was Dr. Strange rip off, of Christopher Nolan's movies"

Rating: 5/10 (9 December 2016)

About Dr.Strange, I would like to quote what my late (Imaginary) mentor said about Angelina Jolie's Salt back in 2010 "This movie has holes in it big enough to drive the whole movie through. The laws of physics seem to be suspended here the same way as in a Road Runner cartoon".
But is it a good film, we will establish that first we need to look into the matter if "Dr. Strange was rip off, of Christopher Nolan's movies" Throughout the movie, characters, special effects and plot was shouting Nolan's name because it was strikingly very much similar to at least 3 of his movies. 1. Batman Begins A rich guy goes to Himalayas then comes back enriched with new deathly set of skills/arts with a new persona, does that rings a bell? And the whole texture of the screen, clouds, darker colors, soul shaking crush on a friend who is taking her job very seriously. There is another tiny bit resemblance, which might the homage to longer twist in batman. Initially Ras'ul Akh's identity is mistaken by Bruce. So is done by Strange with ancient one. 2. Inception Now that's what everyone is talking about the physics defying scenes of inception have been stretched out. Also worth mentioning are those Hallway/Lobby scenes from Inception where no CGI was used and in Dr. Strange it's all about CGI with excessive artwork and too much goes on too quick that it loses it's charm. Apart from the visual similarities, the ending of Dr. Strange has huge influence from Inception where characters might get trap in the deepest of the memories for ever. In Dr. Strange it also takes inspiration for ending from another of Nolan's movie. 3. Interstellar We travel in alternate dimensions many times in Dr. Strange but do we remember our travels through wormholes? Of course there had been worm holes in movies since decades but we got familiar to the term after Interstellar but the design of wormholes and the fact that it takes you inside a black hole instead of future or past is impact of Interstellar. Dormammu (as funny as it sounds, especially from Bennedict's mouth) is a fantasized version of a black hole trying to take over the earth. As explained earlier, ending is also inspired by Interstellar where key to save the world lies within a black hole and Hero has to go into it. Ancient One's character is hugely inspired by Professor Brand from Interstellar as they both introduce the lead character to the object of the plot near the end shown to have kept secret to themselves. Beside Nolan's massive impact on the movie, there are other influences which are quite visible. Kaecilius sidekicks were much like characters from Thor, I would not be much surprised to know that they were using same costume, considering the fact that they will share the Marvel universe soon will make it cost effective for producers. It seems like Bennedict is the guy to play role of photographic memory as it's his 3rd role after Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock and Alan Turning in The Imitation Games. Although Bennedict is brilliant actor but if you are playing similar role again and again it might not be that much entertaining. His role of Alan Turning was different but playing Dr. Strange is very much similar to Playing Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness. Tilda Swinton is brilliant and the only person who fits into the role and does justification to it. Swinton brings charisma with her personality, mild British accent and ability to look stunning with bald head. It's a shame her character met its destiny, as it could have brought interesting background in upcoming movies. Rest of the cast were not given much chance to prove anything. Story is not that different from any action or superhero movie ever made. With lose ends like the death of Ancient One (who only has aliases and not funny name), accident of Strange over shoreline, the object to control time was just laid around and the fact how strange manage to successfully maneuver the feat at first attempt, how skull of ancient one was still intact after falling from height of hundreds of feet. And the strategic scheduling of the movie right after Captain America Civil War, where it introduces mirror reality concept. So now all the dirty fight can take place in mirror universe while real one remains intact saving Avengers from future lawsuits. Overall Dr. Strange is enjoyable, especially for its opening sequence and special effects. But again it's more of form over no substance.