Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Spoiler Review

 

So I had the pleasure of watching Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness last night and I have thoughts. I remember seeing the first trailer that was tagged in the end credits of Spider-Man: No Way Home and was ostensibly hype, but reasonably so. I never had my expectations up too high and in recent years I prefer knowing as little as possible about movies so I don't get wrapped up in the speculations and theories and I'm glad I only watched that initial trailer. Warning ahead, I'm going to talk about spoilers in this. I do think I can favorably do a non-spoiler review, but I'm so itching to talk about the details about this movie and I don't think I'll have much time to go back and do a separate spoiler review so here it is.

*SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD!*

 

 

I enjoyed this movie a lot! I really liked this movie. Multiverse of Madness provided the amount of weird, magic, and craziness I wanted. This movie takes place after Spider-Man: Now Way Home and Wandavision and the plot heavily takes off from the continuation of Wandavision specifically. I couldn't avoid everything from this film being on social media, but I felt like a did a good job avoiding the biggest spoilers. First thing is I was actually surprised at how soon I saw America Chavez. She is in the very first scene in the film and is the catalyst for the entire premise of the story. Wanda discovering Chavez in the multiverse or at least when she appeared in the film universe, is her driving force to be with her children again. Chavez can hop across any reality and Wanda can only be with her children by dreamwalking with the Darkhold and it's a temporary effect. It only lasts for as long as someone can dream. Those moments aren't enough for her and she wants her children permanently so she hunts down America so she can have that power for herself so she can physically be with her children twenty-four seven.

Actually, thinking about it now it does hold resemblance to Kingpin's motivation in Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse in which he sought to reunite with his dead family by taking one from another universe. It's a fine plot point, but I think it works better here primarily because there was a lot of set up for it with a whole season of a Disney + show to get us invested in. From us being unsure where the Scarlet Witch stood at the end of Wandavision to her being an outright villain in this was cool and refreshing. While it's common in the world of comics, it's never been done in the MCU yet the closest was Bucky in The Winter Soldier, but had such a minor role in the first Captain America film that it's not the same. This is the first time a central heroic character has become a villain and quite a villain she is.

Scarlet Witch meditating

Every time the Scarlet Witch is on screen you feel her power and intimidation. Her raw energy put the whole of the sorcerer community on their knees. That scene was so fantastic. When she couldn't force her way through the sorcerers shields she went for an indirect approach attacking their minds. By the command of Wong the magic wielders fortified their minds, but all it took was just one person. The scene went silent and she eerily glided behind him and whispered in his ear, "Run." Breaking that one sorcerer caused enough of a disruption to put a gap in their shield allowing her inside. 

The chase of her through Kamar-Taj was visually stunning. Disney has been the king of special effects and cgi for a while and they lived up to it in this film. Not only did they look incredible, but provided some interesting ways to interact with the environment. Wanda pulling people through the reflections in the water was insane and creepy when she pulled herself through the reflections on the gong. With Sam Raimi, director of the Evil Dead series we got some much needed horror in this and I am thankful for it. We got a fair amount of blood, a little bit of gore, and all around creepiness throughout. The horror is more jump scare and just creepiness and I would've liked for it to lean a little harder into the horror, but Evil Dead was a horror comedy hybrid and the movie was still quite enjoyable regardless.

Once the main conflict arises Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness becomes an adventurous thriller through the multiverse. Stephen Strange and America Chavez have fantastic chemistry. Strange is the straight, but also cocky personality while America is still coping with her powers is more fearful, agitated, but also has a care-free side of her when we see the two of them talking when they first arrive at the 838 universe. This was my second exposure to Miss America. I saw her in an animated short Marvel created years ago, but that's it. I've been meaning to read her comics, but never gotten around to it. From this film I don't get why a lot of comic book fans say they don't like her. I quite liked her in this story and they maintained her original origin story which was cool. Chavez is also fun and I'm still a fan of her costume. More superheroes should wear street clothes.

There's not a lot of universe jumping in this film, but there is enough and they all feel distinct enough from one another. The 383 universe is gorgeous filled with lust greenery and a dystopian design. It looks like a wonderful place to live, but the grass isn't always greener on the other side. This universe has its own share of problems. As I heard in the comics the Illuminati is a bit shady and them killing their own Dr. Strange was exactly that. These series of events was some of the best I've seen in the MCU in just in terms of fanservice. We got the Illuminati with Hayley Atwell's Captain Carter, Marie Rambeau as Captain Marvel, Black Bolt, finally Reed Richards played John Krasinski and most importantly of all Professor fucking Xavier played by Patrick Stewart in his 90s gold hover chair. I know John Krasinski as Reed Richards was the most surprising of all. Fans for years have been wanting this man as Reed Richards in the MCU. I still see the photoshop edits in my head and Marvel actually did it.

All variations of Strange we see throughout the film.

When Wanda came through she tore through them like butter just showing how much of a force of destruction she is. I will say I was a bit disappointed in how Charles Xavier died. It was also shocking to see John Krasinski's Reed Richards die as soon as we meet him, but I'm sure we'll see him return especially with the announcement from a few days ago that John Watts is no longer directing the Fantastic Four movie. I also like how this story grows Stephen Strange as a character. We see him battling with no longer being the Sorcerer Supreme, though I understand it was due to a technicality and it was out of his control and though he has obtained godly power he still feels for a human connection and regrets his how his relationship with Christine petered off. Christine in the first movie was a forgettable character to me, but they made her a much more memorable and enjoyable character in this. Strange meets her variant in the 383 who is an accomplished scientist and also has a history with her own Strange that was complicated. Her experience gets him to reflect on himself. Though he doesn't change completely by the end of the movie he has introspection.

America Chavez grows too. She starts out understandably less trusting, fearful, and unsure of herself, but by the end she becomes confident, has full control over her powers, and joins the sorcerers in Kamar-Taj to train in the mystic arts. This was an excellent introduction to Chavez in the MCU and I'm interested where they go with her.

On overall aspects I liked the action in the film though as a big fan of magic spanning from video games and novels I wish they were a bit more creative in the use of it in most of the fights. A lot of it was regulated to beams or whips from Strange and Wong. There were some cool stuff like the monster hands Strange conjured to impale the Shuma Gorath monster and speaking of that monster I was a bit disappointed that he was used just as a cameo and not an integral part of the story. As I mentioned earlier the use of the mirror dimension and reflections was really cool as well as Strange dreamwalking his own corpse in the finale. That finale was also satisfying. Like in the first Dr. Strange film it took more than just using force to take down the villain. Wanda was too powerful for anyone to deal with so they add to use their intelligence to beat her and Chavez attacked her heart. By placing Wanda's physical body in the dimension with her children along with her variant she could feel what she's doing is wrong and that ended the battle there.

All of the actors did a fine job as well. There were absolutely no weak links in this production. The writing of the story was very good as well, but on a fault I do feel like there was a couple of times where the movie felt a bit slow in the opening sequence and when Strange confronted his variant on the collapsed Earth. With only two negative points this still makes for a very good film and I am more than eager to see this again in theaters. Multiverse of Madness is a good time and I recommend it to all.