Marvel’s ‘Doctor Strange’ Is Nothing Short Of Magical | Film Review

Imagination.

That’s what it’s all about.  Unfortunately – from a cinematic point of view – we don’t get a whole lot of it these days, being the era of the remake/sequel.  I often look back at another golden age – the 70s & 80s – and wax nostalgic on those times when we went to the cinema not always knowing what Hollywood had in store for us.  Names like Spielberg, Coppola, Lucas, Friedkin, Dante, Carpenter, Scott, Scorsese, Cronenberg, and many others were lighting screens afire with awe-inspiring works brimming with imagination.  Even when based on already published works, filmmakers were often able to elevate the material and create movies that we now look back on as classics.

Am I saying that those days are long gone?  Not at all.  There is still plenty of creativity out there, but it sure ain’t like the old days.  Hollywood seems to be on a mission to mine those very same classics in the pursuit of box-office bonanza, hoping name recognition and nostalgia will have filmgoers stampeding their way into theaters.  We are being inundated with a seemingly endless parade of films based on – it seems – every TV show and movie of note from the last thirty to forty years, with no end in sight.  Are they all soulless husks of what came before?  No, we’ve gotten some pretty good stuff based on older works.  “Mad Max: Fury Road” from 2015 is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time, and is an explosion of creative power.  It also happens to be the fourth in a series that began way back in 1979.

The superhero genre is also pretty huge right now.  Marvel already has an impressive number of movies under their belt, DC is well on their way, and just about every other studio in Tinseltown is looking to get any property they might have which features capes/spandex/superpowers into production as quick as possible.  When films like “Spider-Man” and “X-Men” ushered in this new era around the beginning of the millennium, it was like a return to those olden, golden days.  Filmmakers like Raimi and Singer gave us something new again, tapping into properties which – aside from the odd Superman or Batman film – didn’t receive much respect or notice over the previous decades.  As we moved further into the 2000s, other acclaimed creators – Nolan, Whedon, Favreau, and the Russos to name a few – continued to bring to life our heroes from the page, giving us wonderfully creative films that showed us sights we had never seen before.

But now, I have to admit, these movies don’t quite ring my bell like they used to.  There are so many of them, it’s difficult to get as excited as I was upon seeing Spidey or The Avengers for the first time.  I still enjoy them, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t starting to get a bit fatigued by it all.  The shine has worn off somewhat, and as each new hero or heroine makes their way into my local cinema, I can’t help but worry that future films may very well end up falling into the same trap which has ensnared so many other recent movies – across all genres –  and become empty rehashes of what birthed them.

Which brings me to Marvel Studio’s latest installment in their ever-expanding movie universe.  “Doctor Strange” tells the tale of arrogant neurosurgeon Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) who, after a horrifying car crash, is left with shattered hands.  As his livelihood, love-life, and psyche disintegrate around him, he exhausts pretty much every medical avenue available in search of a remedy, to no avail.  Finally, in desperation, he seeks out former paraplegic Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt), who somehow managed to overcome his irreversible injuries.  Pangborn points him in the direction of Kamar-Taj, an ancient kingdom nestled away in far-off Nepal.  Virtually penniless and hanging by a thread in every way, Strange wanders hidden alleys and side streets until he is finally chanced upon by Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a mysterious figure who ultimately introduces him to The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), a Celtic master of the mystic arts.  Thus begins Doctor Stephen Strange’s true journey from physician with a God complex to Sorcerer Supreme.  And maybe – just maybe – he’ll gain a bit of humility along the way.

And what a journey it is.  I bet – based on what you read above – you thought I was going to bash this movie, didn’t you?  Not even close.  I love, love, love this movie.  My fears are gone (at least for now) and I am truly excited again.  Remember how I was going on about imagination at the beginning?  This movie is positively overflowing with it.  I had a feeling going in that this might be something special, but I had no idea.  Oh my, the sights you’ll see!

I had dabbled in the Doctor’s comic book adventures a bit when I was younger, and was very curious how they would handle Strange’s extra-dimensional excursions.  They were quite trippy in the comics.  Well, they nailed it here.  We have lots of astral projecting, chases through various dimensions, and magical portals that open to far flung locales.  The Mirror Dimension has to be one my favorites and serves as the location for one of the film’s many standout action set pieces.  The planning, effects work, and choreography that went into that race through a cityscape turned literally upside-down must have been quite the chore, and I dare anyone to argue against the results.  Mind-blowing.  And it doesn’t stop there.  Every time I thought it couldn’t get much better than this, I was proven wrong.  “Doctor Strange” is a visual masterpiece of stunning proportions, an epic landscape populated by memorable characters I care about, thrown together in a reality-twisting scenario that will pop your eyes from their sockets.

And I reckon you’ll care a lot about these characters as well.  As usual, Marvel has assembled a wonderfully mixed cast of top-tier talent.  Benedict Cumberbatch continues to show why so many people can’t help but be enthralled by the guy.  He slips into three roles here – arrogant doctor, miserable wreck, and sorcerer on the rise – and his performance flows from one to the other effortlessly.  He makes each of them relatable and engaging, and he doesn’t plant a single tooth on the scenery.

Actually, I was expecting him to be much more of an arse at the beginning, and while the holier than thou attitude is certainly there, we can see that he isn’t all bad, and that’s good.  It makes his transition in character much more believable.  I really hate it when flawed heroes go from one extreme to the other in the bat of an eyelash, and was relieved to see that wasn’t the case here.  Making him completely loathsome in the beginning would have been a huge mistake.  Cumberbatch has created an exciting new character with Stephen Strange, and handles each stage in the character’s transformation like the master thespian he is.  The Cloak of Levitation, The Eye of Agamato, and The New York Sanctum couldn’t be in more capable hands.

