A strange mystical origin story, but way too formulaic.

Rating: 7/10 (27 October 2016)

The next new character to be introduced to the MCU, Doctor Strange is about neurosurgeon Stephen Strange who has a fatal car accident only to resort to learning about mysticism in order to save himself...but little does he know he is involved in a much bigger threat. Some of you know, that this is my most anticipated film of the year. I've watched the trailers so many times that I probably know them off by heart. Firstly the acting was spot on, Benedict Cumberbatch literally became his character and his American accent was perfect. Tilda Swinton, Rachel McAdams and even the underrated Mads Mikkelsen were all great, I've not seen such a perfect cast for a superhero film. Director Scott Derrickson (who also directed the horrors Sinister and the underrated Deliver Us From Evil) is confident taking on a franchise movie and is particularly interesting to see how he has transitioned so well from horror to fantasy. The visual effects are outstanding, obviously this film will remind people of Inception, but what this film was able to achieve was such a high level of imagination and technical excellence that really takes the viewer into the world on the screen. There is one great scene that reminded me of MC Escher where the camera pans around and creates the illusion of an isometric view, mind you that whole act was great. The script was funny and witty which is what one would expect from a Marvel studio film, we have to remember that this behemoth of a studio know exactly what they are doing now and can make origin films constantly. That is where the problem lies. This film is so formulaic that it borderlines on boring, I literally at a point wanted this film to get going and do something different but alas it did not. One of my friends told me "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" in which to my reply was "it will eventually get broken if something doesn't change". Some of the visual effects for the humans during fight scenes were done poorly and did take me out of the film slightly. The villain played by Mads Mikkelsen was weak and once again forgettable which really irritated me because he is such a waste of talent on this, why can't these films have better villains? (I shan't spoil it but there is another villain in which I did not like this interpretation of). Also a lot of the fight scenes were choppily edited and filmed which was a shame. Overall, Doctor Strange will satisfy fans with its great cast, witty script and sublime VFX but ultimately it's just another formulaic origin story that borderlines on boring. Slightly disappointing.

Review at: http://www.themoviediorama.com