Director: Scott Derrickson

Writers: Jon Spaihts, Scott Derrickson

Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams , Tilda Swinton, Mads Mikkelsen

The thing about the MCU is that they’re so good at consistently churning out solid play it safe movies that pointing out the flaws begins to sound like nitpicking. Can we complain about films designed for entertainment when they succeed in being fun to watch despite rarely breaking new ground in their larger storyline? At this point I’m just waiting for one to break the mold to get us out of their repetitive nature. Doctor Strange, unfortunately, is not that movie, but is a lot of fun to watch an as origin story.

The movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch (wonderfully cast) as Stephen Strange, the world’s best and most arrogant neurosurgeon. After a near fatal accident leaves permanent damage to his hands (they shake uncontrollably like Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan), he finds himself ruined and robbed of his self described best talent. Forget complex brain surgeries, he can’t even write his name without scribbling. Cumberbatch was the right choice, he has the narcissistic tones down after playing Sherlock, and can pull off the asshole that everyone still roots for like Robert Downey jr. with Tony Stark. One of the best things about Marvel is that they are almost immaculate with their casting decisions for the lead roles.

From there, however, his story is rushed to get him into being the superhero ready to join the next Avengers installment. Strange is almost immediately in Nepal to meet The Ancient One, played by Tilda Swinton (who I still think looks ridiculous), and his “training” is run through rather quickly without much strain. There’s a pretty weak scene where Strange finds himself on Mount Everest and must portal himself back to Nepal before he freezes to death, which he does with almost no problem (a far cry from what happens to Neo after his first jump). The movie has shown him to be a genius with a photographic memory, who reads all the ancient texts in the libraries and learns most of what he ends up knowing offscreen. The rest he learns from characters talking (tons of exposition) and explaining things to him in uninteresting ways. This presents a basic dilemma for the story, if Strange is so smart and becomes so imaginative so quickly, what are the obstacles he must overcome? His hands still shake, and no matter how much magic he learns he can’t seem to fix them. But where is the real conflict? Later in the film he tells another character, “You lack imagination”, that doesn’t feel earned because he didn’t have much of an arc to get to that point.

A big flaw with the MCU is that their villains are generally pretty weak characters. Here is no exception. The main antagonist of the picture is Kaecilius, played by Mads Mikkeleson (Mads!), one of my favorite actors. Although he is great the movie doesn’t give him much to do aside from being the main source of some cool action scenes. He’s one dimensional and motivated by something we’ve seen before. Him and Cumberbatch have one really great scene together that show how much fun the actors were having in their roles, but after that it’s back to a paper thin plot.

Rachel McAdams is good in the movie as Strange’s ex and fellow surgeon at their hospital, but also only given so much to do. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays another sorcerer who has a pathetic change of heart later on. The relationship between Strange and The Ancient One had no real meaning to me either. They seem less like master and student and more like two people co-existing in the same place. It wasn’t fully fleshed out or bothered to be developed, so when certain things happen later in the story it’s very hard to care about them.

The movie flaunts stunning visuals, especially the sequence where The Ancient One first shows Strange the Astral plane. This might be the first movie I wished I had seen in 3D (can’t believe I just said that). It’s inventive and colorful with its world bending magic. Eventually there’s a fight scene where the buildings and roads twist and turn as the characters navigate around them to do battle. As I mentioned before, there is some really cool action sequences in this movie (how Strange ends up with his cape might be the highlight). I sat there having fun watching them, but realized I had trouble caring about the fate of the characters in them. This is essentially what makes Doctor Strange a wonderful visual experience, but not much else.

Don’t get me wrong though, this doesn’t make the movie bad. But it does remind us it’s just another in the line of good but not great Marvel stories that don’t take many risks. What Doctor Strange has going for it are impressive visuals and Benedict Cumberbatch. It’s also very funny most of the time. There is great humor, some of it misses the mark, but more often than not I was laughing out loud. But it is awkward in its tonal shift from comedy to action to drama some of the time. The score by Michael Giacchino is among the best that Marvel films have had. It creates the perfect mood in a lot of scenes and is actually memorable.

The comparisons of this movie to Inception and The Matrix are warranted, the movie heavily references them as it goes. I think people will mostly enjoy the ride, although the climax is surprisingly underwhelming, albeit pretty funny. The post credits scenes (yes there are two) set up for a sequel, which I hope will have a lot more promise. Now that Strange is established I hope they take the time to really delve more into what can be done with him, and hopefully we get a jump in quality like what Winter Soldier was for Captain America. Overall this is a solid entry in the MCU. As origin stories go it’s not as good as Ant Man and it’ll rank closer to Thor in the end.