Marvel Does the Matrix

Rating: 10/10 (10 November 2016)

As a person who both believes in science and works magic, watching this movie felt like remembering things I already knew. It reminded me of things I'd forgotten along the way, foundations buried by the dust of mundane life over the years. Some great stories sweep one away to another world, but this one swept away the dust off of this world, and showed it to be great and wonderful as any other.
I'm giving this 10 out of 10 even though I do have a criticism, because my criticism did not occur to me while I was watching it. I had read a lot about the casting of Tilda Swinson as The Ancient One when the casting choice had been announced. I don't really know why they chose to change the Ancient One, but if it's because of the reasons bandied about in what I read back then, either reason is problematic in its own way. The most obvious reason would be to give any large, important speaking role to a white person for the sake of giving American audiences people they can relate to. Aren't we past this point yet, though? I mean, the Ancient One is basically a martial arts mentor, we had an Asian martial arts mentor in the old Kung Fu TV series even though the title character was played by a white guy, and American audiences had no problem with that. In the previews that played before Dr. Strange was a preview for a movie about the Great Wall of China, and, guess what, a white guy was the star. I'm just over hear shaking my head, wondering what sense that could possibly make in the story. OK, so there's that possibility, but the other one I read about back when the casting choices were made is more insidious if it's so: that they changed the Ancient One from being Tibetan so they could get the movie passed censorship by the government of China. So it could play in the Chinese market. So, now we're blaming Hollywood erasing Asian characters on China. OK then. I really would have liked the Ancient One to stay Asian. Given how much fighting the Ancient One does in the movie, it would have been great to have him played by an actual martial artist, too. All that said, though, none of that detracted from my enjoyment of the movie while I was actually watching it, it's just bugging me now, the next morning.
Dr. Strange is a great spectacle. Even if you're not into the mysticism it portrays, the portrayal of the other worlds and the bending of time and space is done with excellent special effects that are great to watch. It reminded me of The Matrix in that it uses fx and fight scenes to show something deeper. On the surface, it's about gaining powers and defeating a bad guy like any other superhero movie, but underneath it has something to say about the nature of reality. There is enough plot to keep it from being just a psychedelic fx show. Each of the effects is necessary to the story.
There are some great moments of humor. I especially liked the physical humor with the cloak. I laughed out loud at the near-pratfalls caused by the Cloak of Levitation.
The character of Dr. Strange is one I can relate to because he's basically a human. Even though he starts out as an exceptional surgeon so he's up at the top of professional success, he's still just a human without any powers when he starts out. He's not a mutant or a demigod or an alien or given powers by a spider or gamma rays or any of the other ways superheroes usually get their powers. Strange is just a regular human being who learns stuff from books.
I really liked how time and mortality were portrayed as positives. When the villains first explain their motivation, they don't sound like villains at all. They want to free the world from mortality, and that sounds great at first. It's only when we see the true nature of what they serve that the viewer realizes how wrong they are. I also like how questioning and bending the rules is portrayed as a positive. There isn't a hard line between the white hats and the black hats; the top good guys are gray.
This movie delivers the action, fx, and humor one expects from a Marvel movie, including the obligatory Stan Lee cameo and a scene during the credits setting up another movie. Re-filling beer stein for the win, lol. It also serves up a mix of magic, technology, choices, and personal development that will please fans of Star Wars and The Matrix.