Distracting, with impressive effects; but no more than just an okay film

Rating: Null/10 (29 March 2017)

Another Marvel film. It doesn't matter how many well regarded subtitled films I have in my queue, or how much I suspect that any given Marvel movie will have the same strengthens and weaknesses as the others I've seen, I will watch these quite quickly when they are available to watch at home. That includes characters I have never heard of before, such as Ant-Man, and this one. The plot here sees a talented surgeon get in an accident, lose full control of his once talented hands, and seek out some power that may be able to cure him. That power turns out to be much more than this, and soon he is fighting pan dimensional forces to protect Earth from destruction.
There is plenty here that reminds you that you are part of a massive franchise of films, although to be fair Doctor Strange bares that weight pretty well, and mostly it just focuses on what it is doing and not so much on having a lot of connections to these other characters. Watching it as its own film, there is quite a lot to enjoy. The high-profile cast for instance; they bring a lot of quality even if some of them have little to do, and/or caused controversy by their casting. The special effects are probably the big thing though. Not only are they technically impressive (like almost all big blockbusters) but the nature of them is quite pleasing in the way it twists the world around. They are not enough to carry the film, but they do make a mark. Finally, the light humor works well, and helps it not take itself too seriously.
Sadly, outside of the cast and effects, what we have is an origin story for a character I have no reason to be interested in. The effects may be impressive, but they also limit how I could connect to the action. It all plays out with noise and movement, but the familiarity of the content meant I never really got into it. On one hand this is what I come to the marvel films for – so on that front the effects, humor, and noisy action all were present; however, as a total package Strange was only an 'okay' film that could have been much more.