Language: English
The new adventure of Doctor Strange comes across as sombre and spectacular at the same time, a mix that makes for strange movie madness indeed. It’s the film that happens when Marvel extravaganza gets a twist of vintage Sam Raimi horror. MCU’s most bizarre effort yet is a celebration of chaos, busy enough to keep hardcore fans happy and yet frenzied in a way it could leave the uninitiated confused.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Stephen Strange accidentally altered the course of life within the fictional realm of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with his spell to rejig reality for Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home. No other comicbook character in recent times — except perhaps the mega villain Thanos who wiped out half the planet — has so massively opened up the scope to explore ‘What If’ options with a single stroke of action.
For Marvel, the commercial lure of this cinematic turn of events was all too evident. The studio bosses were never really going to let go of the momentous incident as a one-off occurrence meant to trigger the union of three Spider-Mans plus their villains in one film. So, if Spider-Man: No Way Home initiated multiverse madness on the big screen, the Doctor Strange sequel tries taking it to the next level with ghoulish chills and greater complexity.
In Marvel’s parallel universes of superheroes, almost every new film nowadays follows up every other recent release. The challenge for director Sam Raimi, therefore, was not just to continue the brilliant 2016 original, Doctor Strange, but also maintain the tempo of Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: No Way Home, since all that happens in the new Doctor Strange film bears direct or indirect connection with these films. As universes started crossing over, we have also seen how affiliated shows featuring Loki and Wanda Maximoff were affected. Without giving away spoilers, the multiverse as a concept facilitates exciting cameos, and smart cross-referencing continues a larger Marvel storyline that is unfolding right now across associated film franchises and shows.
The possibilities that such plot permutations might throw up could have been infinite, but that clearly isn’t the priority here. The ambition is to churn out the latest summer blockbuster and little else. To that effect, if comicbook cinema is meant to celebrate fantasy, the idea behind this film was always to entertain with a larger-than-life absurdity that leaves you mesmerised.
The Marvel films, more than what rivals DC are prone to do, have traditionally avoided dark narratives, at least in adventures featuring their more mainstream characters. With its uninhibitedly creepy premise, Doctor Strange 2 marks a departure.
Marvel has delivered a sinister superhero film that borders on the macabre.
All credit to Hollywood veteran Raimi then, for managing to keep the film a fun watch for young adults despite its grim and often gruesome edges. Raimi, master of horror who created the genre-defining Evil Dead films with the same aplomb as he directed the Spider-Man trilogy of the 2000s, sets up compelling fantasy action and at the same time retains the semblance of an emotional core.
Michael Waldron’s script gets going with heavy-duty action. The setting is a few months after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Doctor Strange is at the wedding of former lover Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) when duty beckons. A gigantic monster is trailing a young girl named America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) down Manhattan and Strange must rush to her rescue. America, it eventually emerges, has the ability to travel across dimensions and universes, a good enough reason for the monster’s master to try and wrest her power. Strange realises the significance of America’s power while deciding to protect her. He reaches out to Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) for help, but there is a twist in store that forces Strange and America to escape to a different universe.
The mood is light as the film opens, with Strange engaging in a fabulous, CG-loaded bout of action with the menacing monster, before the screenplay sets out to traverse progressively darker dimensions. As Doctor Strange and party leap across universes, on the menu is an adventure involving zombies and grisly gore. Tropes including a book of dark spells, a cloak made of souls, sinister fortresses and statues that move add to the haunting feel, even as Raimi accommodates an interesting musical duel and sets up drama featuring multiple versions of the protagonists across universes. It’s all aided by adequate tech specs. John Mathieson’s cinematography and the editing by Bob Murawski and Tia Nolan set up the eerie vibes, and are worth a note along with the CG work and Danny Elfman’s score.
Raimi and Waldron were clearly having fun imagining the weird adventures that the multiverse throws open for Strange. The outcome, however, is often over the top. There is a subtext of human emotions, too, with love, loss and lament being at play as Strange realises his past folly: Had it not been for his pomposity, he’d have never lost Christine in the first place.
The narrative utilises the multiverse to dissect notions of good and evil, since the various versions of the same characters across universes are morally and psychologically different from one another. The triumph of characterisation has to be Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff. The actress aces as the sorceress once again after last year’s series, WandaVision. Here, she is effective while bringing alive the essence of a character that is at the same time a terrifying antihero and a tragic superhero.
Cumberbatch looks charming as ever, goatee and white sidelocks stylishly in place. Apart from the multiverse advantage that lets him play out shades of good, bad and the ugly, Stephen Strange gets a dash of mush thanks to his subplot involving Christine. The actor juggles well all these aspects of his role and more, and the film keeps us invested in Doctor Strange’s character till the very end — don’t miss the post-credit surprise.
This, though, was always Sam Raimi’s film more than the stars in the cast. The filmmaker maintains a tight grip on a narrative that could have easily spiralled out of control, amping the horror quotient gradually even as he lets his audience soak in the superhero vibes. Fans would love the signature Raimi jump scares, although this time he is more eager to craft a commercial blockbuster. At a time comicbook cinema faces the threat of overkill, the Hollywood ace has given Marvel fantasy a fresh spin with trademark irreverence in storytelling.
Rating: * * * (three stars)
Vinayak Chakravorty is a critic, columnist, and film journalist based in Delhi-NCR.
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