An overrated, generic marvel movie

Rating: 2/10 (31 January 2017)

Doctor Strange is the latest installment in the marvel cinematic universe franchise and it is directed by Scott Derrickson (sinister, deliver us from evil). The story follows Stephen Strange, the top neurosurgeon who loses the ability to use his hands after a car accident and his quest for spiritual healing from the help of mystic arts. Much like most marvel movies, the plot of the film is thin and doesn't have much to tell. It follows the simplest form of film making without taking any creative risks or new ideas. The moving point starts at the tenth minute of the movie, the car accident. This is incredibly rushed because barely anything is known about the main character except that he is egotistical and a great doctor. The films gives no detailed insight about his humanity or how he interacts with the real world or how his life is. Nothing of that is given in the film, which weakens it. How is the audience supposed to emphasize with a character that was poorly built from the get go? And it doesn't stop here, the character is basically Tony Stark 2.0 but instead of the armor, he uses magic. Benedict Cumberbatch gives his best to breathe life in Stephen Strange, but the performance falls flat due to the weak script. The only charisma he has are the quips and jokes, which become tiresome really fast. The lack of any dramatic tension or internal conflict makes the character barely 3 dimensional. Stephen does change by the end of the movie, but it feels unearned. This film could have been a unique entry in the superhero genre due to its subject matter: a pure fantasy world filled with magic and other bizarre worlds. But, much like Thor (2011), all of this creativity is overthrown for the sake of decently conceptualized visuals and a generic story that offers no new perspective. The villain in the movie, while not as terrible as the mandarin or other bad mcu villains, is not great either. A mediocre villain with your typical, generic motivations. The film implies a conflicted past between Kaecilius and the Ancient One, but it is not explored. Just as the rest of mcu movies, Doctor Strange has no memorable musical score, and it barely even services the movie well. It doesn't add any form of weight or emotional levity. It is extremely superficial and used only as a tool to make the scenes less awkward or make it funny. Marvel is abusing the solo movies as well as the directors and audiences by giving movies whose sole purpose is to build up to future franchises. The one thing that was truly good was the visuals, which was not mind blowing as people say. Overall, not a terrible movie, but not a good one either.