The MCU goes psychedelic.

Rating: 10/10 (26 September 2018)

Much like my exposure to Guardians of the Galaxy, Dr. Strange was always a character in Marvel's lineup that I never was familiar with as I never read any of his comic stories so when Marvel Studios announced a movie about the Sorcerer Supreme, I was mildly interested just because of how big of a fan I am of the MCU and the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch was going to be playing the lead so I went into the film with medium expectations and I came out stunned and amazed by what I watched. From it's mind-blowing visual effects and dazzling action set-pieces to its brilliant humor and acting, Dr. Strange is easily the trippiest and most interesting MCU movie I've ever watched.
The movie opens in a secret complex where an evil sorcerer named Kaecilius and his followers sneak into the complex's library and steal a couple pages from a mystic book only to be chased out by the head sorcerer known as the Ancient One. We then cut to Dr. Steven Strange, a rich, admired and vain neurosurgeon who is injured in a car wreck which therefore costs him the usage of his hands, leaving him incapable of performing any kind of surgery. After nearly bleeding himself dry financially while trying to find a cure for his damaged hands, Steven hears about a mystic place in Nepal know as Kamar-Taj from a man who was able to regain the use of his legs. Desperate, Strange travels to Kamar-Taj only to be rejected at first but is taken in by Baron Mordo. The Ancient One displays her powers to Steven, showing him various other dimensions as well as the astral plane. Upon seeing this power, Strange begs to taught in the ways of mysticism but The Ancient One is hesitant to train him due to his ego and aspiration but eventually agrees to mentor him. Meanwhile, Kaecilius uses the stolen text pages to contract Dormammu from the Dark Dimension in order to aid him in his mission. Now, Strange along with Baron Mordo and The Ancient One must do battle with Kaecilius and Dormammu and pervert Earth from falling into chaos.
Over the course of ten years, the MCU has gone from strength to strength in the matter of storytelling prowess, providing the directors and writers an opportunity to push against the typical and formulaic approach to movie-making in Hollywood by nurturing a resounding and exceptional creative and storytelling insights coupled with the guiding hand of a studio president whose vision for a shared universe is carefully planned out over the course of several decades which has lead to some of the greatest comic book movies of our time like The Avengers, Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy, movies that have been indisputably influenced not only by the filmmaking sentiments of their directors but also from what Kevin Feigie has done for the MCU and while some of these movie may not stack up to the comic book movies made by Richard Donner or Christopher Nolan, almost all of the MCU movies stand out from some of the other comic book movies of recent memory for their readiness to tell a familiar story from a different angle while some movies made in the Marvel camp like The Amazing Spiderman 2, X-Men 3, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Spiderman 3 and Fant4sic fail due to their faithfulness to the studio's band of style and micromanagement no matter how hard the directors and writers try to make their vision stand out. Pretty much everything great about Thor: The Dark World was snuffed out and felt like it was being written and revised by a set of rules that were created to increase what made the first movie so great and implant them into a recognizable format. However, most of the MCU films have accomplished this through their grasp on Marvel Studio's distinct designs and awareness by working strongly within the confines and limits of what Fergie has sent up with the MCU but also accept the expectations dictated to them and thus play close to them. By doing so, the films adopt a certain balance and flexibility so much so that such a proven strategy when it comes to filmmaking has paid off time and again for these movies and allows the filmmakers to work their magic in creating a film that not only provides us with an escape from reality but also can give us a great story with characters we can be invested in along with giving us a movie that is fun to watch without feeling the need to be too artsy or snobbish and Dr. Strange is one such movie.
