Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my movie review.
6 years ago, i talked about Doctor Strange, the MCU take of Stephen Strange went from neurosurgeon to a powerful sorcerer that we all know and love, thanks to memorable performance of Benedict Cumberbatch since Sherlock, whether he plays in cameo or a supporting cast around in MCU, speaking of which, the previous MCU film that reviewed is Spider-Man: No Way Home, which we can all agree that its one of the best, but between this and the show Loki, its no surprising that the multiverse is gonna be not just a big deal in cinema or medias, but our next saga as i predicted in MCU after the famous Infinity saga.
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is a 2022 superhero MCU film that was directed by Sam Raimi (Yup, he's back since his Spider-Man trilogy) produced by Kevin Feige (Come on, you know this guy is always involving MCU series, for the most part.) and written by Michael Waldron.
After the success of Dr. Strange's debut, the director of the first movie Scott Derrickson is planning to make a sequel making something "weird stuff" based on the comic. It was originally planning to have Dr. Strange facing against his next enemy, mainly the major nemesis named "Nightmare", partner up with Clea and some other for character development, not only for the character plans, it was meant to be a mixe of superhero and horror to add some scary elements, however, the project is long due to focusing on multiverse thanks to the introduction concept from Loki, as well as the aforementioned Spider-Man No Way Home. In fact, according to the timeline, Multiverse of Madness will be taken place as a sequel of Spider-Man No Way Home for Strange's aware about the multiverse, it may sounds complicated, but that's the way it is based on the idea of multiverse saga. However, in pre-production, the original director Scott Derrickson bowed out from the project, leaving this, along with the wide-spreading virus, the project is delayed and the new director Sam Raimi takes over for his direction style that we all know and love.
So, with all that said, will Dr. Strange will solve the problem to dealing with multiverse, or the entire universe is a chaotic mess?
Well, lets find out.
The Story
For a movie about multiverse, its a one helluva journey, even if it gets either complicated to some who haven't seen either the previous films or even the shows.
The movie begins with a bang as usual, where we introduce "America Chavez" and other universe of Dr. Strange that they chasing away from a demon in space between universe to get the book that its called "Book of Vishanti" but the Other Strange is killed that Chavez ended up creating her portal that she and the body ended up transporting into the main universe (aka Earth-616). Speaking of main universe, we reunite our main Dr. Strange he visited the wedding that his relationship with Christine Palmer is marrying somebody, leaving Strange feels difficult to accept, but the wedding celebration is interrupted by a giant octopus monster (Though it does looks like Shuma-Gorath, but he's not in MCU, sadly), after the kill the monster (Like plug the eye out, damn...!), Strange and his partner Wong meets Chavez that aside she has the ability to traveling in different universe, but she said somebody is out to get her from summoning monsters, but wouldn't we know it, when Strange came to see Wanda Maximoff to asking for help, but instead, not only she refuses, but she's responsible to targeting America Chavez, this is due to the fact that she has the book called "Darkhold" which gives her the ability to control the other universe version of herself, due to her obsession to see her "kids" Billy and Tommy for inventing WestView (Yes, it referenced from the show Wanadavision, even though i never seen it), making her life changing to "Scarlet Witch" (Though back then i call her Scarlet Witch, but i digress), its up to Dr. Strange to not only protect America Chavez, but also figure out to stop her by finding Book of Vishanti, in order to accidentally travel to Earth-838.
The story itself is... Ok for say the least, while i appreciate to giving us a roller coaster ride of multiverse, but its just that sometimes, they probably cared too much to talk about the multiverse, i mean Spider-Man had multiverse plot too, but that makes it easy to tell what's happening and a Nostalgia-gasm, but here, it feels like it tries pretty hard to giving us a very complex development when we travels from main universe to other universe, but the execution didn't turned out well based on questionable direction, i have no disrespect to Sam Raimi that he did a nice work of his direction and i've also nothing against the multiverse, but its just that even though this is all about stopping Scarlet Witch for targeting Chaves, focus of multiverse is flat out forced as stopping Witch is more of a subplot, while the multiverse element is treated like a main plot. I mean come on, the multiverse in DC or even the internet fanfiction has easy story than this.
