Doctor Strange a Cinematic Triumph

Rating: 10/10 (4 November 2016)

I just returned from seeing Doctor Strange, staring Benedict Cumberbatch as a third- tier Marvel superhero who specializes in magical power. I have to say that these Marvel superhero movies seem to keep getting better and better. Who would have thought that someone could take a character virtually unknown beyond comic book fans and turn him into a cinematic triumph?
Casting Cumberbatch to play the gifted but initially arrogant Strange was a masterstroke. Cumberbatch brought the same brilliance (but not the same personality) to the character of Doctor Strange that he's brought to Sherlock Holmes. With the help of his outstanding performance, the movie managed to achieve just the right balance of humor, action and personal drama—and yet, not the same balance as in, say, Avengers, Thor, Deadpool, or Guardians of the Galaxy. I both laughed and exclaimed in excitement repeatedly, and even got choked up once or twice.
The movie made the best use of Industrial Light and Magic's (and other companies') special effects, giving us a heady and trippy brew of CGI and practical effects. I don't usually comment on movie special effects, except for, as in Iron Man 3, when the producers seem to forget that movies aren't about special effects, but the special effects in Doctor Strange really conveyed a perfect sense of the otherworldliness—or other dimensionality—of Doctor Strange's magical world that really enhanced to the movie, setting it apart from the other Avengers-related movies, despite occupying the same physical world.
I have give kudos too to composer Michael Giacchino, who also wrote the scores for the three recent Star Trek films, Jurassic World, Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, Fringe, and the upcoming Star Wars: Rogue One. Giacchino gave us what I think might possibly be the single best score for a Kevin Feige Marvel movie to date.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the great performances by Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo, Strange's mentor, and Tilda Swinton as the enigmatic Ancient One. Despite limited time, Rachel McAdams put in a sympathetic, appealing performance as Strange's one-time romantic partner and fellow surgeon, Christine Palmer. Benedict Wong contributed a nuanced if brief performance as, well, Wong, the stoic librarian of the library of magic. Benjamin Bratt, who's done wonderful and varied performances on TV in Private Practice, 24, and Modern Family, and as the voice of an alternate Superman in Justice League: Gods and Monsters, did yeoman's service as Jonathan Pangborn, a character with almost no screen time who the filmmakers added secretly at the last minute and who plays an important role to the future of the film franchise.
The film contains one more brief but brilliant performance, but I won't spoil it for you except to say that you should definitely stick around for all of the film's closing credits. Doctor Strange was so good, in fact, that I'd recommend sticking around for the all of the film's closing credits at least twice.