By Jason Yon
Elm Staff Writer
Marvel’s newest flick, “Doctor Strange,” storms onto the scene this holiday season, adding heaps of money to Disney’s annual revenue pile. This time around, Benedict Cumberbatch plays the titular role with Chiwetel Ejiofor in a supporting role and Tilda Swinton as the controversial mentor. Following the example left by other successful Marvel movies such as “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Doctor Strange” features some of the more obscure characters in the universe and injects those stories with more comedy, something that appears to be working quite well for the franchise.
“Doctor Strange” tells the story of Dr. Stephen Strange and how he becomes the sorcererous, supreme Doctor Strange. The viewer is greeted at the beginning of the film by a sarcastic, arrogant, and egotistical neurosurgeon with a photographic memory and uncanny medical skills. Unfortunately, he uses his skilled fingers only for his own benefit. He turns down patients who won’t give him more fame and fortune and looks down on everyone he perceives to be lesser than him. As fate would have it, he crashes one of his expensive sports cars one night, destroying his hands and his neurosurgeon career along with them. After wasting all of his money on failed procedures to regain the use of his hands, Strange flees New York and wanders the world in hopes of a solution.
In the slums of Tibet, he is taken in by the Ancient One who teaches him magic. Here, he learns the error of his selfish ways as he prepares to save the world.
The major problem with “Doctor Strange” was the timing of the comedic relief that it insisted on using. It seemed like each serious moment was interrupted by some form of comedic relief. As a result, Strange never really seemed to be intimidating or fierce, and it quickly became annoying. Most of the time the humor was weak, predictable, and extremely forced. Ever since the success of the hugely popular “Guardians of the Galaxy,” it seems that Marvel has been trying to replicate the recipe, but with less than satisfactory results.
The other eye-rolling factor in “Doctor Strange” was the sheer number of references to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Every chance the movie got, it reminded the audience of the massive and diverse world it existed within. In New York City, a setting widely used in Marvel Universe films, Strange crashes his car right after refusing to operate on a member of the Avengers who was severely wounded in “Captain America: Civil War.”
The end of the movie sets up neatly for an upcoming Thor movie, creating yet another connection to the Infinity Stones so Stan Lee can make his obligatory cameo appearance. While all these factors weren’t terrible or intolerable on their own, the combined effect of them drew away from the actual story.
The best part of the film was by far the visual experience, which can be closely related to those from “Inception” while also completely surpassing them. The environments fold in on themselves and fan out in fantastic fractals as the characters manipulate them with magic. Sorcerers travel through different dimensions and planes, most of which are wildly mind bending. Watching each magician casting spells was also fantastic. The magic manifested itself as geometrical neon shapes controlled by the caster’s hands. They could also create rings of sparks to travel between dimensions. Spending the few extra dollars to watch it in 3-D would certainly be worth it.
Despite all of the hype that “Doctor Strange” drew in, it is just a mediocre cookie-cutter superhero origin movie, like the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It brought nothing new to the table other than the impressive visuals. While that shouldn’t be the only part of a movie that has redeeming qualities, the visuals stand out among the poor humor, predictable and unoriginal plot, and self-promotion present in the film. It was entertaining from start to finish, but it left no lasting impression, which honestly should or is expected from Marvel at this point. All things considered, “Doctor Strange” was worth the price of admission, but not by much.
Score: C