Movie Review: Dr. Strange — Multiverse of Madness
Well, it’s been a month. This place seems dustier than those boxes in Grandpa and Granny Pig’s house from Peppa Pig.
Hello there! I’m back, with another movie review! I am becoming a review blog at this point, and I’m not complaining. And neither are you.
So here I am, to regale you with tales from across universes, and the saga of one hero and his many selves, because yes, you guessed it, it’s Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Here starts the usual, non-spoiler recap of the movie.
It kicks off super-fast, with Dr. Strange and a new character named America Chavez exploring an alternate dimension, looking for the Book of Vishanti, a book that can give a sorcerer all that he needs to vanquish his enemy. They are chased by a large monster that looks like it was plagiarized from the Mummy, and nearly when it had caught up to them, America opened a portal and vanished. That’s when the dream breaks, and we see Dr. Strange for the first time. Or that’s what we think.
America crashes onto our Earth, chased by a plagiarized Cyclops/octopus/both, whose eye gets plucked out in an unfortunate incident with an unmanned aerial lamppost, and meets Strange, and Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme. Strange enquires about the Multiverse, the theory of multiple universes coexisting, branching off based on minute differences in their timeline. It turns out that America can travel across the multiverse, but she had no control over her power.
Spoiler time…get ready, folks. It’s about to be brutal.
On the octopus demon, Strange noticed some runes, which indicate a form of witchcraft. He goes to Wanda, when he learns that she is the one who sent the demons after America. After acquiring the Darkhold, the antithesis to Vishanti, Wanda thinks that controlling America’s power will allow her to be united with Tommy and Billy again, her children that she created in Westview (this story arc was in WandaVision). Strange refuses to hand America over, so Wanda attacks Kamar-Taj, the stronghold of the sorcerers, and once she has captured it, she begins a dreamwalk, a method of inhabiting another form of yourself in another universe.
Meanwhile, America and Strange have been transported into another universe as well, where they meet Karl Mordo, Strange’s previous mentor and friend, except this is the other universe’s version. Mordo soon imprisons them both, and takes Strange to the Illuminati, a group of individuals similar to our universe’s Avengers, consisting of Captain Carter (from What If?), Captain Marvel (from Captain Marvel the movie, except it’s Maria Rambeau instead of Carol Danvers), Black Bolt (Inhumans), Mordo, Professor X from X-Men and John Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic (Fantastic 4). Basically, it is the ULTIMATE crossover. Strange then finds out that his alternate self created this Illuminati to protect their universe. He used the Darkhold to kill Thanos, but nearly caused a universe destroying “incursion”, which is when two universes collide. Due to this, he was killed by the Illuminati and the Darkhold was locked away.
In her dreamwalk, Wanda attacks the Illuminati headquarters, single-handedly taking down all five of them, and goes to capture America again. They escape again to get Vishanti, in the space between universes, but Wanda destroys it and takes over America’s body, sending Strange and Christine, the scientist working with the Illuminati and Strange’s ex-fiancée, to an incursion destroyed universe. He once again meets a different form of himself, and they have a battle to grab that universe’s Darkhold, using only musical notes. Talk about dance fights. He defeats the other Strange, and dreamwalks into the dead body of the Strange with America in the beginning of the movie, and fights Wanda, who is trying to travel to Tommy and Billy’s universe.
The movie ends with Wanda scaring her children out of her wits, and then crashing the mountain where she sat onto herself, destroying all Darkholds across the multiverse along with herself.
Spoilers over. I told you it was harsh.
Here’s my review:
The movie was something you’d come to expect from Marvel, at this point. Absolutely mind-blowing special effects, brilliant direction and even better acting made this movie a masterpiece in itself. I’ve heard many conflicting opinions from critics, but from the point of view of a Marvel fan or even a movie buff, this was two hours well spent.
A particular thing I’d like to highlight was the acting in this movie. With many actors playing double roles, like Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen, the acting was simply superb, with just the slightest difference in the different characters.
That brings me to the end of this article. I have nothing more to say, really, other than just gushing about plot points and the implications for the MCU, but I doubt you want to listen to that. So, with that I leave you! Goodbye!