As for the humor, well, it feels so lacking, i did chuckle at some moment, but its just that either they forgot about it or perhaps they're just lame.
While i maybe enjoy the story of helping a girl with multiverse, which i appreciated it, but the plot element of the multiverse is all over the place that i kept asking "What about Scarlet Witch?" or "Could you stop dragging on?".
The Presentation
For a movie about traveling multiverse, despite its over-focus, at least the presentation loos decent.
For filming, it was filmed in London, which is a nice place to film, even if this movie takes place in America, im just saying, but still a nice location. Aside from increasing strick rules from pandemic that really makes the production slow down process to forced shut down temporary, they filmed in various locations of London like Freemasons' Hall, Richmond Park, as well as outside of London like Burrow Hill Cider Farm in Somerset for their final week of filming. Sure, they also filmed in Longcross Studios for various green screens of scenes. But of course, since this is a movie directed gy Sam Raimi, there's always gotta be some of his innovative and the feel of the camera placements and movements, i gotta say, some of his camera tricks and others are pretty good what he accomplished, especially for the use of Panavision DXL2 IMAX-certified cameras with the help of cinematographer John Mathieson.
As for the designs and the effects, they're pretty nice for the most part. The designs of various universe that they look almost like the same as Earth-616 but with varieties like Earth-838 looks more like a our main home with more technologies and kinda sunshine and sparkles based on colorful plants, the incursion/destroyed universe looks like if our main universe is coming to the end like get sucked in the blackhole and other universes that we see briefly that are either unique, lazy idea questionable. As for the costume designs, they look pretty good, Dr. Strange's outfit looks the same as usual, but still looks nice, sure the cloak is obviously done in CG whenever it has the ability to fly to take action against bad guys/monsters. As for Scarlet Witch, i get back in her show Wandavision that she wears her old school comic outfit that i really appreciated, but once again, haven't seen the show, so in this movie outfit, she looks pretty nice, basically almost like old school comic, but more darker and sinister than what she used to, especially with her crown thingy. For America Chavez, its the most basic outfit she ever wears, its just casual outfit with stars nearly all over, just because she's Murica. As for the rest of the costumes, they some are either based on comic or from scratch and i gotta say, some are pretty fascinating what they wear.
For special effects, they're pretty nice too, though the effects have some nice work at first, even if some times they could get a bit far or even questionable with some of the quality, despite the film's budget is $200 million.
As for the action scenes, they're pretty good to watch from Strange dealing with the monster, a starting roller coaster ride when we jump into Earth-838 and The Illuminati members vs Scarlet Witch, they're rather fun to see, even if sometimes if they could get dragging on if we get back to stopping Scarlet. But like i said before, sometimes it gets too far like how to kill that giant octopus monster and how Scarlet Witch is nearly cover in blood, i know this film is PG-13, but this is Sam Raimi's direction to add a little bit of violence, i mean just asked him when he tried to be PG-13 of Evil Dead's third movie Army of Darkness, but got an R-Rated based on "Family Friendly" dialogue.
While some could have a flaws, but the presentation is fairly decent to say the least.
The Characters
For the characters in this movie, you think they could acknowledge about the multiverse and the plot point this film, eh? Well, its a mixed mag in my taste.
Lets start with our titular protagonist, Dr. Stephen Strange (reprised by Benedict Cumberbatch), as i said before, he used to be the neurosurgeon before his car crash nearly caused his life before becoming a memorable sorcerer. In this movie, you think he can learn about the multiverse since he's done this in Spider-Man: No Way Home, right? Well here, despite he mentioned about Spider-Man situation, it seems that he's probably forgot or diluted about the multiverse once he's transported in Earth-838, like you're telling me that (SPOILER ALERT) after he struggling from the ripped portal of multiverse in order to take care the mess with Spider-Man, instead its like:
Dr. Strange: You're new here, little girl?
America Chavez: I somehow have the ability to transporting myself in different universe while i and the other version od Dr. Strange got chased by a monster, i need a help please!
Dr. Strange: Ohh, the multiverse, but what's going on about multiverse and who are you again??
