So, I saw Doctor Strange last weekend.
As always with
these reviews, I am going to first give a non-spoiler review of what I thought
of the flick. At the end, since this is
a writing blog, I will state what I would have done differently, and that
sometimes means injecting spoilers. I
still try and keep the spoilers light.
This movie was
everything we were promised. Visually it
was completely stunning. The Acting was
believable and even superb in some places. I absolutely loved it.
Benedict
Cumberbatch makes a great Doctor Strange; he manages to start out as an arrogant
jerk who still manages to win you over by the end of the movie. His character arc is essential to the plot
and the way the big bad is defeated.
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo was fantastic, and the promise of his
character in future instalments is great.
If you remember him playing the Agent in Serenity you realize after the
end of the credits in the last teaser how perfect he is for that part. Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One ate up the screen
any time she was on it. Rachel McAdams
was fine as the love interest, and the rest were good to great as well.
Plot wise, this
is a Marvel movie. While the essentials
are different the structure is the same.
Start with flawed hero; put them through a new experience. Use that experience to grow them. Big coolness, big setback, and then overcome big
evilness at the end. While I enjoyed how
they resolved the fight with the big bad at the end, I thought it was more
unique of an idea then slugging it out.
(I can’t say more than that) the surprises are in how the story is
told. Not where it leads.
Villain wise Mads
Mikkelsen is fine. He does his job as a
big scary villain, but this movie has the same issue that most Marvel movies
do. You never feel any empathy for the
bad guy and his nameless sidekicks. Instead
he is very two dimensional, and his reasoning for being bad is believable, but
never developed to a point where I felt he was a full character. He looks cool, he does his job and it works
but it is not as great as it could be.
Now I hate 3D
movies. I have no desire to go stare at
a screen and get motion sick for a couple of hours. This movie if I were to see it again I would
consider doing the 3D experience. The
visuals are that awesome. I think all
the mind bendy goodness works well and there are sets and moments that are just
simply beautiful to stare at.
Over all, I would
give this move a solid A- minus. The
minus is for standard villain A, and underdeveloped love interest.
Now beyond here is
where any spoilers may be found. If you
read on and get spoiled it is not my fault.
You have been warned and I feel no guilt if you get upset.
First of all, fix
the villain. This felt short for a
Marvel movie, give me five to ten minutes where I see into his life and help me
understand why he believes the way he does.
Or build up some empathy for him; let us see how he was broken when he
came to the Ancient One. The famous
show, don’t tell conundrum.
Second, Rachel
McAdams never gets well developed as a love interest. She is almost used more as a plot device at
times, then as someone we see Doctor Strange having a serious relationship with. I needed some more between them to establish
some good chemistry. Make that relationship
believable. I needed at the least for
here to be somewhere at the end to make me believe that Doctor Strange would come
back or want to continue his relationship with that character. Instead the last we see of her is when the
Ancient One dies, and then nothing.
Pacing at the beginning
might be fixed as well. The only time I felt
this show dragged was when they were establishing Strange’s character in the
beginning. This might just be me
though. The problem is I don’t know what
I would cut, because most of the events that happen are important to the
story. Maybe tighten up a few moments?
That is my feeling
on this flick, how did you all feel about it.
For me it was a total win for Marvel, did anyone actually hate it? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Ben Marble
If you would like to support Ben Marble and his machinations
to usurp the Sorcerer Supreme, consider buying on of his short stories at
Amazon.com, including his new short ,The Trap.
