Sam returns to the Marvel Multiverse this week with Doctor strange in the multiverse of madness.
Watch the full, spoiler-filled Sam’s Take here:
Directed by Sam Raimi, Benedict Cumberbatch returns as Dr. Stephen Strange, trying to help young America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a teenager with the power to open portals across the multiverse.
This power draws the attention of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), who is dealing with the loss of her true love Vision and their children following the events of the Disney+ series. Wanda Vision.
The title says it all: the madness is in every frame of this, and now we’re into Marvel horror. Great time. For which, of course, Raimi is known.
His use of silence and suspense is positioned with pinpoint precision like a conductor. Aspects of body horror, psychological suspense, slasher movies, and good old-fashioned scares are sprinkled throughout the film in what turns out to be a pretty terrifying ride. A big departure from the usual Marvel way.
The story touches on one of the most beloved event comics, house of m. Released in 2005, that story follows the Avengers and X-Men trying to control Wanda and her reality-altering powers after she suffers a mental breakdown as a result of losing the children she created for herself. This doesn’t go as planned and Wanda creates a new reality where everyone has what they’ve always wanted.
There’s a lot to that story that isn’t explored in this film, but the main thread is Wanda’s deteriorating mental health and her attempts to bring her children back.
As a result, Wanda has all of Wanda’s comedic power, and Olsen absolutely enjoys it. His performance is expertly interpreted as a ticking time bomb. She is unhinged within her tragedy and has every opportunity to make the Scarlet Witch as menacing and horrible as she can.
Wanda’s character arc is one of the most engaging in the entire MCU. She has lost so much and that has pushed her to the limit. Only now, she has the power to bring it all back.
Cumberbatch continues that intense Strange from the comics, as we got into Spider-Man No Way Home last year. The one that while everyone else is obsessed with the events happening on Earth, Strange is in the corner making fun of them because he’s dealing with events on every single world imaginable.
In this film, she gets the de facto babysitting job again with América Chávez. She gives a contrast to her usually stern personality and allows her to develop, but she just wanted to see him take a crazy leap into the multiverse using her sorcerer abilities. We understand it to a certain extent, but there could have been more.
Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez is a great young energy, drawing in the surrogate audience with wide eyes and levity that acts as a balm for the scary bits. But her character serves as a bit of a McGuffin and doesn’t have much to do other than be a show machine.
Danny Elfman’s music is classic Elfman, adding so much to each scene.
It’s a blockbuster game that takes you through different realities and universes at such a frenetic pace, like a ride in a haunted house, that it’s engaging and a feast for the eyes. The animations and CGI are just as psychedelic as the first film, if a bit iffy at points.
From a visual and comic fan perspective, it’s mind-boggling, even though the characters only spend a lot of time in a couple of realities, and a lot of the magical combat is just lasers.
But the story is a bit lacking. It’s self-contained to a degree, but it’s not terribly devastating to the universe.
It’s just a person who wants to do something for a good reason, but with a bad method. There’s nothing wrong with a cheeky game with Dr. Strange and his friends being tied up in a loose noose at the end, but it doesn’t give much of where Strange will go in the future, other than a very rushed post-credits scene. .
The characters don’t seem to have changed much from the beginning of the movie to the end before you get whipped out of your pocket. The film struggles to find its emotional core amidst the action of the popcorn blockbuster, despite having the richness of Wanda’s arc.
The deep cuts and references that Marvel is pulling out of the bag lately are surreal, and there are plenty more cameos. They should be a complete mess, but they are not, they are placed exactly as they should be.
In this movie, Marvel is leaning into new genres again like it did with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the penchant for spy movies. This time we have a full-fledged Marvel horror-thriller. The creative license Raimi seems to have had is immense and a huge step for the future of the MCU.
The narrative deficit doesn’t completely ruin it by any means. It’s still a great Marvel movie with all the fun that comes with it, and Elizabeth Olsen’s performance is so powerful.
Check out the full, spoiler-filled version of Sam’s Take here:
Reference-www.rnz.co.nz