It is
Mod City's Christmas. After nearly six years, Doctor Strange finally has a sequel and not just a cameo in a Thor or Spider-Man movie. Also it's my Christmas because twenty years after Spider-Man, fifteen years after Spider-Man 3, and over nine years after that Oz movie, Sam Raimi finally has another movie, and it's based on another Marvel comic co-created by Steve Ditko! What are the odds!
There is a lot of talk over whether or not Multiverse of Madness is going to polarize audiences or not. It probably will, because it is an outside the box MCU movie that is a bit of a convoluted road to tell a simple story. But my whole thing is...
Don't care.
Loved it.
I thought long and hard about whether or not I liked this movie more than the original Doctor Strange movie. That first movie is fun, but it's pure formula. This second one is also fun and it's off the wall in ways only Doctor Strange can be, sometimes to a breaking point. The conclusion I came to was that even if the first Doctor Strange is formulaic, structurally it's a more sound movie than Multiverse of Madness, which is lovably bonkers but feels fragmented. But if you're fully on board for the ride, there is a hot chance you'll love this movie more. I also had some debate about whether or not I liked it more than Spider-Man: No Way Home, because that film had stronger power moments and I felt its cameos hit harder than Multiverse of Madness's did. But the fact that Multiverse of Madness didn't lag as hard in the center as No Way Home did is what put it over the top for me. As it stands right now, Multiverse of Madness is my favorite Phase 4 film, but it's tight.
If Multiverse of Madness has a crack in its armor, it's the pacing, which is breakneck and moves at a clip. For some this might be a virtue, though I was feeling at several points that the movie needed more time to breathe so certain ramifications would resonate with the viewer. When the movie finally does slow down, it comes in the form of a scene where all those promised cameos come in full force and all at once, mostly to deliver exposition. Cameos include:
Patrick Stewart as Professor X
Haley Atwell as Captain Peggy Carter
Anson Mount as Blackbolt (which is probably the cameo nobody wanted because nobody wants to remember Inhumans happened)
Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau/Captain Marvel
John Krasinski as Reed Richards (whether this means he has been cast for the Fantastic Four movie remains to be seen, as this could just be a wink at the fan casting and they might go in a different direction)
The cameos are cute, but No Way Home worked its cameos into the plot of the movie while in Multiverse of Madness all these people are there just to be present. These are fun nods but ultimately they amount to nothing and the movie soon tears them up and tosses them aside. Spider-Man did it better.
Since the cameos don't matter at all, this is really just the Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen show, and they carry the movie capably. The film does hinge quite a bit on WandaVision, but most of what you need to know about those events is that Wanda is longing for the connection and love of family. The one downside to this is that the film seemingly discards the themes of grief and living in the aftermath of loss that WandaVision provided just to have Wanda fall into darkness. Olsen is pretty great here, as she capably plays both the Wanda we know and love and switching deftly into the much colder and menacing Scarlet Witch persona. Cumberbatch's arc also deals with loss, notably letting go of Christine, who he spends most of the movie wrestling with his own feelings for as she gets married to someone else. Aside from the two leads, a fun presence is had with Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, who for better or worse acts as the film's MacGuffin, but keeps the film spunky as everyone chases after her.
But probably the big hype in film circles is that Sam Raimi is directing these movies. "At last! A true auteur behind a Marvel film! Unless the studio silences him." But, you know, the whole "Marvel suppresses artists" idea is rather nonsense, honestly. Thor: Ragnarok is unmistakably a Taika Watiti film, Eternals is unmistakably a Chloe Zhao film, Guardians of the Galaxy is unmistakably James Gunn from beginning to end, and even things like Avengers and Iron Man 3 have Joss Whedon and Shane Black written all over them. That's just a crap take based on filmmakers like the Russos, Payten Reed, and Jon Watts, who are all capable directors that have no distinct style but work well in the Marvel machine because they work well in collaboration to make efficient movies. When Marvel hires a filmmaker with a voice, they do let that voice through. It's just naysayers don't care. But the question lingers...
How Raimi is this film?
Let me count the ways:
A giant eyeball is gouged out.
People drown in puddles.
Evil Dead zooms on slamming doors.
Wanda crawls out of a book like friggin' Sadako.
THAT ENTIRE FALLING THROUGH THE MULTIVERSE SCENE!
Bruce Campbell punches himself in the face repeatedly.
Wanda jump scares out of nowhere looking like a Deadite and snaps Professor X's neck.
Doctor Strange spends the climax in a corpse of one of his deceased alternate selves and fights Wanda like that.
This is
very Sam Raimi.
God, I missed you, Sam.
Danny Elfman did the score for this film, replacing Michael Giacchino from the first film. I'll admit that I don't think Elfman had unique personal themes that matched Giacchino's work in the first film, there is something very interesting about Elfman's work here. Elfman does have a sound that's suited to Doctor Strange as a character, and some of the stuff here is exceptional. I won't spoil anything specific, but there is a fight late in the film that actually finds a way to blend Elfman's score into it in a brilliant way and I was personally floored by it.
One final thought: Marvel's getting less teasing foreplay and more audacious with their post credit scenes. Back when Far from Home did that whole "Oh by the way, this is a plot point for No Way Home" scene at the end, it feels like they're just dropping scenes for proposed sequels into their end credits without context, notably like both end credit scenes to Eternals. The mid-credit scene to Multiverse of Madness has a scene that features a character that is going to mean a lot to those who know Doctor Strange lore, but will leave the audience lost as they just watched a character pop up and propose "Doctor Strange 3?" I'm not entirely sure how seriously I should take this credit scene, since the first Doctor Strange had that scene with Mordo and Benjamin Bratt at the end that this film doesn't touch upon at all. That being said, I loved both Strange movies so far, and I'm definitely game for Stephen's next adventure.
While I had some issues with the film's pacing and structure, what Multiverse of Madness boils down to is that the minute I sat down I was having fun and I didn't want it to be over. I'll definitely be seeing this again, probably in IMAX, ScreenX...maybe not 4DX, because that might just violent shaking nonstop. But I do want to get on this rollercoaster again.
MCU Ranking1. Black Panther
2. Captain America: Civil War
3. Thor
4. The Incredible Hulk
5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
6. Avengers: Infinity War
7. Doctor Strange
8. Iron Man
9. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
10. Spider-Man: No Way Home
11. Black Widow
12. Avengers: Age of Ultron
13. Captain America: The First Avenger
14. Avengers: Endgame
15. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
16. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
17. Thor: The Dark World
18. Iron Man Three
19. The Avengers
20. Guardians of the Galaxy
21. Spider-Man: Homecoming
22. Captain Marvel
23. Ant-Man
24. Spider-Man: Far from Home
25. Ant-Man and the Wasp
26. Eternals
27. Thor: Ragnarok
28. Iron Man 2