Movie review: “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”

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Baluba begins when Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is sitting in the bar at the wedding of his ex-girlfriend (Rachel McAdams) and discovers a real teenager who must be rescued from the claws of a sticky multidimensional monster.

Her name is America Chavez (Zochitel Gomez), and she comes from a different reality, and has some totally unique powers that a demonic character will have her claws in. To help her, Strange tries to recruit the powerful witch Wanda Maximov (Elizabeth Olsen), last seen in the series «WandaVision».

Of course, things go wrong, and before he knows it, both Doctor and Chavez fall through the multiverse as they both try to escape from the evil one, find the magical book that can stop him, and avoid the various dangers and enemies that appear. Actually new. There is Doctor Strange in most universes, and not all are equally popular.

Temptations and pitfalls

It’s easy to understand the temptation of filmmakers to venture into parallel worlds. Let it be said: the multiverse he is cheerful. Just look at the ironic and wonderful miracle of the animated series “Rick & Morty”. With an infinite number of worlds, there are also an infinite number of story possibilities, and you can always pull a new double or tentacle monster out of your hat.

Even the unreleased chaotic “Spider-Man: No Way Home” movie managed to bring out the three Spider-Mans who met each other with such magic that it became the highest-grossing movie of the past year.

But it’s easy to forget that the pitfalls are also endless.

Not only can what’s at stake feel so big and abstract (it’s hard to tell the difference between saving one and infinite universes with universes on the body) or – ironically – so small (why my little life is so important to conservation when there are infinite copies in Infinite universes?).

With alternate realities creating a spaghetti tangle of time and space almost impossible to unravel without breaking their own rules or focusing on the emotional growth of their characters, one can also quickly end up getting caught between all the multiple chairs (at least if one doesn’t just embrace these paradoxes, As does Rick and Morty).

This can make all the difference between real movie magic and cheap magic tricks up your sleeve.

Disgusting and wonderful

Genetic diseases

Given Marvel’s history of prioritizing the latter over the former, it’s gratifying to see how successful this movie is.

yeah, that sounds pretty crap to me, looks like BT aint to me too, looks like BT aint to me too, looks like BT aint to me too, looks like BT aint to me too, looks like BT aint to me too, seems Like BT is not for me either. One moment kills the other, and often logical, narrative, and emotional solutions are presented to duct tape rather than surgically accurate drama.

But somehow she lands pretty well on her feet anyway. Partly because Cumberbatch and Olsen are among the most hard-earned Marvel actors, and they’re both having a lot of fun here (although it’s almost incriminating to hear the Sherlock actor Cumberbatch drop his British accent in favor of an American). A bit because many of the guest roles don’t seem too sticky, and references to past adventures aren’t overly exclusive.

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The magician behind the scenes

But director Sam Rimes is the real magician here. The old horror director (“Evil Dead” etc.) should get a lot of honor/blame because we started the era of superhero movies we still live in, with “Spiderman” and “Spiderman 2” in 2002 and 2004 (so we could His dropping of the mention of “Spiderman 3”).

Here he makes a kind of comeback (along with spider-man composer Danny Elfman) and makes a welcome addition to the usual gruesome control of horror, while giving the film a much-needed visual distinction, elegantly navigating both the tangled narrative, abrupt tone changes and acidic action scenes as a steady veteran.

This is our last Is that true I didn’t get spoiled in the Marvel movies. It’s good to see the fights where you really get an idea of ​​what’s going on and what’s at stake, who wants what, and the blows really hit.

Even the often ubiquitous magical abilities of Strange and the others give some kind of meaning, not the least of which seems to require application – our heroes feel vulnerable and therefore less in control all the time. On top of that, we get a villain with a real and attributable motive.

It often seems easy to forget this for Marvel treasurers in all the multi-dimensional brands, but it’s actually what makes us convince ourselves that the movie’s illusion is real.