Watch the darkness take hold
Directed by: Sam Raimi
Written by: Michael Waldron
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Xochitl Gomez, Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams
Swift shot: Hell hath no fury like a mother’s wrath. As Dr. Stephen Strange tries to piece together his fragmented life, a mysterious girl named America haunts his tormented dreams. Only, it’s not a dream; she’s real, and he has to save her to control the multiverse which is threatening to destroy everything he’s worked to protect.
Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch) has just finished putting together the fragmented realities of one Peter Parker, and now he finally has time to deal with some personal matters of his own. But the decisions of his past keep creeping up to ruin his day.
The love of his life, Doctor Christine Palmer (McAdams) is marrying another. And while he is relegated to bystander status, chaos erupts on the streets. Naturally, being an Avenger, he flies down to meet the foe. It’s this demonic monstrosity of an octopus which seems to have its one eye on a teenage girl, the one from his dreams.
With a little help from the Sorcerer Supreme (Wong), Strange easily defeats the monster, and he confronts the girl about why it was clearly after her.
The girl, America Chavez (Gomez) explains that she wasn’t in his dreams, what he saw was another universe, and it turns out she has the power to traverse them. And really, she doesn’t do much else apart from run from monsters throughout the movie.
Quickly Doctor Strange figures out that this isn’t magic, it’s witchcraft – apparently there’s a distinction? Anyway, he tucks America safely away and seeks out the one witch he knows, Wanda (Olsen) for some help with how to protect this girl. Thing is, Wanda has an agenda of her own. She really wants to meet this America girl in the worst way.
If I say much more here, I will give away a ton of spoilers, because everything that happens after this encounter with the Scarlet Witch is the movie you came to see.
America becomes a running MacGuffin, literally, as she runs from scene to scene and universe to universe trying to escape the demons hounding her.
Strange encounters various “other Stranges” and much like in the show Sliders, the different universes have their own quirks and personalities, complete with some of the greatest cameos in MCU history. There’s betrayals, sacrifices, and mystical combat as Strange and America, and some other allies they pick up along the way, attempt to thwart the darkness threatening to overpower them all.
I must confess, I was lost in a few of the interdimensional illuminations, and while the movie was only two hours, it felt longer at times, because of all the jumping around. Although, thankfully, it was a linear storyline. The villain is where I think a lot of people are going to be pissed off. It’s hard to watch someone you love turn to the dark side.
Some of the mystical combat sequences were just incredibly exciting and fun to watch, and anyone who loves Raimi films will enjoy the many Easter Eggs he hides in plain sight throughout Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Overall, this is a solid entrance into a heavily saturated MCU that I would definitely see again. I highly recommend seeing it in theaters too, as the effects and brilliant color-scape deserve to be appreciated in their full glory – or should I say, gory?
