Again...
MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING
Okay, with that out of the way, I'm about to do a deep dive into how Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness lived up to a considerable bit of hype in some ways, and how it didn't in others.
Given how wildly successful Spider-Man: No Way Home turned out to be, largely due to the appearance of the two previous onscreen incarnations of the character as played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, it made sense for Disney to hop back on that particular hype train as they started marketing the next installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. That said, the cameos bruited about turned out to be far less significant than a lot of fans might have hoped they would be.
So, as is clear to anyone who's already seen the film, of the ballyhooed cameo rumors, only the rumors of Patrick Stewart's return as Professor X and John Krasinski's casting as Reed Richards turned out to be true. These were some pretty amusing fan service moments, particularly Stewart's appearance, which was accompanied by the first few notes of the theme from the popular 90s X-Men cartoon as well as his exaggerated hand gestures accompanying the use of his telepathy, also drawn from the cartoon. In the shadow of the more high-profile cameos, the other members of the so-called "Illuminati" namely Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell), alt-Captain Marvel (Lashana Lynch) and Blackagar Boltagon (a.k.a. Black Bolt, played by Anson Mount) felt distinctly underwhelming. I mean, the What If? series which debuted Captain Carter was one of the less warmly-received Disney+ series, the Captain Marvel film was a long way from being universally loved, and the Inhumans series in which Mount actually starred as Black Bolt was cancelled after one season.
In truth, though, even if every single cameo had been the fulfillment of all fanboy dreams, the euphoria would have been short-lived as these appearances had far more in common with Deadpool 2 than they did with Spider-Man: No Way Home. The entire Illuminati were basically mowed down by the Scarlet Witch in a short but somewhat gruesome sequence. The description of Reed Richards as the "smartest man alive" felt a little chuckle-inducing after Wanda quite literally cut him to ribbons and popped his head like a balloon.
It's actually a shame that so much of the conversation about this movie has swirled around the cameos, because they kind of distracted from the things about the movie that were much more noteworthy, like Elizabeth Olsen's absolutely outstanding performance, and the utterly bonkers direction by Sam Raimi which featured direct callbacks to his Evil Dead days as well as the mid-credits cameo that managed to fly under just about everyone's radar.
It was refreshing to see Raimi and screenwriter Michael Waldron throw out the tired, old "third act twist" storytelling structure that's been used in too many Marvel movies (including the first Iron Man) and right up front, reveal Wanda to be the big bad. The marketing materials had pretty much given this away, and pretty much everyone who'd seen the end of Wandavision knew this was coming, but the timing was nonetheless very effective. Without the baggage of having to conceal a twist, Olsen was able to deliver a truly memorable bad guy, and one very true to Raimi's tradition, started in the Spider-Man movies, of having bad guys who weren't really bad, just terribly misguided souls. The difference here is that, coming into the film, hardcore viewers already know what Wanda's been through and what has pushed her to this.
It's also worth mentioning that for all of the focus on Wanda, this is still a Doctor Strange movie, as exemplified by his character arc, and by all of the major action set pieces featuring him, all of which have Raimi's signature firmly inscribed. Strange's and Wong's battle with Gargantos, the giant tentacled one-eyed being, is arguably the most "traditional" Marvel battle, but given that it ends with Strange ripping out the creature's single eyeball, it's definitely a Raimi concoction.
But the real treat comes later in the film, when Strange meets another, more sinister version of himself, and engages in a magical battle with him which involves...musical notes. It is wildly imaginative, and the kind of thing you'd have to see (and hear) for yourself to really appreciate. It is also one of the reasons why Raimi was clearly born to direct a Doctor Strange movie; you would never see any other superhero doing something like this.
And then, of course, there's the expertly-realized "dreamwalking" sequence, in which Strange, still trapped in another universe and wanting to save America Chavez, possesses the corpse of his alternate self who died in the beginning of the movie and which he buried in his home universe, "616." Far from just being a visual gimmick, Zombie Strange showcases a really cool, if frightening aspect of Strange's magical abilities, and is arguably THE single most "Sam Raimi" moment in the whole movie, albeit with a $200 million budget to realize it, and a two-time Academy-Award nominated actor shambling along like a zombie. Seeing Cumberbatch embrace the camp was the absolute icing on the cake.
THESE are the things worth talking about, rather than the dime-store cameos that were good for a whoop and a cheer and then an "aaaauggh" when the characters met their grisly fate.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention cameos by two Raimi staples: Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell, who shows up as a hostile pizza ball vendor whom Strange enchants into punching himself, and Raimi's Oldsmobile Delta 88, which has appeared in all but one of his movies (that being the 1995 Western The Quick and the Dead, for obvious reasons). These were both quite welcome, though I confess I didn't recognize Bruce Campbell right away; like many of us, the dude's gotten old. Special shout-out to my friend Aljay for pointing the cameo out.
Finally, there's the cameo that apparently nobody knew about going into the movie, that of a very important Doctor Strange-related character, Clea, played by a very prominent actress, Furiosa herself, Charlize Theron. Her casting was not nearly as much of a coup as the fact that Marvel was able to keep her cameo completely under wraps, and it's clear they have plans for her in the near future, so this is cause for some celebration.
So if I were hyping the movie, I'd say "come for the cameos, stay for the Raimi goodness!"
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