Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Movie rating: 7/10
A new Marvel movie is out in theatres. Let the arbiters of “real cinema” tremble!
Jokes aside, there’s no mystery why the MCU continues to dominate the box office: They make fun movies with plenty of action, humour, and likeable characters people want to see more of. Yes, they are corporate Disney products that Martin Scorsese has compared to theme parks. But you have to give it to Disney, this particular soulless corporation knows a thing or two about theme parks.
Another element of Marvel’s success tends to gets overlooked: Kevin Feige and the Marvel brain trust are obviously huge fans of their own characters. How much that matters becomes clear when you compare them to other studios and filmmakers that too often don’t understand their flagship characters. Over the years, Marvel Studios has steadily grown more confident and bold. The first Iron Man film was relatively “grounded” for a comic book movie, but before you knew it we had space opera, gods, magic, talking raccoons, and now the multiverse.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness shows off the confidence now second nature to Marvel. Given his origins in ’60s mysticism and the counterculture, Doctor Strange has always given writers a license to get seriously trippy. The idea of infinite parallel universes is an excuse to go as wild as possible, though some of the crazier concepts here are only hinted at (e.g. a universe where everyone is made of paint). More time is spent on alternative versions of characters. Then again, that has always been Marvel’s real strength: its focus on characters.
In this case, however, the title character gets somewhat overshadowed in his own movie. The arc of Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) was less compelling to me than that of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), who frankly I find more interesting as a villain. When teenager America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) shows up with the power to travel through the multiverse, Wanda obsessively seeks to reunite with her children from an alternate reality.
Themes of regret and loss are a perfect foundation to explore the multiverse. We’ve all made mistakes that we wish we could go back and correct, as seen here in Stephen’s failed relationship with Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams). We’ve lost people that we wish we could be reunited with. Being able to travel to an alternate universe where things turned out differently is an intriguing concept. On the other hand, you can argue that the concept of the multiverse lessens the dramatic stakes even more in a fictional universe where characters already have a tendency to return from the dead. Characters who die in one universe can be brought back through another (see: Loki).
For the moment, though, the multiverse has been a net positive for Marvel, giving us movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home and now the second Doctor Strange solo joint that feel more like comic books come to life than most superhero flicks.
Hiring Sam Raimi to direct Multiverse of Madness was a smart choice. As a producer-driven franchise, Marvel movies tend to have a house style. But here they’ve allowed Raimi—a founding father of the 21st century superhero movie boom and one of the most unique horror movie directors ever—to go more or less full Raimi. There are lots of shots and images here that could fit comfortably into an Evil Dead movie, which as a huge fan I appreciated very much. Given that Marvel pioneered the idea of diversifying superhero movies by genre-hopping (e.g. billing The Winter Soldier as a spy thriller, Ant-Man as a heist movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming as a John Hughes teen comedy, etc.), it’s welcome to see them finally introducing horror elements, delivered by Raimi no less.
The cast are all great, as one would expect. Marvel and Disney can afford any actors they want at this point. Cumberbatch continues to be wonderful as Strange, though his character arc and interactions with McAdams fell surprisingly flat. Gomez is immediately charming. Olsen provided the emotional core of the movie; Scarlet Witch turns out to be fantastic as a villain. I also have to give a shoutout to Benedict Wong, who continues as Wong (now Sorcerer Supreme) to be one of the MCU’s best supporting characters.
Finally, there were plenty of geekout moments for me that couldn’t help but appeal to a longtime comics fan. That includes the much-hyped cameos, which I will not speak of except to say that I like one particular casting idea that Marvel has demoed here. Glad to see them officially confirm the 616 designation for the “main” Marvel universe.
Action scenes in these movies can blend into each other after a while, but Marvel manages to keep things fresh with interesting stories, off-the-wall concepts, and appealing characters. This was another enjoyable Marvel pic: nothing revolutionary, but still exciting and inventive. In hard times, it’s nice to have a reliable source of escapist popcorn entertainment. That is what Marvel continues to provide and it remains the secret of their success.