Engaging origin story with good visuals and Benedict Cumberbatch's charisma.

Rating: Null/10 (5 November 2016)

Bottom Line: This movie has a ton of things going for it! Its take on the genre is pretty fresh and it goes deeper in to personal struggle than most superhero movies do. There are parts where the narrative gets rocky, but Benedict Cumberbatch has charisma in spades to get the movie through the rough spots. The movie also goes all out on visual effects which can be the its strongest and weakest asset. The visual splendor creates some mind bending action scenes and add vivid detail to the mystic world of spell-casters that Strange inhabits. But sometimes it feels like the movie is more concerned with stunning visuals than it is with developing some key supporting characters (like Mads Mikkelsen's Kaecilus and Chiwetel Ejiofor's Mordo) that would have made it great.
Notes
-Although Benedict Cumberbatch has played plenty of genius characters in the past this still feels like new ground for him because no previous role has required him to be as emotionally vulnerable as this one. The movie does not hesitate to frequently knock Strange off of the pedestal of his genius, which gives him more depth then you would expect. This movie makes Cumberbatch more vulnerable in its first 30 minutes than BBC's Sherlock has dared to make him in three seasons of television.
-Although some of Strange's one-liners occasionally got a chuckle out of me, I could have done without them. Part of my hesitation to score Marvel movies highly comes from the fact that they all sort of feel the same. This movie is one of the few that's able to separate itself with its own unique vibe, and the only thing that breaks that immersion is the witty- but-disposable sense of humor so common in the Marvel cannon. (I know this a huge nitpick and 99.9% of people who will watch the movie won't care about this, but it took me out of the movie a bit in some parts so I thought it was worth noting)
-I think more would have been less in the case of the subplot with Rachel McAdams. It all resonated fine and it wasn't corny or anything, but I think putting the time spent on that into other areas would have more immediately benefited the movie.
-Most of the time dealing with supernatural or mystical can make a movie feel slightly derivative at best, and painfully preachy at worst. Not the case here! Doctor Strange is able to use its remarkable visuals and well timed jabs at clichés of movies that deal with these themes to give the movie a fresh take on people with magical powers. Possibly the first to do that on the big screen since the Harry Potter series.
-This movie is able to shake off a lot of problems common in superhero origin movies, but the unremarkable villain is not one of them. Mads Mikkelson struggles to find anything to do in the utterly generic character he is given. His backstory is one that's a cliché at this point, his dialog doesn't sparkle with any with or personality, and he isn't even particularly interesting in fight scenes.
-I would be remiss not to mention the action scenes which make full use of the movie's massive special effect budget. I can't compare them to Inception (apperently the most obvious influence to the visual style) because I haven't seen Inception. But to me it was a welcome inventive approach to comic book action. The way the scene twist and bends around provides unique perspectives and open up a lot of opportunity to make inventive use of character's mystical powers. Again I thought the effects were somewhat overused. At times it felt like the were using them just to make a spectacle and not to help the story. But after the movie I felt like doing improvised fake fights in the backyard with my brother so suffice it to say it did its job pretty well.
-Here's a moment that I thought was really clever and well-executed. Shortly after Strange gains the cloak of levitation and finally seems to fully realize his powers. He makes a mistake in battle that causes him and his partner to straight up run for their lives for the next five minutes. Following a scene where we see how much Strange has grown as a character, followed directly by a reminder of how far he has to go still was very impactful for me.
-Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo got short changed in terms of development. Which I wouldn't mind much if it weren't for the fact that the movie relies on him and Strange's relationship a lot in the last act and it sort of falls flat because they simply don't have enough screen time together to develop the necessary chemistry to make it work. Cumberbatch and Ejiofor are both great actors though so they sort of make it work in spite of all that.
SPOILERS BELOW
-Usually deaths of mentor figures in origin movies fall flat for me. I always see them coming from a stones throw away and it's been done so many times before that it's a cliché. But the death of The Aincent One really took me by surprise with how impactful it was. The mystique surrounding her character made her feel immortal, so it actually kind of caught me off guard. The way it happens is fairly unique and the character is able to wistfully reflect on her life, unlike most death scenes where the character is gasping for the breath to give there last words. Tilda Swinton acts the part very well and her words to Strange are some of the most resonant in the movie.