‘Just because someone stumbles and loses their way doesn’t mean they’re lost forever...’
I’ve never been a massive Marvel fan, but in recent years the market has become ever more saturated. Whilst I’ll always have a soft spot for the Spider-Man movies, the rest of it leaves me cold. Surprisingly however, I went into Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness with high expectations. I love Sam Raimi as a director. I love Benedict Cumberbatch as an actor. And the wacky premise provides scope for a move away from the usual MCU house style that has become so predictable and staid over the last few years. Alas, it was not to be…
Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch) teams up with America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) to stop the Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) from destroying the world. Or something like that. It doesn’t matter.
Sam Raimi’s return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe starts off splendidly. Raimi is such a singular filmmaker that he does manage to imprint some of his idiosyncrasies on proceedings: a Dutch angle here, a Bruce Campbell cameo there, and the tone of the whole movie is a lot darker than your usual Marvel fare. Raimi shoots some of the more obsidian scenes like a horror film, and there are a couple of hallucinatory sequences that are as visually striking as anything in the MCU. But ultimately, this Doctor Strange sequel reverts to type and the final half an hour is just a predictable CGI trudge until the final scene and the inevitable post credits sequence. Ad infinitum.
It has long been established that these movies are not for me, but it does feel like we are reaching a tipping point on a societal level. How many more of these movies can these guys put out before everyone else gets as bored with them as I am? Surely not many… Surely?