Now that the big guy is out of the way, I gotta say that Tilda Swinton is an absolute joy to watch in this as The Ancient One.  So much so that, at times, she came damn near close to overshadowing her pupil.  There was a lot of controversy over Swinton being cast in this, and that’s a shame.  Allegations of whitewashing aside, she has made the character her very own, imbuing the long-lived Celt with a sense of humor and mischievousness I really wasn’t expecting.  This twist on the usual “ancient teacher of the arts” type character was very welcome, and I think audiences will thrill every time they see that lovely, bald head pop up.  And by the way, she’s quite the butt-kicker in her own right.

And, of course, every hero needs a villain, and this time around it’s Mads Mikkelsen as The Ancient One’s former protégé, Kaecilius, who has dark deeds and darker realms on the brain.  The man certainly has the physical presence alone to pull off the requisite amount of menace, but Mikkelsen keeps a tight hold on the reins of his character, never making him buffoonish or too over-the-top.  He’s quite reserved actually, a very focused baddie whose deadpan line delivery and unrelenting charge forward would make even the strongest among us want to immediately high-tail it as quick as possible.  I am reluctant to delve too much into his motivations, as to do so would reveal too much of what transpires, but I enjoyed what he brought to the role very much.  I wouldn’t call him Marvel’s greatest villain, but he is far from being one of the lesser ones.

The rest of the cast do a stand-up job as well.  Chiwetel Ejiofor hits the mark with his portrayal of the conflicted Mordo, a strict, stick-to-the-rules spell caster who aids Strange in his journey but may harbor a hidden darkness of his own.  I’m sure we will see a lot more of him as the series progresses, and I’m eager to see where his personal quest may take him.  Rachel McAdams does not have much screen time as Strange’s medical colleague/friend/ex-lover Christine Palmer, and whenever she appears, she can’t help but capture our attention and sympathy as the woman who sticks by Strange no matter what stage of his life he may be going through.  And finally there’s Benedict Wong as the librarian of Kamar-Taj, Wong.  I predict that a lot of people are going to fall in love with Wong, and I don’t blame them.  He’s smart, funny, kind of a nerd, a master of butt-kickery himself, and probably Strange’s most trusted ally in the end.  I hope to see a lot more of him in the future.

And that’s about it.  Oh wait, there’s one more.  I almost forgot The Cloak of Levitation, Doctor Strange’s signature red cape with the snazzy, upraised collar.  It’s quite the character as well, and was a favorite of mine in the movie.  How can a piece of clothing be a favorite character, you might ask?  Check it out and see why I’m sure many of you will agree with me.  It is a truly glorious piece of attire.

If I had any reservations going in, they had solely to do with the man behind the camera, director Scott Derrickson.  Now, I don’t mean to say I dislike him as a director.  He’s made some good flicks.  I enjoyed “Sinister”, “Deliver Us From Evil”, and a couple of other ones (dang it, he even managed to make a somewhat half decent “Hellraiser” sequel back in the day, and that ain’t easy), but I wasn’t sure if he was up to the challenge for something of this scale.  The last time he went the big spectacle route – with 2008’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still” – I felt the results were not really that successful.  However, those reservations are a thing of the past now.  Derrickson nailed it, nailed it, nailed it.  There’s oodles of imagination (there’s that word again – can’t say it enough), action, humor, a dash or two of horror (the film opens surprisingly brutal for a pg-13 film), and a whole lot of wonder that he managed to bind together into one of the best pieces of entertainment I’ve seen in years.  Bravo, Scott.  Bravo.

The script – credited to Derrickson, John Spaihts, and C. Robert Cargill – is lean and never deviates from keeping the story on track and zipping forward.  We are given what we need to know with a bare minimum of fluff, while at the same time never being left in the dark.  Not too much, not too little; that’s the name of the game here.  There are some who may say that it is heavy on exposition, but this is an origin story that relies heavily on magic, its origins, alternate worlds, and things that cannot just be brushed aside easily.  I appreciated every bit of information they gave me and feel it doesn’t hinder the movie in the least.  In fact, I think it adds to it.  This movie is all about Strange and his quest for knowledge, and the more we all learn, the better.  We are entering a new dimension in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and we need a solid foundation laid down before we move on.

Production designers don’t often get shout-outs in reviews, but I’m going to give Charles Wood (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) one here.  Astounding work.  And the art directors and effects artists that helped bring his vision to life should be commended as well.  Together, they have created something truly unique.

Marvel has done a very smart thing here.  By taking a sudden, sharp turn into the world of magic and the supernatural, they have created fresh, new worlds to be explored and threatened by.  It can’t just be “Iron Man” and company forever.  I’ve seen more than enough sinister aliens and ruthless CEOs for now.  It’s time for the creepy-crawlies to come out of the darkness and into the light.  And when they do, I hope the good Doctor is there waiting for them.  With his amazing cape, of course.

Yes folks, I’m once again on cloud nine. 9.5 to be exact.  With such diverse characters as “Black Panther” and “Captain Marvel” waiting in the wings, I think we are on the verge of many new and wondrous chapters in the Marvel story, and I hope they are just as inspired and visionary as “Doctor Strange”. For this trip was nothing short of magical.