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Director: Scott Derrickson

Writers: Jon Spaihts, Scott Derrickson

Runtime: 115 min

Main Cast:

• Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange
• Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo
• Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer
• Benedict Wong as Wong
• Mads Mikkelsen as Kaecilius
• Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One

Review: by Mukosi

I went into this movie thinking it would either be a fantastic stepping stone, or a horrible one-off film that was entirely avoidable. Plot Twist: It was both. And neither This movie was both a stepping stone and, a bit of a one-off. Thankfully, it was not horrible, but, sadly, no one will call it fantastic, either. I wanted an "in" to a part of the story Marvel hadn't told us yet. Mutants are cool. So are "enhanced individuals". and we all love aliens. But what about the supernatural right here on Earth? What does that look like? Well... we have our answer.

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Marvel drops us into the life of one Dr. Steven Strange: Brilliant neurosurgeon, arrogant, quite well off and part-time playboy, part-time fuckboy. After his “Come To Jesus” moment, his now irrevocably altered life track sets him on a path through his own self-aggrandizing ego and into a world much larger and way less centered around our main character.

Familiar faces swirl around Benedict Cumberbatch filling in tropes oft used and rarely omitted from stories such as these: estranged ex-lovers who care, only to be pushed away; sage elders with advice not heeded until real life consequences are realized; a smattering of contemporaries and compatriots to both aid and hinder our hero. But all of this serves only to highlight the transformation the good doctor undergoes.

What I Liked:

I liked that this movie showed me Marvel’s understanding how to do superhero movies. The trick, apparently, is to make a genre film that just so HAPPENS to star a comic book character. Steven Strange is a man we all know. He might even be us, in some ways. But the message here is very relatable:

Get your head out of your ass, Steven, and go be a better person. For EVERYONE’S sake. Especially yours.

And it’s a good message. Who among us has not heard one similar? Exactly. This movie managed to cement it’s place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe while not pulling the larger story off track. It allowed the viewer to be complete immersed in the plot without having to carefully and painstakingly consider the intricate, multi-layered plot we’ve been enveloped in by the MCU. This movie, when considered in the larger context, has very easy-to-follow plot points and clear, albeit a tad heavy-handed, links back to the epic saga unfurling one blockbuster at a time.

What I Didn’t Like:

I’m sure the fact that I haven’t slightest idea as to how much time passed from Act to Act or even Scene to Scene is in keeping with the overall theme of the movie, but it slightly ground the teeth of gears.

Along the same vein, the “big bad”, while seeming big enough and fabled to be bad enough, came across as a tool or plot device more than an actual threat to derail the story line. Our antagonist kind of just… lightly antagonized. On a scale of 1 to The Devil, I’d ranked this one at a solid Mel Gibson. Loud. Large. Fun to see and interesting to listen to because you NEVER know what’s going to come out of their mouth, but largely harmless.

Lastly, their choice for the Ancient One. I fully understand the geopolitical implications of attempting to cast a character who is supposed to be Tibetan, yet still make an international movie with expected success in multiple major markets (If you don’t read here) Marvel was in a bit of a box.

Perhaps I’m holding on to past characters, but when I see Tilda Swinton, I see her playing yet another role where a male was expected, the angel Gabriel in “Constantine”. And we need not revisit that smoldering dumpster fire of… and event that was to understand it. But perhaps I’m not. I didn’t see any of ‘The Operative’ (Serenity) in Chiwetel Ejiofor. I saw nothing of Kahn (Star Trek: Into Darkness) or Sherlock Holmes (…yeah… Sherlock Holmes. the TV Show) in Benedict Cumberbatch. But I couldn’t shake Tilda Swinton as a duplicitous angel.

Sue me.

Images Courtesy of IMDB