A great debut for the Sorcerer Supreme.

Rating: 8/10 (12 November 2016)

As a long time Marvel comics reader, there was no way I was going to miss DOCTOR STRANGE when it came out in the theaters and I can honestly say it is one of the their better adaptations, avoiding some of the things which irked so many fans in other movies, especially when the original material is tweaked for 21st Century audiences. I am happy to say that this movie does right by the character originally created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko back in the 60's and gives the Sorcerer Supreme a proper big screen debut.
The plot: Essentially this is an origin story, which usually means a callow protagonist undergoes some traumatic metamorphosis, usually by way of a seemingly freak accident and emerges a super hero endowed with powers that they will then use to protect the world from some equally endowed evil entity. For teenage Peter Parker, it was being bitten by a radioactive spider; for physicist Bruce Banner, it was being dowsed with Gamma rays; and thus we got Spider Man and The Hulk. For brilliant and arrogant surgeon Stephen Strange, the transformation comes by way of an auto accident which results in severe nerve damage to his hands, resulting in the loss of his surgical skills and ultimately sending him on a desperate journey to Nepal, where he meets The Ancient One, who teaches him the mystical skills that will make him a Sorcerer Supreme, but not before Strange must learn to get over himself and past his ego. We've seen this before many times, but sometimes it is not the story, but how well it is told, and DOCTOR STRANGE goes through its well trod paces well.
The villain: This can be a problem, because if you don't have a good antagonist for the hero, the energy just goes right out of the movie, a good example would be SUICIDE SQUAD, but that's DC and they have a more than a few problems. Here the bad guy is Kacilious, a former pupil of The Ancient One, who out of grief for the loss of his loved ones, is determined to use sorcery to grant everyone immortality, even if it means giving the earth over to the typical "dark realm" governed by Dorammamu, a Big Bad evil entity. Kacilious, the former pupil gone bad, may be a character we've seen many times before and one very familiar to comic book readers, but proves adequate for the job here. And Strange's confrontation with Doramanmu is a nice diversion from the usual fight to death with the hero triumphant in the end climax we are used to in these movies.
The cast: Marvel has a knack for getting just the right actors starting with Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and in Benedict Cumberbatch, they have found the perfect Stephen Strange. The man goes from arrogant to humble to selfless heroism in the course of the movie and never misses a beat, we always believe he is real in whatever scene he's in. Kacillious might be a cipher in the script, but actor Mads Mikkelsen brings so much to the role, we instantly believe this guy is a threat, building on the performances he gave in CASINO ROYALE and TV's HANNIBAL. If an Asian actor had been cast as the Ancient One, it would have been a cliché, but a bald Tilda Swinton makes the character memorable as a mentor with a dark secret. Other roles go to Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg, Benjamin Bratt and action star, Scott Adkins, who plays one of Kacilious's disciples who gives Strange a hard time in one of the movie's best set piece action scenes.
The special effects: They can best be described as "INCEPTION on acid," as cityscapes and buildings turn on their sides and turn all the way upside down as characters scramble and fight across them. It might have seemed daunting to recreate the other worldly and psychedelic aspects of the comic in its original classic run, but this movie does a very good job of it; while also giving us a unique look to this world of magic, as opposed to Harry Potter's world. At its best, DOCTOR STRANGE is has a look and feel unlike any other Marvel movie so far, and that is all to the good.
The after credits scenes set things up for Stephen Strange's appearance in the next Thor movie with a meeting with the Norse God of Thunder, while the other one gives us a peak at the next stand alone adventure of the Sorcerer Supreme, where he will likely square off with a former ally. Hopefully this one will be to Doctor Strange what WINTER SOLDIER was to Captain America.