Doctor Strange

If you’ve been keeping up with this blog, you might know that I have grown quite skeptical of Marvel’s superhero movies as of late. I can’t help but get the feeling that there is a formula being used over and over again and perhaps these movies are good, but they’re not memorable. For example, Ant-Man. I don’t remember half of what happened in Ant-man. I remember he shrunk himself, he fought Corey Stoll, and Michael Pena was funny, entertaining movie, but not entirely memorable. Even Captain America Civil War kind of fell into the same motions that Marvel movies have been falling into and while I really enjoyed it, it doesn’t have the lasting effect that The Winter Soldier had, or that the first Avengers had. I still think Marvel movies are the top of the line and better than superhero movies used to be, but I’m always expecting them to do something different, break the formula and do something unexpected.

Doctor Strange was unexpected.

It took me a while to actually go out and see Doctor Strange because Doctor Strange just never appealed to me like other superheroes did. If I wanted to see Sorcerers and wizards, I would have gone and watched a Harry Potter movie, or waited another week for Fantastic Beasts. But since its Marvel and I might as well write them a check right now for all the movie tickets to movies I’m going to see no matter what, I went and saw Doctor Strange. Now I had heard that Doctor Strange was something different than the rest of the Marvel movies and for some reason, a lot of people who said that made that sound like it was a bad thing. When in reality, something different is exactly what I’ve been waiting for when it comes to Marvel movies. But while some things are different, there are still a lot of things to unpack when talking about Doctor Strange.

Doctor Strange follows the story of Doctor Stephen Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), an incredibly successful, but incredibly arrogant neurosurgeon who at the start of the film gets into a horrible car crash. This car crash badly damages his hands and makes it impossible for him to return

to his old life of being a neurosurgeon because his hands shake too much. While exploring all the Western practices and medicine he can to fix his hands, he runs across a man who was paralyzed beyond repair walking and playing basketball like nothing happened to him (played by Benjamin Bratt). From this guy, Strange follows a trail to Nepal where he finds the monastery of Karmar-Taj. There he finds The Ancient One (played by Tilda Swinton), a mystical being who promises Strange that he can unlock incredibly mystical powers if he studies at the monastery. Supported by fellow student Karl Mordo (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), this is Strange’s origin story to go from the broken neurosurgeon to Sorcerer Supreme. All the while, zealots and rogue sorcerers from the monastery, led by a former student of the Ancient One by the name of Kaecilius (played by Mads Mikkelsen), are on the war path to defeat the Ancient One, destroy the monasteries of the sorcerers around the world and bring darkness to the world.

And there is a lot to unpack from this movie. I guess the first thing worth mentioning is the fact that this is a gorgeously shot film. I don’t know if it should be nominated for Best Visual Effects, or Best Cinematography, or what, but give someone an award for the visuals in this movie. There’s a part where the Ancient One sends Stephen into the atrophysical realm and I don’t smoke weed but I can only imagine the fun times people are going to have while high and watching that sequence, it is a lot of fun.

And that really compliments the overall feel of the film. There are so many things in this film that are just different and not formulaic and I can’t tell you how refreshing that is, especially from a Marvel film. The visuals are something different, the story is something different (sort of, I’ll talk about that soon), and the story is driven by elements and action set pieces that just feel different and unique. Even the humor is a little bit different, drawing on the comedic work of Dan Harmon to give a bit of a Rick and Morty feeling to the film.

But where there are things different, you can’t help but notice the all too familiar Marvel-isms. I’ll start with the character of Stephen Strange.

