Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness: What to Expect Before You Watch
by Greg Ehrhardt, OnScreen Blog Contributor
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE ARTICLE
The Marvel event we’ve been waiting for since, well, 5 months ago, ‘Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness’ premiered for the national audience last night. Doctor Strange is anticipated to have a $200 million dollar domestic weekend (ho hum for Marvel these days), but my biggest concern heading into this movie was that my expectations were going to be way off compared to what the movie actually delivered. So, paying it forward, since we imagine most people will not be actually undecided about watching this movie (you’re either in or out at this point), let’s manage (positively and negatively) expectations about what this movie actually is and what it delivers.
Question #1: Is this really a Sam Raimi horror movie?
Answer: Way more so than the 1st Doctor Strange, but, it comes and goes, which is both a delight and a bit of a frustration. This is, without a doubt, the most an MCU movie leaned into the horror genre, but it’s for (at most) for 3-4 minute stretches before doing typical MCU stuff. It’s still a comic book movie first, and a horror movie 2nd (or maybe 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc)
Question #2: Ok, just tell me, are the easter eggs and cameos of other marvel players awesome? That’s what I’m really looking forward to.
Answer: Unfortunately, the trailers have given away most of the cool cameos. There’s a HUGE unrevealed cameo that got an amazing pop from the audience (and me too) that I won’t dare spoil, but, unfortunately, the trailers decided to spoil some of the movie’s really fun cameos themselves.
Question #3: Is this better or worse than the first Doctor Strange movie?
Answer: It is very different as we alluded to talking about it as something of a horror movie, and it almost feels like a different franchise entirely some of the time. I was surprised in comparison to the first movie how little Strange used tricks like the mirror dimension and other various spells to do interesting things.
Question #4: So is this really a multiverse movie, where Strange goes into a bunch of different universes?
Answer: Can’t comment specifically,, but I would temper your expectations on the multiverse traveling actually done in the movie.
Question #5: So you haven’t mentioned Wanda yet.
Answer: She’s as important to the movie as the trailers indicate, and she’s very good and effective in this movie. I can’t say much more or otherwise risk spoilers.
Question #6: The trailers indicate Wanda is basically a villain. Is this actually what happens or is there another villain that emerges?
Answer: This isn’t spoiling much, but Wanda is Strange’s antagonist for this movie. I chose my words deliberately!
Question #7: Is there anything I should watch before this movie?
Answer: I would say WandaVision is pretty close to a must-watch before this movie, and probably the Strange episode of What If would be helpful (episode #4).
Question #8: How is Sam Raimi as a director in this movie?
Answer: Overall really positive! There are some really cool horror shots in this movie, as well as some unique panache overall. On the negative side, the first 30-40 minutes felt like it was hastily edited and left some significant storytelling shortcuts in place. It was so appalling to me that I was really worried this might be a bad movie, but the rest of the movie recovers nicely.
Question #9: How good (or meaningless) are the end credits scenes?
Answer: The mid-credits scene elicited the 2nd biggest “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat” from me for the night, and obviously won’t spoil it, but it might be one of the biggest mid-credit doozies we have seen. As for the post-credit scene, it’s very skippable, unless you are a big Sam Raimi fan.
Question #10: So, overall, sounds like it is good?
Answer: Yes, it’s good, but absolutely no better than that. MCU movies are usually great at the central character’s arc, and Strange’s arc in the first movie is one of the MCU’s best. In this movie, it emotionally didn’t resonate with me, and although the effort was there, it was one of the weakest story executions in recent memory.
But a movie is more than a character’s personal arc, and overall, the horror elements worked, and this was mostly fun. The movie did leave me wondering what the Scott Derrickson version would have entailed because the movie most certainly had room for more horror.
Also, I didn’t mention America Chavez or Rachel Palmer because the less you know about what they do or what their role is in the movie, the better. They both were fine in this movie!
Bottom line: temper your expectations for MCU cameos galore, brush up on WandaVision, and be ready for an MCU movie that actually embraces horror a bit. It’s a unique entry in the MCU, and a solid Doctor Strange movie.
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars.