My Review of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness"

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has just come out. Fans have been dying for this movie ever since the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Fans are expecting tons of cameos and see familiar faces from the MCU. In the end that is what they got but is this more of a template of marvel movies to come?

The movie starts off with a exciting battle with a variant version of Doctor Strange. He's attempting to escape some sort of demon monster while protecting a new character named America Chavez.

This new character has the superpower ability to create dimensional portals to different multiverses. The problem is that she doesn't have full control over her powers yet. America can only seem to use her powers when she's in fear.

Worried about the wrong hands getting a hold of America, the variant Doctor Strange tries to absorb her powers. Unfortunately this would also kill her in the process. Before this could be done, the demon ultimately kills the variant Doctor Strange while America creates a multiverse dimensional portal. She escapes along with the body of the dead Doctor Strange.

Then we have the Doctor Strange that we all know wake up. That whole ordeal was apparently a nightmare that he had. He doesn't think much of it as he's off to the wedding of his true love Christine. Sadly for him, Christine is marrying someone other than him. This is a continuous storyline that spans from the first Doctor Strange movie into the What if? TV Series.

At the dinner party Doctor Strange encounters Christine. She's happy for him however she asks him the age old question of being happy. This is kind of the main question throughout the whole movie. Each of the characters are ultimately trying to make themselves happy by pursuing a goal however Strange has completed an ultimate goal of saving the universe. He still has to ponder the question of being happy.

We have these questions brought up again with alternate versions of Strange, Scarlet Witch and Wong. Each one of them have their own perspective of happiness. Strange is in the middle whereas Scarlet Witch are at the polar opposite spectrums. Wong is content with his current situation whereas Scarlet Witch is in pursuit of her happiness at all costs.

There's something that happens to Scarlet Witch that influences her and her pursuit of happiness. We see some blindness in her pursuit and I think we can all somewhat relate but not to her extent. Soon she becomes the main antagonist of the movie because of her lust for happiness.

The key to Scarlet Witch's happiness lies within America and that's pretty much the main story of the movie. There's a boat load of scenarios Strange and Chavez get into and that's when the beauty of this movie really opens up. You can see the gorgeous art direction for this movie. It's displayed in amazing set pieces with incredible special effects.

Being a Sam Raimi movie we also see a lot of his horror influences to this movie as well. His perspective is definitely put into play in this movie however to do this he had to make certain scenes sit for a bit so we can stew away with the spooky atmosphere. The problem with this is that we see a lot of the dumb moves done by the heroes of this movie. For example why would you stop and wait for your enemy to pursue you when you know they can destroy you with a snap of her fingers?

There are a ton of on the nose situations like this that gave me more a chuckle than scare. He also added a of goofy situations and sound effects throughout the movie that were meant to pander to fans of the MCU. They worked but for the most part they seemed incredibly cheesy to me.

Although there are a lot of visual splendor to this movie ultimately it falls into the same usual Marvel formula that has been pleasing fans for years. That means it's not a terrible movie but more of what we already experienced with new lipstick on it.

This new phase of the MCU is a bit incoherent as they really rely on the multiverse. I feel like the multiverse idea is a major cop out for writers. They can easily get away with a lot of stuff and use the multiverse angle as a crutch. We see Strange and America conveniently getting in and out of trouble with this multiverse angle. There doesn't feel like there was a lot of thought put into their escapes or how they get into sticky situations.

I'm also kind of confused as to where they're going with this phase of the MCU. At least there was some tie ins with the previous MCU phases. This one doesn't seem to be connected as Shang-Chi, Black Widow and Eternals make not mention of the multiverse or any huge connections with the rest of the current MCU.

Now it feels like Strange is the new Tony Stark and Wong is the new Nick Fury. They're playing these roles but aren't really connecting the rest of the movies up like they did in the past.

Overall, this movie was kind of run of the mill for me. It's enjoyable for MCU fans but it's starting to get a bit old. I got exactly what I thought the movie was going to be but no more and no less. You're probably going to watch this movie no matter what but if you're like me you'll probably be indifferent about it. That's why I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. Again it's not bad but it's not exactly great either.