Dr. Strange is two hours of freak show. And, being faithful to all Marvel, it tells an origin story with gunning speed. What’s even an origin story, you may ask? You know, people getting accustomed to newfound powers. Stuffs like that.
Probably Robert Downey would have played Dr. Strange better. But, the action never allows the human side of Cumberbatch’s Strange to evolve nor does it give leeway to mull over the spiritual references as for the mind and the astro mind. I say never mind, for that is part of the movie’s folly as well as its inherent strength.
A long shot from the plummy Sherlock; atop Cumberbatch’s macho levitate the smug Neurosurgeon turned Superhero. The plot kicks in when his Lamborghini whizz-bang with another car to a river aside, he loses his dexterity lest he become a Sorcerer’s apprentice in Nepal. Who woulda thunk, huh?
Anyways, no price for guessing Tilda Swinton is our Sorcerer nicknamed The Ancient One(TAO). If anything either The Ancient One or Marvels can cure via visual magic - it is anathema. Strange know that, we know that too. Even the VFX know that, helping Strange to trespass immersive universes through keyhole. There are lots of spirituality and science in play here, but they are all excuses for Strange to pull off the strangest of stunts.
Accompanying him is Chris Palmer(McAdams) Strange’s co-worker in the hospital, Baron Mordo(Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Wong(Just Wong?), his two sidekicks.
Scott Derrickson, whose credits include "Sinister" "Exorcism of Emily Rose" and "The Day the Stood Still" rehash sets this up akin to Wayne’s salvation bid in Bhutan and Gotham, in Batman Begins. Not much distance from Nepal to Bhutan, though, even as the action jangles to New York, London, and eventually Hong kong. Apparently, it would take as much time to jump locations as for the punctuation amidst long sentences not least in a Marvels movie.
Apart from all the usual goodies, there are surprises in store in Dr. Strange. The Cloak of Levitation, Strange’s stranger than life man Friday. And, the Dark and powerful Dormammu which cast a spell over edifices in London, New York and Hong Kong. Why not Paris and Barcelona? Well, our hero can’t globetrot you see for the movie is roughly 2 hours. And, he is no James Bond either to rearguard all world in that 2 hours.
Forget Bond, even a typographical error would have given us Dr. Strangelove the peacemaker General from a Stanley Kubrick classic.
"Don’t fight in here, this is a war room" Strangelove proclaimed in that movie. Summon all energy you want, but truth be told it would take more than magic to stop Marvels onslaught.
P.S. Hang around for the end credits too for one hasn’t seen it all of course. Not, until the show is over.