Cliché' Marvel story telling

Rating: 6/10 (26 October 2016)

I didn't quite know what to expect with this one, but being a comic book movie fan, I booked my IMAX tickets for day one of the latest Marvel movie instalment. Being that this would be the beginning of a new chapter in the MCU, I was hoping for a movie that would showcase the magic and mysticism in an original, darker and less cliché way than the rest of the Marvel movies to date. Unfortunately, that wasn't to happen. It started off really well, highlighting Doc's origin, his arrogance, his thirst to be the best. I really liked Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, regardless of the complaints of the character being white-washed, I thought she portrayed the character very well. Benedict Cumberbatch played his role well, giving us a glimpse of the Sherlock Holmes arrogance.
The second act is where I started to notice that the jokes began to get out of hand, and whilst some in the audience were laughing, I found myself and others starting to get quietly frustrated. There are times when jokes are appropriate and then there are times where they just take away from the seriousness of the story. Everything I've read to date about the movie described how dark it is compared to the rest of the MCU, but I really failed to see that. And when it came to the third act, the unnecessary jokes kept coming in thick and fast. Even at points where people were dying.
Don't get me wrong, the visuals were stunning, especially in an IMAX theatre, but it didn't do much to allay the staleness of the rest of the movie. Benedict Wong as 'Wong' was pretty much wasted. A talented actor reduced to a moody librarian. Mads Mikkelsen, as talented as he is, was just a side line performer in a cliché villainous role with no real depth to him. Pretty much like every other Marvel movie villain. And the last act pretty much reaffirmed the lack of creativity, with an end-of- the-world scenario yet again and don't get me started on the way Doc Strange managed to defeat this villain, just pure awful!
This makes me wish that the Russo Brothers helmed all of the Marvel movies and makes me hope that the DCU can do something to really rival Marvel's cliché way of storytelling... The best part of the movie was the mid credits scene setting up the way for Doc's integration with the Avengers and by the way there's also a post credit scene, so stay until the end.