An Innovative Visual Spectacle, Burdened by a Flat Character Arc

Rating: 5/10 (17 February 2017)

An egotistical, world-renowned surgeon loses feeling in his hands and must search for meaning in what's left of his life. Seems like a fairly easy, if overdone, template for the next chapter in Marvel's sprawling cinematic universe. Yet, strangely (har har), there's very little character progression and the doctor's personal arc falls thoroughly flat. Following a brief stumble through his rolodex of former colleagues and a very short humbling at the hands of spiritual masters, Strange makes no personal advancement. He merely shifts from being the world's greatest surgeon to its resident sorcerer supreme. No penance, no spiritual enlightening, just a short rocky patch in his perfect life and then a nearly-immediate gratification. Shallow character development among the supporting cast, particularly in Mads Mikkelsen's villainous foil (underdeveloped rivals being a dirty habit in the MCU), doesn't provide the crutch that might have smoothed things over somewhat. The effects work is dazzling and creative, providing much more than we saw in the trailers, but that's really the only draw here. Jaw-dropping battle scenes and fabulous twists on reality are its bread and butter, and worth seeing for the spectacle alone, but the lack of a deeper context is disappointing.