The next awesome installment in the MCU

Rating: 10/10 (4 November 2016)

-Directing:
Director 'Scott Derrickson' known mostly for directing thrillers, did an incredible job building this amazing and STRANGE world and at the same time connecting it into the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film is fast-paced but the camera pace is not, something different from the rest of the Hollywood movies nowadays. Scott amazingly captured every scene, giving it a different feeling based on the scene itself. He also gave some horror elements that really gave a "tone" of excitement. The only negative about his directing is the close-combat fights. They were really choppy with bad- camera moves. Something that the Russo-Bros did perfect in "The Winter Soldier" & "Civil War".
-Plot/Story/Writing:
The Story begins exactly where the "Doctor Strange Prelude Comics" left and so the audience that read the preludes will benefit a lot. The First act is emotional and does a fantastic job introducing some of the characters and giving them (in a secret way) a backstory. But it goes through kind of fast, and I think five more minutes into the film just for the first act would give a much more "complete" storytelling.
-Actors&Characters:
Benedict Cumberbatch...what can be said about this guy? He's AWESOME. Marvel really tried to push him to be the new face of the MCU instead of "Robert Downey Jr" and they KIND of succeeded. Benedict BECAME the character, he is enthusiastic, energetic, smart and you can easily relate to him. But to become the face of the MCU we have to see more of him (a lot more). Benedict Wong as Wong was my favorite character behind Stephen Strange. He's this serious guy who doesn't get most of the jokes but at the same time he is funny without him noticing. Rachel McAdams was a great supporting character as Christine Palmer. She was helpful and not just the (girl-for-the-hero) like Pepper in Iron Man or Jane in Thor, she had a great personality and gave Stephen a lot more "character-story". Mads Mikkelsen did a excellent job as the villain Kaecilius but the movie itself didn't give him much of story...but the Prelude Comics really benefit his character and actually give him a story so you can get attached to. So the audience that read the preludes have a benefit against the ones who didn't read the preludes. Tilda Swinton & Chiwetel Ejiofor did as well a great jobs as The Ancient One & Mordo. The two character had really emotional and compelling moments together but overall they were kind of "overshadowed" by the other characters.
-Visual Effects:
The visuals in this movie are like nothing I've ever seen before. They're trippy, exciting, and "mind-bending" like some are saying. Almost all the effects are excellent & realistic. But I say almost because the effects on the humans while they are jumping and doing all that crazy stuff could have been better...but Marvel is known to really struggle on the human-VFX so its not a surprising.
-Conclusion:
Even if Marvel has now jumped into Phase 3, this film proves they're still capable of doing an origin-story and not make it feel 'strange' among the rest of the mcu movies. The humor is good (especially if you like the one-view-point jokes), the fights could have been better but the chase scenes are fantastic. With a really compelling story Doctor Strange is one of the best MCU films to date and gets the 3rd place in my personal top3 Marvel Movies.