A lot has been said on the “Marvel origin formula” and how it, unfortunately, creates lacking films. That’s an overstatement. It just makes very similar, all good, films. The real determination is whether or not Marvel can make the character of interest different enough to be its own thing. That’s where Doctor Strange excels. The story is not that much of an alteration of the formula, but instead of being driven by character, the movie seems more driven by external universe forces as the one little guy seems to be running around trying to figure it out as it goes along. This is a good idea, as Doctor Strange as a character is basically Tony Stark and in much the same way needs to have de-jerk-ified (that’s a word right there). Strange is a cocky jerk who is smarter than most people that he is associated with and he knows it too. This is actually the biggest flaw with the film. At its start, Doctor Strange doesn’t really differentiate itself from some of the other Marvel films and therefore doesn’t feel special, other than Marvel casting Michael Stuhlbarg who deserves any work that he’s given. The script near the beginning feels like it was punched up in a day to simply spell out enough to get us to realize Strange is a jerk (a weird angle to see Benedict Cumberbatch play, I mean at least Sherlock is likable) and that he’ll go on a hero's journey to stop being a jerk and everything will be fine. That’s where this movie actually becomes special because Stephen Strange doesn’t actually become better. For all the heroism, and fighting and hubris of surviving a near fatal car crash he’s still stuck up and superior by the end of the movie, but he’s getting better. In fact, it’s this stuck up superiority that keeps the movie interesting and allows the film to be driven by the plot rather than the character. Strange doesn’t change very much, which allows the focus to be more on the world and how it’s affected by him. Doctor Strange is a setup movie and the exposition dumps are present but the focus on the overall, big picture events keeps this from being a big deal. That each new dump reveals some new awesome, mind-boggling special effect helps too. There’s just enough of Marvel’s trademark tongue in cheek dialogue to make all of the character’s personable, especially Wong, the librarian and Mordo (Oscar winner Chiwetel Ejiofor). Mordo’s character arch throughout the film is an example of how Marvel continues to succeed in setting up other storylines for its film universe to expand and by the end of the film not only does he seem to change the way that sorcerers stand in the Marvel universe, but also the idea that maybe the heroes aren’t always great or right. This all culminates in a completely against form anticlimax that stands as one of the smartest inversions of Marvel’s origin story formula and serves to be very funny, something that Doctor Strange consistently is. The best thing Doctor Strange has going for it though is the fact that it feels like a movie about discovery. That feeling a wonderment that comes from the pages of a comic book as a comic character discovers a wonderful power or a powerful wonder is the beating heart of the movie. With that, the best visual effects of the year, and enough changes to the narrative formula, Doctor Strange is certainly more fun than Civil War and is a magical time at the movies. Doctor Strange gets an 8.5 out of 10. Review by Stephen Tronicek
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |