Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness
An underwhelming and largely unambitious take on the multiverse, that throws opts for jump scares and cameos rather than character development and fresh takes.
Attending the wedding of his former flame Christine (Rachel McAdams), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is wrenched into an inter-dimensional conflict when he has to save America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) from a being sent to steal her power. You see, Chavez can travel the multiverse at will, and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) wants that power for herself to travel to a universe in which her children are alive. While Strange, Wong (Benedict Wong) and others try and stop her in our universe, they are all no match for her witchcraft, ultimately leading to Chavez and Strange making a journey across universes to find a mystical book of power, encountering multiple Doctor Strange’s along the way, as well as a few surprises.
Directed by Sam Raimi, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is a frustratingly unambitious and empty sequel to the most mind-bending hero in Marvel’s pantheon. Frustrating because the first Doctor Strange film was so inventive, exciting and visually spectacular.
Here, we’re thrown straight into the action, with Chavez and a pony-tailed Strange in another universe fighting some crazy CGI monster, which is followed by (a) a wedding of a character the Strange in our minds has long outgrown and (b) yet another CGI hurl-fest on the streets of New York. After a quick exposition dump, Strange is off to visit Wanda, who pretty much immediately reveals she is behind it all. Then rapidly to the himalayas, for more undefined magic battles, before we jet across the multiverse with our leading duo as they hunt for a solution.
The first half to two-thirds of this movie are paint-by-numbers Marvel; just jumps between big CGI fight scenes with no excitement, involvement or agency. It’s the sort of montage-y filler that makes you detest the formulaic superhero film, and long for greater creativity.
That said, the back half to one-third of the picture provide some highlights that are exciting, fresh and new. We get introduced to the Illuminati, an Avengers-style peacekeeping force from another universe, that includes some exciting, crowd pleasing surprises. We get a brutal fight between the Illuminati and Scarlet Witch (albeit, one heavily reminiscent of one done better in the tv show Invincible). Most impressive is a mystical fight between two Strange’s, with weaponised music notes matching a harmonic battle in our eardrums. It’s the sort of inventive action the first Strange film introduced into the universe, and brings a welcome sense of relief - here is the creativity, mind-boggling action we expected!
Raimi exerts his horror loving presence increasingly throughout the runtime of the film, with the number of scary creatures, demonic possessions and jump scares increasing as the piece goes forward. The issue is that everything in this movie, aside from one brief fight sequence, feels like a check box exercise. Scarlet Witch popping out from the darkness with overlayed Wilhelm scream? Check. Bad ass line delivered by McAdams with barely any explanation, build up or payoff? Check. Endless on the nose dialogue that makes no sense but sounds good, like “We’re going to save America”? Check. By the end of the film, you just feel exhausted; exhausted by the endless exercise in bar-clearing that this film is. At some point, this formulaic approach to movie making has to be stopped. Sure, Raimi adds some of his scares, but because they are so shoehorned into this formula, they too feel cliche and formulaic.
They should have used Chavez’s multiverse travelling powers to find a universe where this sequel was actually interesting, rather than a hodgepodge of done before, and done before better, ideas. Ultimately, this is a film that will have you leaving the cinema longing for a less disappointing Doctor Strange; one that isn’t quite so exhaustingly, frustratingly boring.
