Dr. Stephen: Or How I stopped Worrying & Love the Drive-thru Menu

Rating: 7/10 (21 November 2016)

Just when you were hoping that Marvel was going to boldly go where it has not gone before the studio delivers another one of its brands.
I'm as familiar with Dr. Strange as I am with Dr. Oz (not very). I have grown tired of Marvel's formulaic product which is becoming more pronounced now that is under the aegis of Disney (I fear that Star Wars may fall victim to the bland). Marvel is the McDonald's of movie studios. It churns out (seemingly daily) easily digestible & reliably satisfying movies that never rise above an OK cinematic experience despite some fantastic production values. (Counterpoint: they never dip below OK either.)
I had given up on the studio following that large order of fries that was "Captain America: Civil War". However, I was intrigued by this seemingly off-the-comic-interstate character of Dr. Strange especially when Benedict Cumberbatch was cast along with Tilda Swinton & Mads Mikkelsen. These are always interesting actors just like Chiwetel Ejiofor who is also here. They normally are not in this kind of movie (the same could be said of Robert Downey Jr. in another lifetime). Heck, I was delighted to see Daniel Bruhl in Civil War.
This movie IS different in many welcome ways from the other Marvel happy meal movies. The SFX are amazing. They're the best I've seen in the last few years. Imagine "Inception" or M.C. Escher drawings on steroids. They are trippy & far out, dude (here is your Oscar). Marvel has never stinted on production values, but you can say the same thing about all of those Transformers movies.
My main (ground) beef with this movie is that I wasn't emotionally involved with it. The actors all give very professional performances & the weird doctor's cape is a hoot. The time in the theater moves briskly. This movie is never boring. I wish, however, Marvel would stop putting on all of those extras scenes on during & after the credits unless it is the studio's way of making sure you see all of the names & companies that evidently work very hard to put all of this eye candy up on the screen & thus thanking them (that is something I respect & forgive them for).
Compared to "Arrival", "Jason Bourne" & "Deepwater Horizon", "Dr. Strange" didn't give me goosebumps watching it or any heart-in-the- throat moments. It IS occasionally strange. Think of a Big Mac with a dash of wasabi on it.