Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Review

What I didn’t like

These are pretty small complaints.

America Chavez

One thing I had an issue with was America Chavez. She was an interesting character but I felt like she kind of came out of nowhere. America as a character was fine. I think for what she was she fit well. Although I think her backstory felt lacking. All we get is a shot of her losing her parents in her home universe. We don’t really know why she has her powers or where she came from.

I feel like there’s some messaging going on with the name America though. Like an allegory for the American dream. It is the only land where the spirit of freedom still burns strong in the hearts of the people. The place where it feels like you can become whatever you want and achieve your highest form. This freedom makes us pray to engage in wrongdoing and have to rise above or overcome the evils that tempt us. Freedom isn’t free.

But that’s just my take.

A Disconnected Universe

I thought the main conflict of this film may stem from some of the issues that were brought up in the preceding Marvel releases. The Spiderman multiverse stuff or maybe Loki breaking the multiverse in his show. But we don’t really get any of that. No mention of Kang here.

I think the root of this complaint lies in Marvel knowing their audience. The know average person may not see all of the previous content that leads up to this film. I understand that but it can get annoying for people who have the context and it just doesn’t feel like it’s being used to its full potential.

I really enjoyed the Loki series and that has to be my favorite Marvel show released thus far. Next to What If… I kind of gave up on keeping up with Marvel shows because they weren’t that great. After Captain America, it felt like a propaganda machine. Although I’ve heard Moon Knight was pretty good and I might watch that at some point.

The Book Of Vishanti

This was a big miss. The book that was supposed to tell them how to defeat their enemies was easily destroyed by Scarlet. I thought the Doctor would have gleaned something useful when he flicked through some of those pages. It was destroyed pretty easily as well. You think there would’ve been some protection placed upon one of the most prized assets in the Doctor’s collection.

The integration of X-men

This was kind of cool but felt like they were dipping their toes. Their integration doesn’t really mean anything in the context of a multi-verse. I never really followed X-men. I heard there are some good films in the series but I never got into it. I feel like they make it easy to screw them up and toss them into the multiverse scrap heap. It allows for bad character development since they become soo inconsequential to the overall storyline.

The Goods

The thing about a marvel movie is that it will usually have some silver lining even if it’s bad. At worst it’s eye candy and at best you can walk away with something.

Scarlet Witch

This was a cool performance. You get to see the evil side again. It’s pretty wild and some scenes feel like a horror film. The scene where she jumps into a different universe and moves around in the pictures was pretty wild. I also enjoy her fight with the Illuminati. Some might argue why wasn’t she able to pull these moves against Thanos but she didn’t have the Darkhold.

When she killed Black Bolt that was amazing. She really made the man blow his own head off. I was shocked that they made it that brutal. I think the fight with Captain Marvel was kind of lame. Think Captain Marvel could have put up more of a fight. Getting crushed by a statue just doesn’t seem like it would kill her.

The relationship with her kids at the end was interesting. It’s weird that it took her this long to see that they wouldn’t want anyone except their true mother. She really dream walked through all these universes and wasn’t able to see that.

Doctor Strange

I really enjoyed a lot of his scenes. The fight with the evil Doctor Strange was pretty cool. It was neat to see them use music notes as fighting props. Although I think the final blow felt a little lackluster. Just a little pluck of the harp was enough to take him down. This fight really allows for some interesting sound design.

The use of the Darkhold was pretty interesting as well. To beat your enemies sometimes you have to use their tactics. Scarlet called him a hypocrite for doing this. His dead but alive look was really cool. I think the spirits looked alright. Maybe a little too smooth.

It was funny that he asked Christine to defend him while he dream walked. Like what did he think she was going to do? She doesn’t have superpowers. He really should’ve equipped her with something before he started using the Darkhold. But luckily she finds some random light casting pot that can blast away the evil spirits.

It was cool to end the movie with his third eye peeking out.

The Visuals

I was really hyped about this film because of the trippy nature of the first Doctor Strange film. The bending of reality and amazing visuals that it produced was really fun to watch. This film doesn’t disappoint in that department.

The Scarlet trap in the first fight was cool. I also really liked the universe jumping. The cartoon, painting, and cubism universes really stood out to me. It’s a shame that scene was pretty short. It would’ve been interesting to explore some of them a little. The final battle felt like it could’ve been more interesting.