Much like what the first Thor movie did with its emphasis on science and magic, Dr. Strange smartly decides to go a similar way with its story. There are never too many unexpected twists and turns that find their way into the story or the arrangement of the movie. The film unfurls precisely as the viewer would expect it to but this isn't always a bad thing. All the parts are there ready to be assembled and are ready to be added with the authenticity of a watch that Strange carries around with him as a relic and all the character archetypes are presented to the viewer even before we have a chance to get to know them and yet the movie never feels the need to bring down or curve these characters but rather it concentrates on improving them to a fine point and feeling the need to realize those points with the aid of a talented cast, glorious visual effects and a slight smirk on the movie's face. More so than that, the relevant directness of the movie's plot allows director Scott Derrickson to attach some rather mind-blowing action set-pieces and as well as some nifty visual composition and while some have whined that all the MCU look the same when it comes to their visual look and color palettes, I personally have never seen anything wrong as it always seems that every movie Marvel Studios makes always has a distinctive look that differentiates from the previous movies and Dr. Strange certainly has a unique look that makes it stand out from previous comic book films and feels like a breath of fresh air.
Unlike some more recent comic book films that feel the need to take themselves much more seriously then they should, Dr. Strange actually seems like it's eager to embrace it's outlandish source material rather than run away from it and nowhere does that become more apparent then a scene where Strange does battle with some of Kaecilius's minions with some help from The Cloak of Levitation. A cape is an iconic piece of superhero iconography as both Superman and Thor have shown us and Dr. Strange turns the Cloak of Levitation into a character itself. Every time the cloak in onscreen, director Scott Derrickson can't get enough of it and rightfully so as the cloak is honestly fantastic even if it's just a prop much like the Magic Carpet in Aladdin. Some of the film's most enduring shots are centered around the cloak practically the final shot in the trailer where Strange is climbing the steps to the Sanctum Santorum is truly breath-taking. Despite how the cloak may feel like an inanimate object, it still has a personality all it's own. The instant that Stephan dons the cloak, he starts to become a more useful superhero. The movie makes the point obvious to the viewer that a lot of this is happening directly tied to the cloak itself. To add to that, the humor in Dr. Strange is some of the best in the MCU as every single joke in the movie is timed just right and never feels forced or unwanted but makes the viewer bust out laughing when the humor does come. The scene of Strange confining Kaecilius is particularly gut-busting as Strange grads a bizarre medieval-looking device that results in Kaecilius being caught in a compliant position as the gadget locks itself into place. The scene is a true testament to great humor as well as the power of great writing and comic timing.
Like Thor before it, Dr. Strange can be revised as an insightfully quintessential superhero movie built from ideas floating through the artistic subconsciousness. The film feels very recognizable and not just because of its story arraignment but also because it feels very much like a Marvel movie from top to bottom. Steven Strange is pretty much characterized in the same way as Tony Stark was as he starts off as a vain and full-of-himself billionaire but though a life-threating accident and its aftermath, he vows to change and as a result becomes a better person and uses his newfound powers to protect the world and while this trend may seem clichéd and worn out to some, I felt that it fit the tone of the film perfectly and didn't dwell on the origin for too long as opposed to Frant4sic. Apart from drawing a lot of influence from Thor and Iron Man, the film adds in elements of the TV show House to its portrayal, a British actor speaking with an American accent playing a self-centered doctor who is aloof when it comes to people as well as a few touches of Dr. Who thrown in due to the movie's frequent captivation with time as well as a few tiny callbacks to Inception due to the exploitation of space and time. While the movie may not do any better than the movies it's referencing, it still is able to throw all these elements into a blender and mix them in a way that feels appealing and breathtaking in and of itself.
As for the visual effects in Dr. Strange, they are just as spectacular as one might expect. With CGI improving all the time, certain shots and action set-pieces that would have been nigh to impractical a decade ago are now the standards for big-budget Hollywood movies and there's something that can be said about being able to see all these memorable comic book ideas being brought to life onscreen in an aspect that clearly delights in and holds fast to the more bizarre images and ideas of the world of Dr. Strange. When Stephan takes a journey through the multiverse, every area he passes through is realized to such a high degree of perfection that it's almost sensory overload just watch the entire scene but nonetheless, it's all so glorious that you simply can't take your eyes off of it and soak it all in for what it has to offer. The am