A film with much potential, but the writers needed to understand what they were writing.

Rating: 6/10 (5 August 2017)

I actually really enjoyed this film. It was very entertaining, and a good way to spend two hours. Benedict Cumberbatch was good, the background of his character was very unique and interesting, and the other characters were complex and somewhat relatable. However, this movie had many flaws.
Firstly, the storyline. Now, the backstory for Dr. Strange was very interesting, however, it was after he stopped being a surgeon when things began to get odd. It is all too common for movies to not explain their stories, because there are, 'things you don't understand.' However, in movies such as The Matrix, that line is used to evoke mystery and keep the audience engaged. I found that in this particular film, this was a tactic used by the writers to not have to explain their own story that they wrote. It gave me the feeling that they conjured up a great storyline for a great film, but they were unable to think of what the characters were actually doing in the film. It was not really explained what the characters were doing, it was just all of a sudden, Dr. Strange could conjure up a gold weapon and they had to fight people who wanted to ruin the world for no particular reason, and ended up concluding the film using time travel, another tactic used for easy endings.
Now I am all for time travel movies. Films like Back to the Future are some of my favourite films of all time, but time in this film does not work for me. Time can be used to solve all of film's plot issues, and does not require any creativity to do so. I just felt that the messing with time in this film was not done cleverly, it was simply done to conclude a complex plot.
Overall, I did enjoy this film. It had some good elements such as the backstory and acting. However, I felt the storyline could use work, which would have made the film an 8 out of 10.