Movies…with a little bit of obscure culture and sports mixed in
There is a LOT happening in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022). Even the title is a very loud mouthful. The highly anticipated Marvel universe blending cameo filled motion picture arrived into theaters last summer and immediately divided audiences.
“Doctor Strange teams up with a mysterious teenage girl from his dreams who can travel across multiverses, to battle multiple threats, including other-universe versions of himself, which threaten to wipe out millions across the multiverse. They seek help from Wanda the Scarlet Witch, Wong and others.”
Director: Sam Raimi
Writers: Michael Waldron, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Oejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Rachel McAdams
Release Date: May 6, 2022
IMDB
There is a LOT happening in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022). Even the title is a very loud mouthful. The highly anticipated Marvel universe blending cameo filled motion picture arrived into theaters last summer and immediately divided audiences.
The traditionalists were furious, the experimentalists were mixed, and those bored by what Marvel had become loved it. It is crazy to put this movie in the horror genre because there is absolutely nothing scary about it. Sam Raimi is just being Sam Raimi, and if you don’t know what to expect, then it’s jarring at the most.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness takes place after the events of Spider-Man No Way Home (2021) and demands the audience understand and embrace the idea of multiple dimensions. It hints (loudly) that one should have watched WandaVision on Disney+ to understand the characters of Wanda, AKA the Scarlet Witch.
Confession time. I never watched WandaVision. I tried, but I didn’t like it. I didn’t watch it. So I was confused here. Hand up.
The TLDR of the full Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness from an uneducated Marvel mind is as follows:
America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) is a powerful young woman with the ability to travel through the multiverse. Her ability to travel through different worlds is the envy of Wanda Maximoff, for she wants to reunite with Billy and Tommy…who are children that she created on the show WandaVision.
Imagine my confusion when Scarlet Witch is obsessed with being a mom.
In the process of trying to keep America safe and Wanda Maximoff at bay, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his dimensional-traveling partner are captured on Earth-838 and brought before a group called the Illuminati. There is a large backstory behind this group and their relationship to their own Doctor Strange, but the more important aspect for culture are the unveilings of Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Blackagar Boltagon (Anson Mount), Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), Reed Richards (John Krasinski), and Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart).
Don’t get too attached though.
Scarlet Witch invades Earth-838 and immediately starts wreaking havoc. People die, and Sam Raimi has a blast showing them die. It becomes a Doctor Strange and America versus the world finale. The pair travel to the place between the universes (yes that is real), take control of corpses and go to dire straights in order to try and save countless lives from Wanda.
I really, really, REALLY shrunk down that plot. There are a fuck ton of details that I do not have the mental capacity to summarize. Sometimes you need to know your strengths, and mine is not linking together massive interdimensional environments.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness is an exercise in Sam Raimi taking chances. And you know what, it is the only thing about this movie that works. Even for someone who doesn’t know what the hell is going on, there is enough wackiness in Multiverse Of Madness to keep my eyes from drifting away to other things.
Zaniness, if done well, can be great. But eventually, it can drift to chaos. The final act of this Marvel adventure seeps into something disastrously confusing. The fulcrum of the final moments also asks the audience to care about Wanda and her relationship with kids she created (and lost?).
Here is the thing. I don’t give a shit about Wanda. I didn’t like her nor her relationship with Vision in the movies. I didn’t like WandaVision. Asking me to take that leap of caring was a hop too far to make. I don’t care. I am sorry, but I really don’t care.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness was just a step towards my quest to catch up on the Marvel cinematic universe. The first Doctor Strange (2016) started off strong but fell in my estimation with a villain that didn’t pack a punch. Multiverse Of Madness tried the opposite approach in having a personal relationship with the final boss, but this time around I didn’t care at all because I think that character of Wanda stunk.
So I have to ask, why do I really care? Also, do I really think that a young woman with the name of America is going to be thwarted in her first cinematic appearance? No, I don’t think that Sam Raimi would even pull that trigger.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness was a swing by Marvel at something different, and Sam Raimi delivered on that. However, under the seismic weight of the Marvel enterprise and universe, the enjoyment of the film is muzzled by an exorbitant amount of necessary context.
The crazy fact about the Multiverse Of Madness is that even if you know and understand everything about Doctor Strange, the Multiverse, WandaVision and the lore, you still may not like this movie. It is remarkably different, and it is a style that no other Marvel film has ever been.
Respect the attempt at the hail mary, but there are no points scored as the buzzer on Marvel’s invincible armor echoes.
STANKO RATING: D+
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