Doctor Strange (Directed by Scott Deriksson) is the 14th film in Marvel studios massive, and seemingly ever-expanding, collection of blockbusters. will this movie serve up a feast of fantasy ‘magic’ or leave you wanting a little bit more?
Doctor Strange follows the life of Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), an arrogant but oddly charming doctor who is potentially the smartest man ever. After a freak car accident his hands are paralysed and he is unable to perform surgery, he desperately tries to repair his hands. With all attempts unsuccessful, Strange travels the earth searching for a cure and encounters The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton).
Strange soon discovers that magic is real and he becomes a student of ancient techniques to heal his hands. However, Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) an old student of The Ancient one has a fiendish plot to destroy the world. Dr Strange will have to use his abilities to try and stop him before it’s too late. Other characters include Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) another student and one of Strange’s allies during the film and Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), a nurse working at the hospital who is Strange’s love interest.
Dr Strange is unlike any other action film. Starting with the positives, the visuals and action sequences look amazing, if not slightly disorientating. The magic spells are gobsmacking as portals are being summoned, and when Dr Strange uses a magical shield or whip. The scenery is being distorted to splendid effect. In some scenes whole cities are bent as if it were a scene from Inception.
A negative is that Strange is simply too powerful. Now I understand that from a comic book perspective, this is how the character is portrayed, but this removes a lot of the tension from all of the fight scenes. In the last third of the film, where most action films crank up the tension, in Dr Strange it meekly seeps away. The story just goes from scene to scene and has no connection or flow to it. Despite Mads Mikklesen being a fantastic actor, he couldn’t do much with his villain as he was uninteresting with a weak motive.
So overall, Dr Strange is a cookie cutter superhero film with some interesting visuals and not much else. It is just a filler for Marvels cinematic universe to just add some cool action scenes to future Avenger’s films. This film didn’t deliver on the magic it promised. It's like a bad card trick from a discount magician hired for a child’s birthday - ultimately underwhelming.