DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS (2022)
Tagline: Work together or die alone.
(Action, Thriller, Fantasy) [PG-13]
This time it's gonna take more than killing me to kill me!
The events of this movie take place right after SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME ends. Doctor Strange has opened the portal to the multiverse and can’t stop dreaming about it. In his dream, he runs into America Chavez who has the power to travel the multiverse but is unique in that there is only 1 of her. It doesn’t take long before she ends up in the main universe we are familiar with, and Doctor Strange comes to understand that she must be protected at all costs because cosmic powers are after her. He then turns to the only one he knows that might be able to help, Wanda Maximoff.
First off I waited a few weeks on purpose to go see this movie due to having a hard time finding Jenn and I a theater seat we wanted. I have read a lot of non-spoiler reviews like this one in the meantime and the reviews are about as "mixed bag" as it gets. While I do love the first 3 original SPIDER-MAN films directed by Sam Raimi, and DARKMAN, most of his films don’t blow me away.
Acting-wise this is a really good movie and the fact that several of the actors have to play multiple versions of themselves either from this movie or past movies it’s even more of a display of talent. I found Xochitl Gomez to be quite good as America Chavez. Admittedly I had heard of the character before this movie but never read a comic she was in. We also get a pretty heavy dose of Benedict Wong who plays Wong in the MCU and is always just really cool. Unlike a lot of other crap Benedict Cumberbatch does, he was pretty much born to play Doctor Strange and kills it in this role. Then to wrap up the non-spoiler characters we get Elizabeth Olsen who is also very good as Wanda Maximoff, but this is the first movie I have seen her in with lots of horror elements.
Cinematically this is a really CGI-heavy flick with near-perfect lighting and some cool character and creature designs. The flashes between universes and the ones we get to see are all pretty rad, making this a visual buffet on steroids. When it comes to the question of the horror element, yes, this is far more horror than we have gotten in other MCU films, but it still feels very much right out of the Doctor Strange comic pages. There is nothing really scary in this for adults, but I wouldn’t take young kids to see it. The PG-13 rating is appropriate.
Most movies these days seem like they are fighting for as much “wokeness” as they can get, but in spite of one brief scene where we find out that America has two moms, there really isn’t a "woke" message here. That scene mirrors the character in the comic so it doesn’t feel forced. People get pissed about something being PC or “woke” when it feels forced, or like they are placating to very specific and ever increasingly narrow audiences. If anything this one has a bit of a “pro-motherhood” message, along with making the idea of sacrificing yourself to save others sound like an actual virtue again. It’s actually one of the core ideas in all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
My advice is don’t go in expecting a full-blown horror flick, enjoy some of the moments of humor, and don’t expect 20 or 30 cameos. This is a solid movie but it is slightly dependent on its audience having watched at least the “WandaVision”. Otherwise, your empathy for Wanda’s character might not be where it needs to be to enjoy the plot. I will say this also. For a movie that is called Multiverse of Madness, I expect a Multiverse of Madness and we get that, but the plot isn’t madness. It’s actually pretty straightforward, so that might be enough for some people to check this out even if they have never seen “WandaVision”.
This is a solid 5 out of 7 with some dark elements but done in a way that doesn’t feel spiritually creepy.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF MARVEL STUDIOS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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