"Doctor Strange" magnificently raises the bar and expands the horizon for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Rating: 9/10 (4 November 2016)

The wild superhero action-adventure-fantasy film "Doctor Strange" (PG-13, 1:55) does for the Marvel Cinematic Universe what the character did for Marvel Comics when he first appeared in 1963 – make a universe into a multiverse. When Marvel artist Steve Ditko brought his idea to his Spider-Man co-creator, writer Stan Lee, according to Ditko, it was "a new, different kind of character for variety in Marvel Comics". The film connects Strange's new world to previous Marvel stories this way: "Heroes like the Avengers protect the world from physical dangers. We safeguard it against more mystical threats." The story in this vibrant and visually remarkable film starts ordinarily enough. Dr. Stephen Vincent Strange (Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch) is a supremely talented neurosurgeon, with the ego to match. (Think of him as an even better, but only slightly more charming version of TV's "House".) He has an emotional attachment to fellow surgeon Dr. Christie Palmer (Oscar nominee Rachel McAdams), whom he respects only slightly more than rivals like Dr. Nicodemus West (the underrated Michael Stuhlbarg), whom he doesn't hesitate to publicly embarrass. Driving to a dinner, Strange's Lamborghini tumbles down a hillside and his life comes crashing down with it. Still in charge of his faculties and in possession of all his appendages, he nevertheless suffers devastating hand injuries which effectively ends his surgical career. He searches in vain for a medical solution, becoming even more self-absorbed as he does so. When Strange learns about and tracks down a man named Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt) who completely recovered from a similarly devastating injury, Strange learns about a place of healing called Kamar-Taj, near Katmandu, Nepal, and literally spends his last dollar to get himself there.
Kamar-Taj is a mysterious complex run by The Anicent One (Oscar winner Tilda Swinton) – and is nothing like Strange expected. The Anicent One thinks that Strange is too arrogant to bother with, but she is convinced by one of her followers called Karl Mordo (Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor) to let the rude but desperate doctor stay. She convinces him to look beyond his current reality by thrusting his spirit out of his body and into, as pluggedin.com wonderfully described it, "hurtling through unimagined realms, galaxies and dimensions. He flies through the universe and finds another and another. He spins through time and matter - soaked in color, drenched in image, places pregnant with beauty and horror." Strange begs to be taught and he progresses quickly, becoming a talented student of the mystic arts. But The Anicent One struggles to teach him "the simplest and most significant lesson of all... It's not about you." There's definitely something much, much bigger than Strange's problems for Kamar-Taj to contend with. A former master sorcerer called Kaecilius (TV's "Hannibal", Mads Mikkelsen) has stolen pages from one of The Ancient One's secret books of rituals and plans to use the spell to summon the supremely powerful Dormammu from The Dark Dimension in order to remake the natural world and give everyone in it eternal life. The Ancient One, Mordo and Wong (Benedict Wong), the Kamar-Taj librarian, all warn Strange about the danger posed by Kaecilius and Dormammu – and they try to keep Strange from experimenting with powers that he doesn't yet understand – but the newly self-assured sorcerer has to learn all those lessons for himself – while his own life and the fate of our world hangs in the balance.
Like "Deadpool" earlier in 2016, "Doctor Strange" raises the already high bar for MCU films. The story is fresh, interesting and transports us to new worlds which excite the imagination. The visual effects are simply amazing and the score is terrific. The sights and sounds of the first sequence alone are worth the price of admission, but we get a full two hours of remarkable creativity and outstanding entertainment. (And make sure you stick around for the fun mid-credits scene and the game-changing post-credits confrontation.) Some have criticized the film's changes from the comics and/or the extreme efforts to be politically correct in this movie's casting, but the story works very well, and the cast is pitch perfect – Cumberbatch in particular. Others complain that the visuals are too close to 2010's "Inception", but they are completely in service to the story and take visual effects to the next level. My only criticism involves a slight overuse of slapstick as comic relief, but that's a subjective and very minor issue, considering how good the movie is overall. In the film, The Ancient One expands the title character's perception of reality, as the movie does for the audience, by telling her newest student, "You think you know how the world works. You think this material universe is all there is. What if I told you the reality you know is one of many?" What if indeed. "A"