Not so deranged

Rating: 6/10 (1 November 2016)

Marvel takes another risk with making a movie with one of their relatively lesser known characters. Benedict Cumberbatch uses his Sherlock skills to make the egoist Dr Stephen Strange to be likable.
He plays a cocky, brilliant neurosurgeon whose hands are shattered after a car crash. He travels to Nepal and to a secretive temple called Kamar-Taj headed by the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) where he learns mystical skills and magic when he broadens his mind and accepts his part in the multiverse.
Marvel Studios gets all trippy with multicoloured Salvador Dali inspired sequences that also owes a lot to Christopher Nolan's Inception of folding cityscapes.
The plot is perfunctory though. Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen made up to look like a glam rock star) is a former student of the Ancient One, who believes there can be eternal life and the Celtic Ancient One has been holding out as to her real source of her powers. He makes a pact with an entity from the dark dimension that wants to destroy the planet.
There is something Harry Potter like about this film, especially as some of the scenes were filmed in London. There is a nifty sequence with the Cloak of Levitation that has chosen to be with Dr Strange.
Solid support from Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo who teaches Dr Strange to fight and Benedict Wong as the protector of the ancient books. Rachel McAdams plays Christine Palmer, a fellow medic and love interest of Dr Strange. McAdams incidentally appeared in the Robert Downey series of Sherlock Holmes films.