Now don’t get me wrong, I liked Stephen Strange. And this was a surprise to me, I wasn’t sure how I was gonna like Benedict Cumberbatch despite everyone thinking he was a shoe in. I thought he was going to do the same Cumberbatch shtick we’ve seen before. The result was something I wasn’t exactly happy with but I still nonetheless begrudgingly enjoyed. Stephen Strange is a poor man’s Tony Stark with magic. There’s really no way around it. He’s cocky, he’s arrogant, he’s a little bit of an asshole, but at the same time he’s got a heart of gold and at the end of the day he really just wants to help people, but in the most quipping, snarky way possible. I guess they try and distinguish Stephen by giving him this analytical brain that he eventually needs to surrender to a spiritual belief, but even still, he just falls into the same quippy nonsense that Tony Stark does and this could have easily been another Iron Man movie. I think it’s better than any of the Iron Man movies, but the character is pretty much the same.

Like I said, I begrudgingly enjoyed this character because even though Marvel is formulaic, they know what is entertaining. They know that you are going to like a character like that. On top of that, Benedict Cumberbatch is a good actor. He does own the character and you do see the conflict he goes through throughout the film. I’m also really looking forward to him joining the Avengers in Infinity War as well as future Doctor Strange installments, and believe me, they hint at future installments in this film. I just wish that every time they introduce a new plane to fight evil on, whether it’s the Avengers fighting on Earth, The Guardians of the Galaxy fighting in the cosmos, or Doctor Strange fighting on the mystic plane, I wish they would stop introducing the first person in that group as a quippy arrogant asshole with a heart of gold. We have three of those now (Tony Stark, Starlord, and Doctor Strange) we don’t need anymore.

You can tell that the rest of the casting was pretty inspired and thought was actually put into it. Chiwetel Ejiofor is a fantastic Karl Mordo and he no doubt will have a great role in the next film. Strange and him make for a really good team in this movie. I think there is a good dynamic between the two that isn’t the center focus of the film but still pretty prevalent. I think I would have liked a little more flushing out of that relationship, but for what we were given, I am pretty happy with the future of the character and I want to see him in future installments.

Rachael McAdams has a smaller part as Christine Palmer, Strange’s… girlfriend? Friend? Fuck buddy? I don’t know that wasn’t really clear. I read something that said that she might have a larger part in the MCU in the future as The Night Nurse like Rosario Dawsom from the Netflix series, but for this movie, she is passable and it’s never a bad thing to put Rachael McAdams in stuff in my opinion. Her acting abilities and the fact she’s pretty easy on the eyes makes her role a welcome, though brief, addition.

And then we get to Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One. This had so many people’s panties in a bundle because the Ancient One, in the comics, is an Asian Man, now being played by a white woman. I

personally didn’t have that much of an issue with it, but as a white man, I don’t have the same perspective as a lot of other people who feel Asian actors are not properly represented in American films. My main outlook on the situation is, is the character the same if you change the race of the character, White to black, Black to white, Asian to white, etc. Does the character remain true to the values and personality of the character despite the change in skin color? For example, Luke Cage being a white guy wouldn’t make sense because everything about Luke Cage’s story, ESPECIALLY in the Netflix series, is so quintessential to Harlem and blackness. But then the question must be brought to the subject of The Ancient One. And honestly it depends on how important you see the Ancient Ones backstory. In the comics, he was a Chinese man from the Himalayas and a lot of his origin starts with being Sorcerer in his village of Kamar-Taj but there’s nothing quintessentially Asian about him. In fact part of the reasons Scott Derrickson thought it was necessary to change the ethnicity of the character was that he didn’t want the Ancient One to be a stereotypical Fu Man Chu Asian that would only be offensive to Asian groups. Instead he decided to change the Ancient One to a Celtic Woman. Though Derrickson has said since that he chose the “lesser of two evils, but still chose an evil”.

It’s funny because Doctor Strange came out and I really didn’t hear about the controversy anymore. Maybe it was dealt with a while back, maybe people saw the movie and thought that Swinton did a good job. I would hope it’s the latter because I really did enjoy her. She rides a really interesting line in this movie because like Swinton, who often plays her roles very androgynously, the character of The Ancient One is very androgynous with her motivations and her moral codes. But at the same time, when she appears, it’s like Yoda just showed up and its time to kick some ass.

