It’s been six years since the first Doctor Strange movie showed up at theaters (you can read my review here) so the packed AMC theater audience who watched Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness might have felt–like I did–that this movie didn’t feel like a sequel to the first Doctor Strange movie.
Of course, a lot happened in those six years: Infinity War, Endgame, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. In addition, for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to make any sense, you need to know about the happenings of Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff (aka, The Scarlet Witch) in WandaVision (you can read my review here), the nine-episode Disney+ series.
Director Sam Raimi has a lot of balls to juggle in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which is filled with cameos. So Raimi can be forgiven for not developing the character of America Chavez (Xochiti Gomez) who is the object of the chases across the Multiverse because of her powers to access those worlds. Screenwriter Michael Waldron tries to makes sense of the mishmash of alternative worlds and dimensions but at times it’s a losing battle. How do you deal with Infinity?
I love Rachel McAdams (and so does Doctor Strange in all the Multiverse worlds) but she doesn’t get much to do in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has a crowded stage.
What saves Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness from interdimensional chaos is Benedict Cumberbatch’s skill in the role of the Master of Mystic Arts. Much of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness dwells on serious questions, but Benedict Cumberbatch manages to inject levity at key moments in this movie to bring the audience back from the ledge. I’m looking forward to the next Doctor Strange movie that shouldn’t be so encumbered by so much Marvel baggage. GRADE: B
So, yet another one is the seemingly endless series of movies wasting the talents of Rachel McAdams. Bummer. We’re see it…eventually.
Jeff, I’m always dumbfounded when Directors and Producers allow gifted actors to be wasted in their movies by giving them little to do.
My media crush on McAdams was almost immediate upon seeing SLINGS AND ARROWS, the Canadian tv series, when it was imported…amusingly, she was written off the series, where she plays an actor, because her character is seeking H’wood work, as McAdams was. I think her film THE LUCKY ONES was one of the relative few since to give her a meaty role, and that film judged rather more harshly than it deserved.
Todd, totallyy agree. THE LUCKY ONES showed McAdams to best advantage of all the things we’ve seen her in, including SLINGS AND ARROWS.
Jeff, you and Todd point out Rachel McAdams’s successes…yet Hollywood and Disney only give her minor roles. Dreadful!
I’ll suggest DISOBEDIENCE and RED EYE both have something to be said for them thus, too…but it is surprising the degree to which she’s pushed out of frame, even in the likes of THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE.
Todd, exactly! Actresses like Rachel McAdams get marginalized all the time!
Todd, Rachel McAdams as Doctor Strange’s love interest had a better, more challenging role in the first Doctor Strange movie than the skimpy roles in DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. I think it’s madness to waste the talents of gifted actors but Hollywood and Disney do it all the time.
For me this has gotten completely out of hand. The warnings about blockbuster madness in the 70s has certainly come to fruition. Between movies and TV shows from MCU we must be closing in on a hundred or more permutations. I initially typed blockbuster as blockbluster and that might encapsulate my feelings.
Patti, MARVEL caters to its core audience with movies like DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Action, special effects, violence, and sly humor blend together into hundreds of millions of dollars for Disney.
With Western NY at 20% or so positive, I would not risk going to a packed movie theater. I’d wait a few days at least.
Jeff, just about everyone in Western NY is pretending the Pandemic is over…so no masks, no social distancing, and plenty of crowds. Meanwhile, the infection rate goes up, hospitalizations increase, and I get all kinds of Funny Looks because I wear my N95 mask whenever I leave my house. And, I rare leave my house.
Patti is definitely right about the current blockbuster plague. But at least the blockbusters of the 70s, like JAWS, were entertaining on their own and didn’t require knowledge of 10+ other movies and 2-3 tv series to make sense of them.
Well…comic book traditions help put cash in corporate pockets. And have even back when. Note the endless sequelization of ’70s hits such as STAR WARS and ALIEN and SUPERMAN and the continuing clunk of PLANET OF THE APES (even if the last Huge hit there was a ’60s film for quite some time), as well as the early fumbles at getting Tolkien onscreen.
I wasn’t terribly entertained by most of the biggest hits of the latter ’70s, but I was a grumpy cuss even then. JAWS was the least bad Spielberg film I would see for a Long time (though I had enjoyed DUEL as well when it and I were new), but CLOSE ENCOUNTERS annoyed the hell out of me as a kid, and very little I’ve seen since hasn’t managed to do the same, of his works as director, etc.
