Alright, folks! We're back to the movies! Grab your Rasinets, slurp your ICEE, and get ready for some spoilers.
Because there will be spoilers.
From this point onward, spoilers.
I'm serious. If you haven't seen the movie, turn back now.
Also if you haven't seen No Way Home, turn back now, because I'm about to drop a massive spoiler for that as well.
Oh, and WandaVision as well.
Seriously, a lot of spoilerage here.
So, we last left Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) at the Statue of Liberty where he had just erased everyone on Earth's knowledge of who Peter Parker is and sent his Friendly Neighborhood and Amazing counterparts back to their respective universes. This film picks up with him going to the wedding of his one-time flame Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) only to have it interrupted by the arrival of a gigantic octopus creature that is definitely not but totally is Shuma-Gorath... and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), who have crashed in from an alternate universe.
With help from Wong (Benedict Wong), Strange slays the beast and saves the day... only to learn that more trouble is coming. America, as it turns out, is able to punch reality really, really hard and travel between universes. Someone or something has been chasing her throughout the multiverse, trying to take her power. She had been assisted by another Doctor Strange, who had turned on her in his last moments. Needless to say, this makes their dynamic a little stand-offish to begin with, but America nonetheless goes with Strange and Wong to Kamar-Taj for safety.
Here, Strange seeks out and requests the help of the only Avenger to have experience in magics... Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). We last saw her taking over the minds of an entire town of people in New Jersey in the Disney + series WandaVision... and then just sort of walking away from it all with no real repercussions. After the trauma of losing the man she loved and her children who were created from her Chaos Magic... she is still full tilt grieving and is, in fact, the very being that is sending the demons after America.
Now, this might surprise you, but considering Wanda was reading the Darkhold at end of WandaVision and the Darkhold is essentially Marvel's version of the Necronomicon Ex Mortis, there was no way that this was going to end well.
Speaking of the Necronomicon Ex Mortis, we have Sam Raimi in the director's chair, his first Marvel film since the abysmal Spider-Man 3 (something we can get into another time). Luckily, in my opinion, Doctor Strange is a property much more in his wheelhouse. Strange regularly deals in the dark and horrific, which we all know is Raimi's bread and butter from... well, I mean, pick a film. He brings his horror chops to the table, angling into it just enough for it to be effective without it drowning the entire thing.
The atmosphere for the more horrific scenes is perfection and it's really where Raimi's directorial style absolutely shines. The film actually manages to balance tone insanely well. Scenes that are supposed to be scary are scary, but are metered out well and wisely throughout the movie so as not to completely overwhelm the audience. The terror is certainly there, but is built up in scenes as is appropriate to the situations we find our heroes and villains in.
There is a lot of pay off here for things we've been waiting on since the first Doctor Strange in terms of Stephen's character arc (in this film, needing to learn not to give in to fear - be it in needing to wield the Darkhold or in his relationships, that need to take control). This is very much Stephen's story, despite what some may think with the inclusion of America and that for me is what solidifies that.
By the way, this movie did more to endear America to me than almost twelve years of comic book appearances, so make of that what you will.
America herself has some tragedy in her past, unable to control her powers and said powers having lost her both of her parents. While there really is no resolution on this in this movie, but the door is literally left open for her to see it through either in another Strange film or elsewhere in the MCU. Also, Gomez does a pretty good job making the character endearing and likable, so points there.
I know some morons on Twitter will cry "OH! IT'S THAT MSheU CRAP AGAIN!!!1!!!" at the ending in which America takes on Wanda, but they once more fail to understand Stephen's role as a chessmaster. Stephen Strange is not your typical superhero and very often will push proxies and the like into the right places in order to utilize their skills where he can't do so. So, no... utilizing outside assets and outsmarting his opponents is entirely in character, so please shut up.
Also, if you believe this is the end of the character of Wanda... well, I have some swampland to sell you in Brooklyn. It also is where Wanda's antics in WandaVision and elsewhere finally do catch up with her, at least for now. To the film's credit, Wanda is spared nothing in this one. Whereas in her Disney + series she essentially gets a karma Houdini, Multiverse of Madness affords her no such luxuries. What she has done is put under a microscope and more atrocities are added to the pile even across the multiverse. The resolution is... honestly, the only way that Wanda's character could go at this point, although whether she stays at that point is another matter entirely. We'll see where the future goes. But hey, at least the Darkhold is destroyed in the entire multiverse... for now.
Oh, yes, the Illuminati scenes. So we have alternate universe versions of Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Reed Richards (John Krasinski), Black Bolt (Anson Mount), Monica Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), and Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart). This is a scene that is still being picked apart even as you read this and has been since the first round of leaks concerning the film. I personally enjoy it, since it does things like show us a little more of Captain Carter from What If...? (not the same one, obviously), gives Anson Mount a better shot at Black Bolt than he got in the Inhumans series, and of course it's always nice to see Patrick Stewart.
...at this point, I'll take anything over Star Trek: Picard.
By the way, I giggled like an idiot when I heard chords of the X-Men: The Animated Series theme playing as he wheeled forward in that awesome yet impractical giant wheelchair and I'm pretty sure you will as well, fellow 90's kids.
Sure, call the inclusion there cynical by Disney to get the consumers hyped for either projects that already exist or upcoming projects (the X-Men series in particular is getting an animated continuation coming soon if I remember correctly), but I enjoy them for what they are. The multiverse is, after all, an excuse to go big or go home with off the wall ideas and variations, and they did that well here.
By the way, wasn't sold on Krasinski (who still seems to be the favorite to play Reed in the new FF film), but this film did a lot to warm me to him... even if being "the smartest man on Earth" meant he was the worst tactician.
All of their characters are very good... and their death scenes (save for Mordo's, which makes me think we'll be seeing double soon enough) are very horrific when they for some reason decide to go after Wanda one at a time instead of rushing her... in particular Black Bolt, who really just doesn't get a word in edgewise, and Reed, who is just torn to shreds over the whole thing.
That's really all I can say on the matter. There is plenty I would have liked to see, but ultimately nothing that necessarily needed to be there and nothing in it or even in the film's structure that ruined my experience. It was a nice film that did something a little different and I had a lot of fun with it. And it was clear that the people making it were also having fun.
And, of course, Doctor Strange will return... although, next time, he'll have someone new (and with a surprising comic-accurate costume) along for the ride (Charlize Theron). Keep all of your eyes peeled... this wait may last longer than three weeks!
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is in theaters now from Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures.
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