Doctor Strange review

OK, its Halloween tonight and I figured I might aswell get one last post in before the end of the night and indeed the month!  So this post will be on a new film that is just out, Doctor Strange, the Marvel superheo who is played by Benedict Cumberbatch.  So does it stack up???  Is it good???  Well let's find out...

And as a warning there will be a few SPOILERS AHEAD but don't worry I won't give too much of the plot away....

STORY

Right, so the story follows Doctor Stephen Strange (Cumberbatch) who is an acclaimed neurosurgeon who suffers a car crash one night and as a result he loses the use of his hands.  Strange after months of surgeries is still not successful enough in hoping to successfully recover the full use of his hands and he decides to leave behind his former girlfriend, Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) to seek out ways to heal himself.  Strange then seeks out a former paraplegic, Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt) who was able to eventually walk again, who tells Strange to travel to Kamar-Taj where Strange meets a sorcerer, Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who takes Strange to meet the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton).

And its from here Strange is taken under the Ancient's One instruction as she teaches him how to use powers that gain access to different dimensions although Ancient One is wary of Strange at first because of his arrogance.  But Strange soon learns of the forces that protect the Earth from other dimensions through a spell that is kept in three sanctums in New York, London and Hong Kong.  However the sanctums now come under serious threat from the villainous Kaecillus (Mads Mikkelsen) who intends to summon the Dormammu of the dark dimension, who would destroy the Earth if Kaecillus is successful.

So basically its up to you know who to stop it all from happening.....

THOUGHTS

Doctor Strange is another enjoyable entry in the Marvel universe and it is packed with some very creative visual effects and sequences and it must remain of the most surreal of all the Marvel films so far.  While it lacks the more gritty feel of some of the Marvel films such as the X-Men's or Captain America - Winter Soldier, its more fantasy based nature certainly lends something a bit different in feel to those films and that is something that's in its a favour (not to diss those other Marvel films of course!).

PERFORMANCES 

As for the performances they are all pretty good, starting with Benedict Cumberbatch who is very good in his role as Doctor Strange although his American accent isn't quite perfect, its decent enought that it doesn't grate or sound too silly.

Cumberbatch again adds in traces of Sherlock in his performance as he plays Strange as a fairly arrogant man although Strange arguably has a strong moral compass than Sherlock!  But more importantly Cumberatch has fun with the part and he has plenty of amusing moments, which I won't really get into much just now.

Although I will mention a few scenes such as the one where Strange first meets Wong, who simply says his name is "Wong" and Strange asks if he has another name but Wong (Benedict Wong) doesn't reply.  And Strange says "I mean just Wong?  Not Beyonce?? .  And later Strange even starts to use his magical powers to enter the library and steal books from under the nose of the library keeper, Wong.

Then there is the scene where Strange waits to get back into the sanctum after being rejected by the Anicent one for training and he waits for hours and hours and eventually as he sits by the door, it suddenly opens and he falls into it and feebly says "Thank you!".    

Chiwetel Ejiofor (a name I will NEVER pronouce correctly!) is also pretty good as Karl Mordo, who co-trains and later helps Strange in his fight against Kaecillus.  Ejiofor has some good moments in the film too but again I won't mention them here except the one scene where Mordo takes Strange in to be trained by the Ancient one and he gives him a small quarters to stay in and Mordo hands Strange a piece of paper with a word on it.  And Strange looks at the piece of paper, puzzled and says "What's this?  My mantra??" and Mordo says to him "Its the wi-fi password.  We're not savages!".

Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One does very well in her role too in a part which her character isn't exactly all she appears to be.  Swinton also has her moments in the film but I will in this review only mention the scene where Strange first meets the Ancient One and she pushes an apparition out of Strange's body and he proceeds to have an out-of-body experience.  And when Strange comes to again he asks the Ancient One "What did you do to me?!" and she says "I pushed your astral form out from your body" and Strange asks "Did you put mushrooms in my tea?  Was my tea drugged?" and she says "Just tea.  With honey!".

Rachel McAdams also does well in her role as Strange's former girlfriend, Christine Palmer, who is a surgeon who later on helps out Strange.  And McAdams has some fun moments and enjoys a nice chemistry with Benedict especially in the scene where (SPOILER!!!) Christine helps patch up an injured Strange in hospital.  So Christine asks Strange "Where have you been?" and Strange replies "I went to Kathmandu, and I learned to tap into powers I never even knew existed" and Christine asks "So you joined a cult?!".

Mads Mikkelsen is also pretty good as the main villain, Kaecillus (and he get's to wear some pretty cool eye make-up too!) and Mikkelsen who played the memorable role of LeChiffre from Casino Royale, proves here again he is quite adept at playing the bad guy.

And last of all is Benedict Wong as Wong, who acts as the protector of the library of the sanctum that contains valuable relics and books and Benedict is pretty good in his part and he enjoys some rather deadpan lines delivered in the direction of Strange, who struggles to get a rise out of him!

DIRECTION AND MUSIC

As for the director, Scott Derrickson does a fine job here and he keeps the action pretty fast paced the film rarely ever lags as its run time of 1 hour 55 minutes is just about perfect.  Derrickson of course previously directed the horror films, Sinister 1 and 2 and his work was largely in the horror genre, so his transition into the superhero world is a pretty smooth one and Derrickson looks to be a safe pair of hands for future Marvel films.

As for the music score, Michael Giacchino was the composer and he actually does a pretty good job with this one as I have to say I was never really a fan of his scores for the reboot Star Trek films but here his score is well suited to the film and its likeable even if its not entirely memorable.

FLAWS

As for the flaws, well Doctor Strange isn't perfect of course (although he might argue otherwise!) and for me I did feel the plot was trying to be a bit too convoluted for its own good at times and it felt a bit like watching the Matrix all over again at certain moments.  This is especially noticeable with the whole astral projection sequences with Strange flying through a psychedelic sky, its almost like Neo in the training programs for the Matrix and learning the jump program etc and here in this film it all feels a bit too similar to that.

I also thought that while it was visually quite impressive in its use of CGI, the film really did rip off Inception (Christopher Nolan's thriller starring Leo DiCaprio) with its overuse of buildings that fold into one another over and over.  And maybe if it wasn't for Inception, this would have made it a more groundbreaking effect in its own right but ultimately this is moot here given that its already been done!

And lastly I also felt the film had a slight feel of Harry Potter about it too where Strange is a student at the Anicent one's school as seen in the scene where Strange is trying to learn to create the portals, its has those some kind of hallmarks to it as the Potter films where Harry is learning his spells.  The only difference of course is that Strange hasn't really got any magical leanings in him prior to being taken in so he learns it from scratch.

But again if I'm being really picky I felt this film certainly recycled elements from Harry Potter as well as the Matrix and that is probably on a plot level the only real things I could level at it for being a just bit unoriginal.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

Right, so in summing up Doctor Strange is an enjoyable and fun entry in the Marvel series of films and it features some good performances form its cast who all appear to enjoy themselves in their respective roles and Benedict Cumberbatch looks very comfortable in the eponymous role.  It might not be the best ever Marvel film but there is still plenty to enjoy here and its worth a watch even if you aren't a Marvel comic book fan.   

Right!  So that's it for this month and apologies for the lack of posts lately but I will try and sort that out next month (if I can!) and I will be back on here soon with another review.

So till the next one its bye for now!