The best Marvel movie since The Avengers and Guardians!

Rating: 9/10 (2 November 2016)

I'd never heard of Doctor Strange, but neither did I know Ant-man or even Thor before they made movies of these comic book characters. Now Marvel has become such a household name and quality label that at this point people will just about watch any Marvel film thats released... ...and they won't be disappointed coz it's REALLY good. The casting of Cumberbatch was brilliant. He has the perfect combination of wittiness, arrogance, charisma and is incredibly likable and has a great sense of comedic timing. They also considered other actors (Keanu Reeves, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, etc) for this role (and Cumberbatch almost had to skip because of his Hamlet play) but the film would not have been the same without Benedict. The film's story takes a bit of time to build Strange's character before it gets to the meat but I found it very well done and didn't feel like it slowed down the movie. Once the action starts we get amazing VFX scenes, I mean it has been a long time (could be since The Matrix came out in 1999) since I've been wowed by VFX, but this film does it! A-level flawless effects work. Made me feel a bit sorry I'd went and saw it in 2D coz those VFX scenes will probably work wondrously well in 3D or IMAX (reviews seem to confirm that). Talking about the Matrix, this film reminded me of it at times. It also has elements from Inception and probably some other films but it never felt like it ripped them off (The Matrix itself 'ripped off' many other classics). At 115 mins Dr. Strange is one of the shorter ones in the MCU but it didn't feel like it needed to be longer. I had a great time with Doctor Strange and I consider it the best since The Avengers film and Guardians of the Galaxy. It has the same light humorous tone and a great cast and awesome visuals. As you might have guessed: HIGHLY recommended!