Michael, Hollywood movies and Disney movies have fragmented into marketing niches. MARVEL knows what its audience wants to see so we get these massive movies with plenty of cameos and loose ends at the end that require further sequels. It’s all about the money.
Disney is part and parcel of H’wood and beyond, these decades, George! No segregation needed.
Todd, you may be right, but Disney is the tail that wags the dog.
Not that Disney was ever really Not a part of the Hollywood scene, if perhaps a bit condescended to at first. But never as much as the Poverty Row studios, or most of the other animation-heavy studios.
Todd, when Disney bought MARVEL and the rights to Stan Lee’s superheroes, that was a Game Changer. Look at the billions Disney has made on MCU movies! And, I’ll bet DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS will rake in millions this weekend!
You might be forgetting that Disney has already owned ABC and ESPN for decades now…along with the various Disney properties even before buying out Pixar and LucasFilm and Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox (aside from what Murdoch’s NewsCorp has hung onto, mostly Fox “News”/Business), they have been rolling in billions for Quite Some Time now.
Todd, one of the basic principles of Business is “GROW OR DIE.” Disney will continue to make acquisitions as part of its survival strategy.
Well, and Fox Broadcasting is a “separate” entity from either NewsCorp or Disney, now, along with some cable properties.
Todd, FOX is in its own little world.
Fox “News” is certainly in Murdoch World.
Well…businesses don’t Really Need to Grow or Die, but billionaires sure want more money. Too big, they both, and the cultures they’re in, stagnate and collapse. See evidence all around us…
Todd, Elon Musk, the World’s Richest Man, wants not only to own Twitter but to go to Mars. That takes billions…
And we see how That’s going…trashing one’s car on Mars not quite the heroism legends are fashioned from…
Todd, good point.
Even some of the dyed in the wool comics/MCU film fans I hear from are a bit annoyed by all the handwaving (literal as well as figurative) (as in Setting No Rules) magic in this one, but I don’t expect much from most Marvel films these years, and that’s what they tend to deliver. Likewise DC films. Ah, well. DC films might average a bit better these years, which says little good about Marvel.
I’ll see this eventually, when it comes to HBO or whereever. I”ve restarted netflix to keep my queue and got House of Gucci and respect. Trying to get my dvr down from 37% (accrued on vacation).
I”m busy on my high schools 55th reunion committee and will be voted in to be a member of the alumni foundation (which I’m not thrilled about). I and a friend are tasked with updating and verifying the hall of fame. We’ve got some big names (Joan Embrey, Greg Bear, Kathy Najimi, Kadir Nelson, & Steven Bishop for the most well known. Somehow people got in for being a store or restaurant owner, and contest winner for naming a gulls team. Lots of authors which I’ll be checking out. The pres. of the alumni foundation is very eager to thin the list, which may cause hurt feelings – why I’m not thrilled about this. Sigh
Yikes. How might one bow out, or is it Too Late? And what might a gulls team be? (Images of JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH come to mind.) With essentially three high schools and three colleges/unis in my res, I’ve mostly avoided reunions, not least since the HSes would require decamping to New Hampshire and Hawaii…a bit of a hike for people I’m mostly out of touch with and only a few of those I’m very curious about (though some I am mildly curious about).
Todd, Diane and I are always curious about our schoolmates from High School. Sadly, many of them have died.
gulls were the san diego hockey team. I went to a couple of games, but hockey not my sport
After our 50th reunion, we tried to get lunches going, it was soso, then when the pandemic was waning, we started it up again. Our next lunch bunch will be an amtrack ride to San Juan Capistrano for lunch and back.
Maggie, Diane and I enjoyed a wonderful 50th High School Reunion back in 2017. No word about any more reunions. I suspect the high Covid numbers would attendance. It’s great that you’re helping with the alumni foundation but that can become time and energy pit. Been there, done that…
“packed theater” = NO THANKS, THERE’S A PANDEMIC GPIN’ ON.
THAT’S GOIN’
Yeah, I know, it’s just me. I’m glad everyone is able to comfortably get out and about. I’m just too paranoid.
Rick, I’m cautious. Western NY has a 20% Covid-19 rate and it’s going up. All the weddings, Mother’s Day parties, High School proms. Many people are just pretending the coronavirus has gone away.
You typed that long title over a dozen times! What dedication!
One of my old Army units has annual reunions in Branson, MO! The few names I remember are dead and I was only in that company for about 7 months! No incentive to attend!
Bob, I appreciate your kind words about my dedication…but I just copy and pasted that long title!