Inception Begins

Rating: 6/10 (5 November 2016)

"Wake up, Bruce. You're not in a dream of a dream of a dream. You are The One"
Okay, not an actual quote from this movie, but since this is basically 50/50 Batman Begins and Inception, it might as well be.
Dr. Strange is just that, but as the movie progresses, mercifully, things made more sense. Though, unfortunately, what makes it better is what takes away from itit's just too damn long. As mentioned, it's 50% Batman Begins, only the scenes for him to become the Marvel® character he is unknown for, felt like the first Christopher Nolan/Bruce Wayne film stretched to two movies.
And speaking of Christopher Nolan, how did he not direct this? If the movie's not the Doctor learning his new powers, it's the entire city altering scenes from Inception. The only thing missing was that loud, pounding score.
I digress. The movie is actually pretty good, thanks to some humor, actors who were perfect for their roles and seamless CGI that never once looked fake. Well done, guys. Additionally, the story is fairly good, dialogue acceptable and the movie knew when enough was enough with whatever landscaped special effects exposition was happening.
Basically, the Doctor whono one's heard of mirrors Dr. House after an accident and seeks out non-Asian Tilda Swinton to teach him the ways of infinity and beyond. Naturally, there has to be a threat and Batman, er, Strange must learn to rid his shortcomings to end the movie as if he was in a Thor spin off.
I saw some young kids in the audience during my screening. Bad choice. Not that this is an adult comic book movie, à la Deadpool, even though it has more swearing than most I've seen. It's just a ton of talking, adult themed problems and little to relate to the little ones. Sure there are many spectacular visuals, some dumbed down humor and the Marvel® name attached to it, but I can't see this being understood for anyone under probably 10-11 years of age.
As much as I enjoyed this, my problem with these kinds of movies/characters with almost infinite power, is where do you go from here? While the movie was wrapping up, I kept thinking of all the other Marvel® movie's climaxes that could've been solved in seconds with Dr. Strange's powers. Where's the fun in that? The fun of those movies is having our heroes figure out how to defeat the bad guy by using both their super powers and weaknesses. Dr. Strange merely has to all-but wave his hand and problem solved. No fun in that!
Still, it's worth a watch, not in the bottom of the Marvel® Cinematic Universe, but also not in the top half.
***
Final thoughts: Still hate those post credit scenes, and now they usually have a minimum of two, upwards of THREE! Mercifully, they put the first one only about a minute or two into the post credits, so I stayed for that one. I have no idea what happened 10 minutes later for the second one, and frankly, I don't care. You make your movie too long, such as this one, I want out. (I will, however, find it online, or catch it on my second viewing at home. At least, I can fast-forward/skip to that last one.)