Nitpicking of his diluted development aside, at least Benedict is still did a great work of his role.
Next is America Chavez (played by Xochitl Gomez), a teenage girl who's born from Utopian Parallel thanks to her special ability to transporting herself into different universes. I find her ok, even though i like her ability, but she could've been helpful than being a coward, she always be like "I don't know what to do!" or "How am i supposed to do something with my power?!", like come on, girl, you're a superhuman from alternate dimension with traveling in different universe whatever you want! I know she's like starting as a rookie to figuring out what to do, even if she's giving us a plot convenient to stop Scarlet Witch to keeping her very special power. However, while i find her ok and Gomez did a decent work of her role, but there's one elephant in the room about her, America Chavez is supposed to making her debut in Spider-Man: No Way Home, yeah, it would've been probably promising to have Chavez come to help Spidey to dealing the villains from different movie-verse, but sadly, she got cut into what we have, no offense what it would've been, but as far as i know, the script was constantly changed what would've been between No Way Home and Multiverse of Madness ever since between No Way Home and Loki are building up the multiverse, though it could've gone worse.
Anyway, next up is Strange's main sidekick Wong (reprised by Benedict Wong as usual), who's now considered as the "Sorcerer Supreme" in Kamar-Taj, which im not so sure for how become a supreme, because after Wanda went invading Kamar, she uses him for the whereabout of Mount Wundagore and he's sadly being useless, he's pretty much being a tool from Scarlet Witch in the movie that he does nothing when Strange and Chavez are both in Earth-838, while Benedict Wong did a nice work of his role, but the way he was written is complete waste.
And we have Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch (reprised by Elizabeth Olsen), a former member Avengers but now going rogue with her powers for not just teleportation and telekinesis, but also the ability to altering reality. Yeah, based on what happened to her in her own show "Wandavision" she's pretty much grief and going bad that she's obsessed to see her "kids" in alternate universe when we have the other Wanda that she uses the Darkhold to "Dreamwalking" herself from Earth-838. I gotta say, even though i haven't seen Wandavision (unless i will to find out the answer), im quite interested for her deception after the Infinity saga and going rogue against our heroes, i mean, how do we expected that back in the comics, she was a villain before jumping to the Avengers, but i digress. Of course, Olsen did a good work of her from good to gone evil.
As for the rest of the characters, they have a purpose for the plot, though some may or may not have purpose, there's Christine Palmer (reprised by Rachel McAdams) who's an emergency surgeon that she used to be Strange's lover, instead, it focuses on 838 version of Christine for plot point to learning about multiverse, despite she also used to be lover of 838's Dr. Strange, Karl Mordo (reprised by Chiwetel Ejiofor) whos the 838 version unlike the main one is defeated in the first movie, instead, he's the leader of the Illuminati with notable heroes that we heard from either "What If" and others, and Nicodemus West (played by Michael Stuhlbarg), who's pretty much the nothing character, and so does the 838 version, which apparently, West is meant to have more appearance, but scrapped due to schedule conflict.
Btw, i like to pointing out the members of the Illuminati has a very surprising members in the group that im either surprised and curious, but im not gonna tell who's the members of the Illuminati to preventing Spoilers.
The characters in this movie are not bad, but could've gone better from either developments or the execution, when some of them are poorly written.
And now for my final opinion of this film.
Overall, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has a good idea of this movie, but instead, this movie is nothing but a disappointing result, aside of some of the characters are good and the presentation looks amazing im Raimi's fashion, but the movie is pretty much having incursion with poor writing that it focused too much on Multiverse, some presentation may have some issues and some of the characters are poorly written that either manipulated or forgot about from No Way Home.
This movie is pretty much an overhyped film that the whole multiverse elements that they mentioned really ruined the potential of this film, its a very disappointed film that i considered, it has a hyping idea, but the result felt flat. If you're curious about this, just watch this movie once, if you're a fan of Dr. Strange or even MCU, maybe its for you, for me, while it looks good, but the potential felt flat for the final result.
For my rating, im gonna give this one a 6/10.
So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.
Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.
