Caught this at the Waterloo IMAX last weekend, and it looked spectacular in IMAX 3D. The 3D conversion was done really well for the most part, though I did notice a few oddities on over-the-shoulder shots where the people in the foreground looked like they were tiny (or the person they were talking to looked massive!)
I’ve been looking forward to this one. I really enjoyed the first Doctor Strange film, which remains probably the most beautiful marvel movie (in terms of visuals) to date. And the announcement of Sam Raimi as the director for the sequel got me juiced too. I guess to most modern marvel audiences, he’s probably best known for the original Spider Man trilogy with Toby McGuire. But to me, he was always the kooky indie horror director who did the Evil Dead trilogy (and Darkman, Crimewave, A simple plan etc).
So, what was it like? Well, first up – it was most definitely a Sam Raimi film. His distinctive style is very much at play here, much as James Gunn’s was in the GOTG films. And the movie gets more and more reminiscent of The Evil Dead movies as it goes on, especially in the second half. This is a 12A movie (PG13 in the US), but if I was a parent, I would strongly advise against taking younger children to see this as it’s surprisingly violent and scary in places. For me, though – that’s the best stuff!
As for the rest of the film, well – it’s messy. The script isn’t brilliant and the story feels like it could have been streamlined better. The main villain never quite works for me, for reasons I can’t go into without getting into spoiler territory, but suffice to say – their motivations feel like a tonal misjudgment. And it undoes some of the clever work of some of the previous MCU entries with some bizarre plotting decisions.
They’ve jammed in lots of cameos and new characters in there, no doubt further setting up the grand Marvel property reunification that’s been in the works since Spider Man: No Way Home. And while some of those reveals did give me a lot of joy, I hope this isn’t something we’re going see in EVERY marvel movie in Phase 4.
In many ways, this film is to the first Doctor Strange movie as Avengers: Age of Ultron was to the first Avengers Movie. A slightly messy, designed-by-committee script, jamming in maximum new “franchise expansion opportunities” at the expense of lean storytelling and focussed character development. DS:MOM is probably a better film than A:AOU, but overall it has a lot of the same problems.
So to sum up… If you’re a fan of the Marvel universe (or even just a fan of Sam Raimi) this is probably going to be essential viewing. But for regular Cinephiles…. Well, it’s OK. At least it’s better than last year’s Black Widow, Shang-chi and Eternals movies. I give it 7/10 – just for the Evil Dead vibes. Also, the very last post-credit scene was short, but utterly delightful! (And VERY Sam Raimi!)
