*CONTAINS SPOILERS*
Doctor Strange is the third in Marvel's phase three line up. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Steven Strange and is about his recovery and enlightenment with the help of The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton). The movie has spectacular visuals and choreography that transport audiences to new realities but it has some problems that made this film a 'good' film but not a 'mind blowing' one.
When I watch a movie, I judge it on how the movie was directed and if the story was interesting. I do not judge a movie on, if they got a certain character correct or if they put some Easter eggs in there. This is no different to comic book movies. I don't care if a movie has got Batman correct because if the movie sucks then the movie sucks.
I have no knowledge of Doctor Strange so I watch this movie as I would any other by not knowing that much about our main protagonist. Which the movie doesn't help, Doctor Strange has no character arc. This is shown when he only struggles with his powers for about five minutes and he masters the skill of magic in about 15 minutes. There's no struggle nor does he change his ways to become more skilled. He just achieves master level in minutes.
A struggle of a character who has worked hard to earn his skill helps create tension however Dr Strange does not struggle meaning there is no conflict with his inner-self. He doesn't beat his demons because he never changes throughout the movie. He stays the same man from beginning to end. The only thing he learnt was there's something bigger out there.
I hate it when these movies have the whole world at stake. THIS DOES NOT CREATE TENSION! It's boring because I don't care if everyone dies as I don't know them.
Making a movie smaller is not a bad thing. It actually means the stakes are bigger for our protagonist. Doctor Strange should make a hard decision to save the people or person he loves or cares for, not the world because who cares? The movie should have focused on Strange and Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) because they have a deeper relationship that we as the audience can relate to. How many of you go out and save the entire world? and how many of you would sacrifice yourself for the people you love?
In The Dark Knight Rises, Chris Nolan shows that even an entire city can still have stakes involved. But how they do it, which Doctor Strange fails to do, is establish other characters and their world. In The Dark Knight Rises, we see other characters interact in their world, from Gordon, Blake and Foley. They all have something to lose if they fail. Batman doesn't save the entire world, he save his city. A place we have seen throughout the entire trilogy, not like Hong Kong for Doctor Strange. He wants to save his legacy and the people he cares for. For a third movie in a superhero trilogy, it was small compared to Doctor Strange and it worked in their favor. The movie focuses on a few characters and allowing us to see what they can lose.
In Doctor Strange, we see he cares for Christine, but the threat is in Hong Kong. Thousands of miles away from her. She's not in harms way nor does she know what is happening. The giant CG blob fest was neat to look at but it never transmitted fear. The bomb in The Dark Knight Rises was ticking and every second lost was a step closer to everyone's loved ones being dead. For Doctor Strange I had no idea what was happening because they weren't clear on the outcome.
With all these world shattering threats, what will make Infinity Wars stand out?
I also want to compare it with Interstellar. Both relied on visuals to push the story but Interstellar is much more effective because of the emotional connection we see with Coop and Murph. That was missing in Doctor Strange. There was no emotional connection between him and Christine. They had a fling in the past and she does mean something to him but we never see anything that really shows us their connection. They never have time to themselves and discuss their past and maybe their future. She is ultimately forgotten and without the emotion, a movie loses it soul.
How Doctor Strange beat Dormammu was pathetic. I have no problems with rewinding time - I enjoyed the battle when time was reversed and we see that effecting the fight. But the loop was unforgivable. This is where I don't judge a movie by how comic accurate they are but by how well they are made. Doctor Strange fans probably know what that necklace power is capable off - but for me they did not establish enough rules. The biggest one is - how did he stop the loop? They never show us and they probably didn't know themselves. It took me right out the movie because of how ridiculous it was. Film is a visual medium, show us the important parts!
On the other hand if they wanted to go down the 'Earth in danger route', there was only one way to make this movie incredibly ballsy. Replace Dormammu with Thanos. At first when Steven Strange went on his acid trip, I thought he saw the impending doom of Thanos, this got me super excited but alas I was wrong.
Instead of having Dormammu, making Thanos the antagonist and losing to Doctor Strange shows that Thanos needs the infinity gems because he is not strong enough without them. By making Doctor Strange defeat Thanos it gives him the important role of guiding the Avengers because Strange would have the know how to defeat him. It would have shown the importance of the gems and how far Thanos would go to collect all of them. With Thanos defeated, he would come back angrier and wary of Earth's threat making him a more fierce villain.
Overall Doctor Strange was a good movie. It focused more on the visuals then the story and for that it lost its emotional footing. The movie lacked heart and lost itself in the Marvel formula. Mads Mikkelsen was sorely wasted and should have been the only antagonist. A more emotional story with those visuals would have created a gripping movie from start to end.
But I do recommend you watch it and see for yourself.
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