Dr. Stephen Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) life changes after a car accident robs him of the use of his hands. When traditional medicine fails him, he looks for healing, and hope, in a mysterious enclave.

He quickly learns that the enclave is at the front line of a battle against unseen dark forces bent on destroying reality. Before long, Strange is forced to choose between his life of fortune and status or leave it all behind to defend the world as the most powerful sorcerer in existence.

Reviews

“Mish (Guest Reviewer)” – Doctor Strange was pretty different from your ‘normal’ Marvel movies. There are no wondrous abilities due to a spider bite nor godly powers from your dad, who is a god and he sure doesn’t get it from a suit powered by an arc reactor. It’s a genius who has to find another way to heal what he considers to be the most important thing in his life, only to discover that there are more important things in life – such as saving the world as we know it.

Okay, aside from the fact it was Benedict Cumberbae (who is basically life – yes. I have a crush. Just chill). I genuinely enjoyed the dry and often witty humour which felt natural instead of forced or scripted. In terms of the movie. DO NOT WATCH IT FOR THE FIRST TIME WHILE ON A NARCOTIC. You will be tripping for days. (On a side note. I do not condone the use of narcotics but I’m not naive enough to believe that everyone else condones it’s usage too). SPOILER(ish) .. Strange’ introduction into the mystical world is nothing short of a trip into a mixture of a cosmic LED rave party/molecular biology lab sort of thing, where it’s a miracle that your brain can actually process all of the colours that’s displayed at the same time, it’s really awesome.

There are also a few subtle references to other marvel movies and I’m not just talking about the end of the movie where Marvel shows you a sneak peak into the next movie, pay attention and you may just spot what I’m talking about. (Good job marvel) The main villain is known as Dormammu and for me as a little cultural mix I kept giggling every time I heard the Mammu part. Mamu is hindi for maternal uncle. So every time someone mentioned the great ‘mamu’ coming, in my mind I could see a typically Don type indian man with the heavy gold neck chain being worshipped by fanatics, namely Kaecilius. On a character level. One character I can really relate to, would be the Cloak of Levitation. YES.

The cloak totally counts as a character in my opinion because I could totally see myself in it. Overall it was a pretty cool film. I like marvel films which is probably why I enjoyed it so much as well.

“That Nomad Shad” – Doctor Strange is the FOURTEENTH film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe…and once again proves that they can add anything to their universe and we’ll just accept it.

So Doctor Strange introduces drugs magic to the MCU is this acid trip-fuelled visual extravaganza. Visually, this is Marvel’s best movie to date! The fight sequences are amazing and shy away from the traditional punch, pew, EXPLOSION. Think of the hallway fight from Inception, but on acid.

This leads me to my second point, the film isn’t afraid to have it’s own MAGICAL identity. In a Universe infested with ninjas, aliens, sentient trees, Norse gods, super soldiers, and a talking raccoon magic can’t exist…right? Well, Strange throws that notion out the window very quickly, and gets into the trippy shit.

Bendydick Cumberpatch Benderlick Cabbageflap Bennedict Cumberbatch is great as Doctor Strange. He starts out as Sherlock who has an unfortunate accident and is forced into the MCU shutting down Sherlock for another year. This is a role that was made for him…because he looks exactly like the character! He really pulls off the New York accent and delivers an enjoyable rendition of the Doctor, but Chiwetel Ejifor stole the show for me. I was honestly a little bit more invested in Mordo than Strange. His character is far more complex and poses good questions about a sorcerers

Doctor Strange is not without its flaws and this one suffers Marvel’s classic underdeveloped villain trope. Yip, sadly Hannibal is severely underused for that caliber of actor with little motivation for his actions. He’s there because Strange needs a big bad to fend off. That’s my only qualm with the film, leaving Loki to reign as Marvel’s greatest big bad.

Strange adds a breath of fresh air ,and extra dimension (pardon the pun) to the MCU. I’m really keen to see how Strange will influence the MCU film’s heading forward. You don’t want to miss out on this one! 8/10

“el Proktor says” – I’ve recently been doing a spot of soul searching as a Comic Book Fan. It truly is a golden age of cinematic awesomeness for our kind. I guess it is human nature, that even when we get everything we ever asked for, we can still find room for complaints (I’m looking at you TMNT: Out of the Shadows).

Here is where I am going with this, even though I have no fatigue of Super Hero movies in general… I have MAJOR Super Hero Origin Movie Fatigue, SHOMF if you will (I can only see Uncle Ben/Martha and Thomas Wayne die so many times)

It is with this in mind that I approach another Super Hero Origin Movie (sigh). Marvel’s Doctor Strange: The Failure of Obamacare (Trump was right! And this entire movie is Obama’s fault! #MakeAmericaStrangeAgain)

Getting bored of being ridiculously good at his detective job, Sherlock Holmes decides to change careers, become a world class surgeon and drop his British accent. Stuff happens; he drives recklessly (like a Rich and Arrogant Asshat). Karma happens, and then Obamacare fails him (because he was a Rich and Arrogant Asshat). More stuff happens and he teams up with 12 Years a Slave and Not-Quite-Cate-Blanchett, to fight Hannibal Lecter.

Oh, and at some point he goes from Rich and Arrogant Asshat to pretty cool and slightly humbled Super Hero Type Guy (so like every Super Hero origin movie then).

Doctor Strange is therefore written from the exact same Template as all of the other Marvel Origin Movies (Replace Magic with Techie things and this is basically Iron Man).

Butt…

The acting talent is quite solid though

And the Visual Effects are fairly mind blowing (think Inception on your favourite brand of psychotropic)

And Mads is always so cool, it’s kinda Cray(s) #ThatShitCray(s)

Now some people will tell you that the Villain was weak (Typical Marvel Movie’s critical rhetoric here). I have a theory on this, bare with the strange machinations of my mind for a moment.

Every Marvel Villain (besides Loki), is SHIT, because Every Marvel Villain EVER, is just Loki in disguise.

And he always wants himself to come off as the most Legit Bad Guy (some may even say too legit. Too Legit To Quit). So he always make sure all other Villains seem weak by comparison. Shout out to all the actors (the dude), playing Loki (a dude), disguised as [insert villain name here] (another dude).

In the end though, another Super Hero Origin Movie wasn’t (such) a bad experience after all. Past the non-magic-ey start of the movie, it was one heck of a thrill ride and I will be forking out extra cash to see Doctor Strange in IMAX 3D, just for those effects.

I give it a ‘Laughing Wong’, out of a ‘Serious Wong’ (and in this case, Two Wongs definitely make a Wright).

Let us know what you thought of the movie!

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