From Mr. To Dr. To Master.

Rating: 8/10 (5 November 2016)

The pace in this film is so strange, in that it is without question, the most blistering of all the MCU installments, seriously, without equivocation! Yet somehow, even with that, there was a good 10 minutes in the film that loses you quite a bit, and not because it's bad, but I feel it's a symptom caused by how fast this film moves, that when it just slows down to a standard pace, you feel a type of jet lag, yet still on top of that, you feel that Doctor Strange could've easily, been longer than just 1 hour 55 minutes.
The humour. Marvel needs to tone down on the humour. There were areas, and enough in fact, where the humour struck the right chords, but, like Age of Ultron, Doctor Strange suffers from a strangle hold of jokes and unnecessary humour. There were parts, and noticeably so, where humour needed to be thrown to the wayside, especially because of the type of actor Cumberbatch is. Strange may be a Master of The Mystic Arts, but Cumberbatch is a Master of, Dramatic Arts... So again, I wish Marvel would've given him more room to be that.
The love story between Strange and Palmer was, too secondary, instead of it faintly manufacturing itself, in the background. Musically, it would be a breakdown, instead of being that, bass- line, which gives a song that oomph. I didn't get the chance to really love Palmer in that way (again, a pace issue), McAdams can make you fall in love with her characters, however, McAdams, as always, was an extreme pleasure to watch.
Alright, now for the strangely amazing. The opening sequence of this film was "WTF" amazing. It sets your expectations unusually high, another reason why for a brief period, the movie loses you as it tones down, but, it brings you right back up again, and this time... It doesn't let go. The magic, the fight sequences and the visuals representing them were absolutely spectacular.
I also applaud Marvel as to how they approached a villain in this installment. Kaecilius didn't want to kill, rule or destroy. He wanted to neutralize his painful past, for himself and all, with what he thought was a gleeful future, through the main villain - Dormammu, who was just too strong for Strange to beat, so instead of winning or defeating, Strange rather did some neutralizing of his own, by outsmarting and, bargaining. The concept of Good and Evil pretty much remains the same in film, and it's no different in this particular one, however, the attempt of freshening it, was unalike.
The final fight scene was, exceptionally sublime, brilliant and worthy of noting as a testament, to Scott Derrickson's successful attempt at showing us something we haven't seen before. Forget reverse motion and freezing of time, what Scott did was depict time being bent on itself by portraying it in a way I've never seen; the present playing itself out during an occurring past. The idea deserves a: "Thank you".
The story wasted very little time, and tended to be a bit too direct, but it came together very well. Motives were explained, and the reactions from the characters concerned, were understandable. Cumberbatch was class and the cast was quality. Scott played around with horror elements, and I'm happy he did. Ben Davis, once again displayed expertise in his craft. The visuals in Doctor Strange could've easily seemed heavily disarranged, but they came out magnificently. The score sounded a lot like Star Trek: Into Darkness, so perhaps Giacchino could've done a bit more, but overall, he was very good.
Out of 10, like a constantly changing reality, I give it a 7.6 that keeps spinning into a .9, then .6, then .9... So, 7.7/10 it is, that I'll round off to a spinning 8... Because an 8 right way up or upside down is still an 8, and horizontally, it's infinity... Ideas and concepts this film captured very well. Strange was strange indeed.