And Benedict Wong is in this movie as the character Wong. Now doing some research into the character, I figured out that Wong in the comics was more of a stereotypical Asian sidekick to Doctor Strange. Sort of a Sancho Panza to Doctor Strange's Don Quixote. But again, Scott Derrickson was playing a fine line when dealing with the racial stereotypes within the source material of Doctor Strange. I really like what they do with Wong, making him more of a wise librarian type, and his deal is that he doesn't laugh. That is actually done really well and his character is a great wall of comedy that Strange's wit bounces off and it really is a hilarious character. 

But then you get into the villain. And once again, Marvel falls into the trap they have created so many times in the past where they develop their heroes so much and really don't develop their villain at all. On top of that, they usually put a critically acclaimed actor in that role and in a way it just feels like wasted talent.

But again, Doctor Strange was a little bit different.

The truth is, you're probably not going to remember Kaecilius. The truth is, he is probably going to go down as just another forgettable Marvel villain. But he is a little bit different in his motivations for being the bad guy. First off, he is seduced by the power and promise of immortality of a greater evil and he believes what he is doing is right. His men and he are called Zealots because they are the fanatics of the sorcerers. He's the extreme wing of this spiritual enclave. And that is an interesting idea. He also fits in well with the other characters, especially with his relationship to the Ancient One as he is a fallen student.

And to top it all off, you've got the incredibly talented Mads Mikkelsen, who really gives a good performance and isn't phoning it in, even though his character will probably be forgotten in a couple films. But I hope that he returns in some capacity and perhaps becomes a better villain. He still probably falls into the category of wasted talent in a Marvel film, but if they found a way to bring him back in a future film, maybe not even a Doctor Strange film, I would be very happy.

The overall story of Doctor Strange is executed very well. It has a strong likable, but fallible character in Stephen Strange who goes on a spiritual journey when the hard truths and facts of the Western world fail him. He joins a group of mystical protectors and becomes a better man, while fighting a looming evil set on destroying the world. I really can't wait to write my spoiler review because there is a lot to talk about when it comes to this movie and the future of the MCU, but for now I can say that I really enjoyed Doctor Strange. In a time where we are so sick of origin stories, Doctor Strange pulls one out and makes it new and fun again.

The last thing I can really appreciate with Doctor Strange is that it did a pretty good job at being a self contained film. While I'm sure there are a couple of Easter Eggs that I probably missed, there weren't Star Wars The Force Awakens level Easter eggs where the movie was pointing back to the other films in the MCU and beating us over the head with the reminders that this movie is in the MCU. With the exception of one of the post-credit scenes, which I have no issue with because that's not disrupting the flow of the movie to throw in a cameo (Like Ant-man did), there was maybe one big reference to the rest of the MCU and I really liked how Doctor Strange was its own movie and it didn't need to lean on the success of the rest of the MCU to get people to come and see it. And I think that might be one of the things that sets Doctor Strange apart. This could have been a standalone film with no connection to the rest of the MCU and it still would have been a solid movie. The fact that I get to see Doctor Strange in future movies, especially team up movies, is just a bonus. Above all, I just want to see a good film.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with Doctor Strange. If Marvel was falling into the same formula in this film where they threw in a couple characters with some heart, some quippy dialogue, and a lot of action, I would have enjoyed it and moved on like I did with movies like Thor: The Dark World, and Guardians of the Galaxy. But Doctor Strange feels like something different. I want to go back and watch it again, not only to see if I'm right on that conclusion, but also because its a really fun movie.

Whether it is a film that will stand out in the future as one of the better MCU films, or if its just a run of the mill MCU film with a lot of cool effects hiding that fact, I think time will tell. But for now, I suggest you go out and see Doctor Strange. I have no doubt you will enjoy it.

But those are my thoughts. I want to know where you think Doctor Strange ranks among the rest of the MCU films and are you excited to see him in the future? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me requests for future films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. This is kind of a fun promo they did for Doctor Strange where he talks about all the injuries that happen during Civil War. Enjoy!