Doctor Strange: 5.3

Rating: 5/10 (26 April 2018)

This film prides itself on being a mind bending psychedelic adventure, but it never really lives up to that statement. There's mind bending psychedelic scenes which are great, but there's just not enough to make the film that different from a phase one marvel movie. There is not enough magic to break Doctor Strange out of the generic superhero movie mold. The dialogue is sometimes just plain awful, with characters saying words that push the movie down to a bad B-Movie, and misplaced or unfunny comedy is sprinkled throughout the entire film, with the exception of Wong who has some funny scenes. Speaking of laughter, the big bad at the end is laughably bad. Down to his design and how quickly Doctor Strange defeats him he's probably the worst Marvel villain to date. The other villain like Mads Mikkelsen's Kaecilius is forgettable, but he fits the villain role fine. The third act has a really good unique format to it and contains some good themes, but the execution surrounding it is poor, and it masks the quality of Doctor Strange's good character moments. Overall, Doctor Strange is a movie with a high amount of squandered potential due to it's poor execution, and it fails to exploit what worked in the movie by there being not enough. So I give it a 5.3