Review: 'Doctor Strange' Is A Perfect Fusion Of Story And Visuals

John Allegretti ’18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Has it really been eight years since Marvel kicked off its cinematic universe with Iron Man? Many of Marvel’s past origin stories have tried to reach the height of Tony Stark’s, but Doctor Strange is the first one to succeed. Where films like Ant-Man failed, Strange is able to bring the Marvel universe back to its roots by introducing a new superhero in their own small, self-contained movie. It does an origin story without feeling stale and connects to the rest of the Marvel universe without becoming muddled.
Doctor Strange is helmed by Sinister director Scott Derrickson with a script by Jon Spaihts and critic-turned writer C. Robert Cargill. The movie follows Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), an expert surgeon plagued by self-obsession and arrogance. After injuring his hands in a horrific car accident Strange seeks to repair them by any means necessary, and finds himself at the doorstep of the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton). The Ancient One reveals to Strange that the universe is made up of many dimensions, and his hands can be cured by mastering the mystical arts that allow people to move between the dimensions.
Doctor Strange is populated by a cast of characters ranging from interesting to underwhelming. Benedict Cumberbatch does a great job playing the titular character and lets none of his British accent slip through (much like last year’s Black Mass). Tilda Swinton also headlines the film as the Ancient One, a wise leader of a multicultural group of monks trained in the mystic arts. Benedict Wong stars as a master who guards books of forbidden knowledge, and has some hilarious interactions with Strange. Rachel McAdams also plays Christine Palmer, one of Strange’s co-workers who has to perform an emergency operation while Stephen fights mystical forces outside his body. Sadly, McAdams isn’t given much to do beyond her interactions with Cumberbatch, and it feels like she could have had an important role similar to Gwyneth Paltrow in the first Iron Man.
All of Strange’s action sequences are unique and mind-blowing. Each one does something new with altering reality and draws on recent sci-fi classics for inspiration. The films that Strange pays homage to engross each action sequence and despite the obvious reference it keeps you in the scene. If there’s any problem with the visuals, it’s how Strange chooses to block some of the VFX sequences. When reality around you is changing, it’s important to let the audience know where the characters are in the scene. But Strange has sequences done entirely through quick inserts rather than masters, making it very confusing for the audience to get a footing in the scene. But if the movie proves anything, it’s that the films of Christopher Nolan and the Wachowski Sisters have cemented themselves in the common cinematic language.
Overall Grade: A-
Watch The Trailer:
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSzx-zryEgM[/embedyt]