As Awesome as It Needed to Be: A Review of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

 directed by Sam Raimi

written by Michael Waldron

I wrote not too long ago that because Marvel and Sony had basically turned Doctor Strange into a glorified plot device in the global blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home, Marvel would have to make it up to the character by making his own movie, Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness, a mind-blowingly awesome film.  I'll have to admit, as confident as I was in director Sam Raimi, stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen and the rest of the talented cast and crew, I could feel doubt begin to creep in as reports of extensive reshoots started dominating the news on the film in the months leading up to its release.  Had Marvel gotten it wrong, somehow?

Having seen it twice now, I would like to assert that, in my humble opinion, they have not. 

The film opens with a frenetic chase scene in which a slightly different-looking, Spanish-speaking Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and young America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) flee a mysterious, rather frightful-looking being through what looks like some kind of interdimensional plane, a nightmarish scenario from which the Doctor Strange we all know (also played by Cumberbatch), wakes up from in a fright. Later that day, though, he learns that this encounter was no dream as he and his fellow sorcerer Wong (Benedict Wong) end up saving America, who has somehow ended up in New York, from a  gigantic, one-eyed, tentacled monster.  America, it seems, has the power to travel between universes, which has made her a target for a mysterious pursuer. Recognizing the markings on the creature he has defeated as runes used in witchcraft, Strange seeks out the other powerful magic user he knows, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) who has been living the life of a recluse since recent events turned her life upside down. This request for help, however, does not turn out as Strange hopes, and before long, Strange finds himself not only fighting to save America Chavez, but the entire multiverse.

From the moment the Marvel fanfare ends, the movie hits the ground running and, quite frankly, never stops, which is very much a good thing.  Sam Raimi's fingerprints are all over everything in the film, from the quiet moments to the big action set pieces, and therefore I must respectfully, strenuously disagree with the critics decrying this film as "studio mandated." Quite the contrary, this feels like the MCU's single most stylized film, with due respect to the excellent work of the other directors whose work I've enjoyed. Raimi really puts his stamp on this film from everything to the transitions, the close-ups, the creepy build-ups to jump scares, and yes, even the performances from his actors, just about all of whom turn in outstanding performances, especially Cumberbatch and Olsen, who gets a far more generous helping of screen time than she ever has in any theatrical Marvel project up until this point. I'm just mildly annoyed that the series that did feature her, Wandavision is basically required viewing for this film considering that a substantial percentage of global audiences, including folks in this specific part of the world, still don't have Disney+.   Still, regardless of whether or not one knows Wanda's backstory through that series, which is quite crucial to understanding her character's journey, there can be no denying that Olsen has turned in an incredible performance.  Cumberbatch, who plays as many as four different versions of Doctor Strange, brings his "A" game here and reminds us all of why he was such a perfect fit for this role in the first place. Benedict Wong's Wong gets a much welcome expansion of his screen time and importance. Newcomer Xochitl Gomez makes the most out of what she's given, but more on that later.

Lovers of the Spider-Man trilogy (only 2/3 of which, really, is fondly remembered) may want to crucify me for what I'm about to say next, but I will go ahead and say it: having seen Darkman and at least two of the Evil Dead movies, I have to say that Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness feels more like a Sam Raimi movie than any installment of Sony's groundbreaking superhero trilogy. Spider-Man 2 had the operating room scene as its signature Raimi sequence, but this film has a whole bunch of those. If I'm perfectly honest, I'm quite surprised that this movie managed to squeak by with a PG-13 rating; somewhere in the third act my eight-year-old shouted "this is a horror movie!" and she wasn't wrong. 

Raimi has clearly been given a pretty big sandbox to play with by Kevin Feige, and as a result the storytelling can get pretty intense, and his visuals definitely get extra trippy.  Sure, there is the requisite massive dose of CGI used to depict the multiverse, but Raimi uses it quite effectively, and arguably more so than Scott Derrickson did in the first film. The "multiverse jump" scene which partially features in the trailer, with Strange's face coming apart, is actually even more entertaining in its full form.  

Also, I'm happy to note that the film does not get bogged down in fan service here; the much vaunted cameos the internet has been buzzing about do not dominate the movie; they're worth a cheer and a whoop or two, but nothing to really distract from the overall story. Make of that what you will, and I guarantee you this will not diminish your enjoyment of this film. Conversely, if you go into the movie expecting cameos on the level of Spider-Man: No Way Home, prepare to be disappointed.  

If the film does have any weak links, the most prominent would have to be its supposed breakthrough character, America Chavez. Xochitl Gomez turns in a decent performance, but the role is so sparsely written that it's painfully clear that she is little more than a plot device, essentially the mechanism to make the multiverse work. To put it even more cynically, she's basically a MacGuffin.  I expected better from the writer of Loki. 

Also, this isn't so much as a criticism as it is me scratching my head: what the heck was the point of Rintrah, the green minotaur guy who basically stood around Kamar-Taj and later got his butt kicked, without contributing anything at all to the story?  Given how relatively obscure the character is it didn't seem like the best form of fan service, and he had to have cost at least some tens of thousands of dollars (if not more) in computer-generated imagery.

To go back to the positives, though, I genuinely enjoyed that apart from the callbacks to Wandavision and Spider-Man: No Way Home, this film does not play out like a set-up for the next big Marvel event. Sure, there are the obligatory mid and post credits scenes, one of which teases for future adventures for Doctor Strange, but there's nothing that screams "everybody has to get together to fight the next big thing" in this film, and I was honestly relieved that this was the case. 

Almost forgot: I'd be remiss if I failed to mention one of the major pluses of the movie for me, and that is a surprisingly robust music score by veteran composer and longtime Raimi collaborator Danny Elfman. I was initially upset that they had replaced the original Doctor Strange composer Michael Giacchino with Elfman, as I was a big fan of the score Giacchino had composed for the first film, and was worried that Elfman would just trot out a remix of his previous work with Raimi and Tim Burton.  Also, Elfman's last work for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a last-minute substitute for Brian Tyler on Avengers: Age of Ultron had been nothing to write home about.  It was much to my surprise, therefore, that Elfman turned out a rich, moving score for this film, and I say that as someone who has followed his work since 1988's Beetlejuice.  Does it sound Burtonesque? Sure, at times, but it really highlights the film's emotional beats and marks the characters' emotional journey without being cloying. Wanda's theme is downright haunting at times, and I hope Kevin Feige and his brain trust consider this theme as canon, moving forward, given how Marvel has come more and more to embrace the importance of music in their films.

Critics may not be as solidly behind this movie as they were the first one, but I'm a fan of how Marvel let Sam Raimi do his thing with one of their prized properties and heartily recommend this film to anyone interested.

7.5/10