Okay with some mild complaints

Rating: 7/10 (12 November 2016)

I am a Marvel reader from the 60's, my youngest son is also into the Marvel movies. We had been talking for a good 4 years or so about when they could crank out a Dr. Strange, one of my favorite titles from the 60s. So they finally did it and it wasn't a total disappointment even for a perfectionist like me. Marvel is always spot on in casting, no exception whatsoever with Cumberbatch as the charming but arrogant Dr. Strange. I wasn't as hot on their choice for the Ancient One (male , older, and more passive in the comics), that was a bust. What made Dr. Strange so great was 1) Ditko's drawing of the spells and counterspells, and 2) the strange devices and spells the sorcerers used. So to my list of issues: the first and biggest is the fighting, in the comics it was spells/counterspells, they do a little of that here but it is more ninja stuff. That was my biggest disappointment. Beyond that, my concerns were - Dormammu was one of the scariest villains in comics (flaming head), here they trotted out just another scary face; they played too many plot cards, they could have saved some stuff for the next movie (like Dormammu); and it doesn't always have to be the end of the world. Marvel seems to be gravitating towards putting the entire world at risk, that gets old when it's too often and it isn't needed. If they cleaned this up and worked on the spells more the sequel to this could be a great movie, they've set the table okay. But it could just as easily flop, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.