Marvel believes in giving us five special effects where one will suffice but with Dr Strange, the studio seems to have embraced the subject’s outre source and given it a brilliant Kaleidoscopic treatment. As cities fold upon themselves, reality shatters like mirror only to come together again and characters vanish into a space-time vortex through flaming circles. In fact, you forget you are watching a Marvel movie and there are moments when you feel as if Christopher Nolan is trying to out-Inception himself. If you are watching this in IMAX, it may just be the best experience you will have in a long, long time.
And then there is the cast, how can you take Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdamas and Mads Mikkelsen and not make a film that absolutely sings? Short answer: You can’t. There has been a lot of talk about how Strange’s teacher, the Ancient One, should have been an Asian man and not a Celtic woman. It seems what the film lost in white-washing, it gained in gender parity. And then, Swinton is so other-worldly that it is a shame to put her in any brackets.