I Need to Talk About “Doctor Strange”

So, I saw “Doctor Strange” Friday afternoon.

I almost didn’t. There were two of these sitting behind me

They wouldn’t shut up during the whole 20 minutes of previews. Fine, I thought, it’s just previews. I can YouTube that shit later. It was stuff I’d see, like “Logan”, “Guardians 2”, and “Rogue One”; stuff I’d never see, like “Assassin’s Creed”, “Power Rangers”, and some movie starring Matt Damon and half of Inner Mongolia called “The Great Wall”; plus a shit-ton of ads. But then the movie started, and they kept going. And I don’t know where it came from, but what came out of me at full volume was:

“You better find your fucking off switch or there’s going to be a goddamned problem!”

which shut up the entire theatre. (The kid wanted a taste after the show, but he changed his mind.)

Anyway, the movie starts with the usual origin-story nonsense. Really, if you saw “Iron Man”, that origin is a good parallel:

there’s cocksuredness, an accident,

and him trying to recover what he was.

And that leads to his transformation.

Plus, Rachel McAdams is the ex-girlfriend who tries to help him, but in his pain he pushes her away.

After that, the movie picks up with the teaching and the battles, and how the battle teach him how to grow his skills. After a while, you can figure out the teachable moments and where the battle will go next. There’s also a lot of humour in the movie; about as many yuks as were in Guardians, which kind of surprised me.

The best parts of the movie are the special effects. If you can see 3-D or IMAX, I’d recommend it. The locations are visually stunning. It’s got way more colours than “Guardians”, and the scenery-bending you’ve seen in the ads probably jumps in 3-D. (Can’t see 3-D – severe astigmatism.)

The movie is a treat for the eyes, well worth the full-price admission.

And there are a couple of credits scenes, so stick through the end.

Now, I’m going to tell you the couple of things that might make you wait:

1. This movie exists to introduce the eventual new leader of The Avengers, and
2. This movie just ‘exists’.

Master Cumberbatch is being set up to take over for Robert Downey Jr. after the “Infinity War” movies, when Marvel enters Stage-4. You can see that by how much depth they put into developing his origin story. Think back to “the Hulk” or “Thor”; they are bit-players and their origin stories reflect that. The first Iron Man was awesome beyond words, and part of it was due to the depth they gave to building up the backstory for a “second-tier” superhero. Captain America got a whole movie of origin story, because he is the yang to Tony Stark’s yin. No one cares about Hawkeye.

Doctor Strange is about magic, and astral projection, and somehow how all that still fits into the Avengers punch-’em-up world. It’s like they’re (in a way) rebuilding the franchise, and they have to give the depth to the key guy they need to build around.

So, when you combine this movie with Black Panther and the eventual Captain Marvel movie, plus whoever survives the Infinity War series, there’s your team heading into 2020. But if you’d told me this movie wasn’t being made, and that the whole series will end with Infinity War, I would die happy. It’s there and I’ll watch it, but I don’t need it.

But it’s not to say this isn’t a great movie – if you’re a fanboy you’re all-in. It ties into the series quite well, and nicely sets up the inevitable sequel. I’ve said before that I’m in the bag for these things, because I was partly raised by comic books, so I’ll go see every one.

To use a term for people my age, it’s a full-price, E-ticket ride.

It’ll be fine on Netflix, but the visuals kinda demand the big screen.