The Most Ambitious Yet Uninspired Marvel Film Yet

Rating: 6/10 (3 November 2016)

Marvel has gained my (and millions of other people's) trust through 14 films in their illustrious Cinematic Universe. But it's that trust I felt was tampered with in Doctor Strange, which is their most ambitious yet disappointingly uninspired film at the same time.
Doctor Strange is helmed by horror director Scott Derrickson, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelson, and Tilda Swinton. Most of them are quite good in this stylish Marvel superhero flick, but I also don't believe any of them are given much to do. Cumberbatch plays a good a-hole, but we already have a better version of that in Tony Stark. McAdams was a strong point and provides the audience's connection to humanity, but there isn't much to her character yet, other than a love interest for Strange. Wong played the humor well. Mikkelson is one of the most dynamic actors working today, but I found nothing compelling or unique about his antagonist, Kaecilius. Nor did I think there was any believable motivation behind his actions. Tilda Swinton is probably the best part about the film, but again, she's used sparingly.
I came into Doctor Strange wanting something entirely different than Marvel, or any other studio, has ever given us with a comic-book film. While there's something to be said about the trippy and horror-ish visuals this film displays, it actually ends up falling more victim to the superhero formula than I would have hoped. Take the humor for example, something Marvel has grown accustomed to trickling into their installments, but 80 % of the humor in Doctor Strange feels out of place. The trailers never once tried to sell me on humor. I came for a distinctly different story and mind-blowing visuals. I didn't buy my ticket to see Cumberbatch try and be the next Tony Stark. It would also help if the rest of the characters were using that same humor, but they aren't, most of them seem like they acted in a relatively serious drama. This type of humor works in Guardians or Ant-Man, but it's completely out of place in Doctor Strange.
But it's far from all bad. Marvel at least deserves some credit for daring to actually take the fight sequences into that psychedelic territory. Granted, I wasn't as into the action scenes as I had wanted to be, because the story to that point wasn't all that interesting. If the film had stayed in the darker and twisted tone that some of those scenes presented, I could have been more on board with the end results. There are many strong aspects about this film, however. The visuals are unlike anything I have seen in a superhero film, Tilda Swinton kills it, McAdams is a strong love interest, and Strange himself deserves a place in the Marvel universe. But I was expecting something different. Perhaps that's on me, perhaps not, but this one just didn't do it for me.
+The Ancient One
+McAdams is a nice complement to Cumberbatch
+Trippy and daring visuals
+Unique fight scenes
-But the story is paint by numbers
-Mikkelsen gets nothing to do
-Really really forced humor
-Some third act decisions are questionable
6.0/10