Marvel does it again

Rating: 9/10 (20 November 2016)

I had low expectations for this film, yet Marvel did it again and created an almost perfect movie. Where it failed, again, was the villain.
My early concerns were easily dispelled (pardon the pun), as after 15 minutes of exposition we got right into the action. Cumberbatch is perfect for the role, even if he is, you know, British. Rachel McAdams is lovely, but her role is so purely supporting that the movie doesn't even try to explain how she immediately adapts to a situation that Strange took several special effects heavy hours to.
In fact, if I was to voice a critique, it's that besides Strange everybody else was purely a supporting character with no other real reason to exist, and that includes Thor in the after credits scene. Tilda Swinton was amazing as the Ancient One, doing with facial expressions what the writers failed to do in her dialogue, but her character is there just to guide and die. Mads Mikkelsen played such a clichéd villain that no matter what he would have tried to do it would have fallen short. Don't start me on the henchmen, that didn't even speak. Every single character in the movie except Strange did not need a name or a backstory.
Other than that the movie was great. Entertaining action, some funny moments, excellent special effects that somehow didn't jar the brain - well, except maybe the overuse of fractal reality - and good acting all around. It presents us with the superhero paradox again, though: why would a powerful sorcerer with access to time manipulation and an infinity of universes care about protecting Earth? My guess is that there is where the Marvel universe will begin to unravel, when they try to balance the various story lines they started which are orders of magnitude of power apart.