it or Don't Bother?

Dr. Strange debuts stylishly in more ways than one.

Definitely watch it. As stated before, this is Marvel Studios' most visually impressive title to date and is magical - no pun intended - from the cast's performance to story that this character's debut deserved. For Marvel's first venture into the world of magic, it makes me excited for the future as it only gets better from here.