Based upon the Marvel Comics series created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Screenplay Written by Jon Spaihts and Scott Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill
Directed by Scott Derrickson
*** (three stars)
RATED PG 13
In my childhood as I poured and obsessed over all manner of comic books and superheroes from both the worlds of DC and Marvel Comics, there was one figure I tended to give a wide berth, and that was Doctor Strange.
Frankly, Doctor Strange gave me nightmares. The specialized brand of metaphysical universes, occult magic and the infinite layers of the mind combined with hallucinatory villains like Dormammu and the aptly named Nightmare strayed way too far for my impressionable brain and spirit, one who was more than enough excited by the more traditional costumed and cape wearing adventures and just clearly not at all ready for anything that pushed the envelope to such a dark degree.
That being said, I was more than curious to see what the new film version of Doctor Strange would entail because at the very least it would give the Marvel Comics Universe film series a much welcome upgrade visually and thematically as it woud now incorporate the inter-dimensional--as first witnessed in Peyton Reed's "Ant-Man" (2015)--with the already established and extravagantly presented world which already holds Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor among others.
The resulting film, Scott Derrickson's "Doctor Strange," the fourteenth film in the ever expanding series, not only continues to showcase what has made this film series so durable, as well as much more successful than the struggling DC Movie Universe, it also does tend to stumble a tad with its standard shortcomings. Overall, "Doctor Strange" is a solid entry that does point to more intriguing signs for future solo and group Marvel offerings.
"Doctor Strange" stars a perfectly cast Benedict Cumberbatch as the gifted yet extremely arrogant surgeon Stephen Strange, who loses the use of his hands after surviving a devastating car accident. With his extensive and painful rehabilitation merged with an existential crisis of not being able to utilize his hands to achieve what he perceives to be his life's purpose, Strange falls into crippling despair, alienating all around him, most notably his former lover/closest friend and confidant Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams).
After learning of and meeting Jonathon Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt) a former paraplegic miraculously able to walk again, Stephen Strange follows Pangborn's advice and journeys to Kamar-Taj in Kathmandu, Nepal to seek out The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), a sorcerer and master of the astral plane and multi-verse, a collection of metaphysical dimensions.
As The Ancient One begins to train Stephen Strange, who is aided by the sorcerer Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and the Kamar-Taj librarian Wong (Benedict Wong), dark trouble is underfoot in the form of the renegade sorcerer and Master of the Mystic Arts, Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen), who is armed with stolen pages from one of The Ancient One's book of rituals and plans to utilize it to conjure the horrific Dormammu of the Dark Dimension, a plane of everlasting life and without any sense of time.
Summoning the power of Dormammu threatens to break the magic protective spell of the Sanctum, formed by three buildings located in Hong Kong, London and New York, it is up to Wong, Mordo and Doctor Strange, now armed with the Cloak Of Levitation and the mystical Eye Of Agamotto to defeat Kaecilius and retain the magical balance of power.
Scott Derrickson's "Doctor Strange" is a first rate production that fits snuggly with all of the previous Marvel films thus far. The character of Strange, as portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, all swagger and quips (and a predilection for extensive musical knowledge--an area I'd love to trade with him musical facts and figures) yet with a strikingly captivating level of pathos, feels strongly cut from the same cloth as Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark.
Through Cumberbatch's performance, he simply nails that requisite Marvel melancholia, the "Achilles Heel" that sits at the core of the character--his level of hubris, of course, but also his alienation from others combined with what he perceived as his greatest strength-his hands-being robbed from him due to the extensive nerve damage. Once again, this level of attention within the writing, direction and performance grounds the proceedings confidently as we are given the human being long before the costume, cape and special effects, ensuring that we have a figure to root for before any extensive visual razzle dazzle.
And yes, at this time, I do have to commend the film's usage of special effects...for the most part. It is clear that Derrickson has taken lessons learned from The Wachowski's The Matrix" (1999), Christopher Nolan's "Inception" (2010) and even some elements from television's "Heroes" (2006-2010), when devising the look of the film's many action set pieces which present all manner of skyscrapers twisting and turning themselves into kaleidoscopic shapes, metaphysical trap doors, openings and exits--all of which are superbly handled.
But, the sequence that really made my eyes POP, so much so that I wished Derrickson and his crew had been given the free reign to fly even further is the masterful section when The Ancient One first displays to Stephen Strange the multi-verse. It is a cavalcade of sound and vision that feels as if it took the vortex/wormhole sequence from Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) as a starting point and went go-for-broke from there. I cannot even begin to describe the sequence fully as it needs to be seen to be believed but it was the one section that felt as if the comic book itself had burst to three dimensional life and blasted itself across the silver screen with all of the surprise, wonder, awe and even terror necessary to successfully pull it off. Just amazing!
Now I realize that Marvel has a film franchise to keep pushing forwards and they are more than trepedacious to tamper with their successful formula terribly much. But, I do feel that after fourteen films, they have earned themselves some leeway and even some cache to play around and perhaps make these films a tad more daring than they actually are. From that special effects standpoint, it would have remained true to the source material to perhaps make a film that was considerably...ahem...stranger.
With all of the various dimensions, dark magic and alternate planes of existence at play, why couldn't Derrickson create a palate that was more akin to something like Ken Russell's "Altered States" (1981), where the fantasy/dream/drug trip/sensory deprivation sequences were truly out of this world and to date, remain as delirious as they are disturbing. "Doctor Strange" could have significantly benefited from a grander and more macabre sense of danger and foreboding but what was delivered, aside from the very cleverly handled climax between Doctor Strange and Dormammu, was another standard superhero film where, in this case, all of the Mystical Arts knowledge and abilities are just utilized to beat the stuffing out of each other.
Beyond that, "Doctor Strange," by its very nature of being hid debut film is that we are presented with yet another origin story that feels very much of a piece with all of the other origin stories that we have been subjected to. And in doing so, the film just follows all of the same beats as the previous entries, therefore, making for an experience that already feels to be a bit old hat, overly familiar and one where you're itching for the second installment that will undoubtedly delve deeper as that origin business will be long out of the way. But for now, as and entertaining as it is, "Doctor Strange" is very familiar.
Another quibble I have is with the the usage of Rachel McAdams, a fine actress who is again wasted in another role as the long suffering love/former love interest to the troubled, complex male hero. How I wish that when filmmakers choose to bother to cast her, they give her something of some real significance to do because she does indeed have the talent..if only we were allowed to see it.
But when all is said and done,"Doctor Strange" works and very well at that. Next year, we will see three new entries in the Marvel universe from the return of the Guardians Of The Galaxy to Thor and the latest reboot of Spiderman. Here's hoping that with these subsequent installments, Marvel shakes up their own formula and find themselves unafraid to really begin to take some surprising creative risks.
That being said, Scott Derrickson's "Doctor Strange" is good and strong enough to keep that Marvel flag flying high.
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