LogFAQs > #950562037

GavsEvans123
Doctor Strange is possibly the MCUs most conventional origin story, which is ironic considering the title, and that Strange is a magical mystical hero, whereas most of the others have a scientific background. All the origin story tropes are here, even the mentor dying near the end (you could argue Iron Man had that too, but Tony Stark was already a genius inventor, he wasnt trained into being a genius inventor by Yinsen.) The biggest thing setting this film apart from its contemporaries are the trippy visuals, which certainly look impressive with lots of buildings folding in on each other and some fun with perspectives.

Stephen Strange is an arrogant jerk before his life-changing crash, and even after that it takes a while for him to learn humility, so hes not the most likeable protagonist, although he does earn some sympathy points from his increasing desperation to find a cure for his hand injury. The Ancient One drawing power from the Dark Dimension to gain immortality is meant to give her character some moral ambiguity, but little is done with it as she is killed shortly after the reveal, and she doesnt give an explanation as to why she did it. Offering an explanation or showing her doing some other morally questionable things for the greater good would have helped further Mordos disillusionment and his eventual face heel turn. The Ancient One is lucky nobody thought to use time magic to repair the broken spellbook sooner.

The lame, one-dimensional villain offers another throwback to Phase 1. Kaecilius is the most forgettable villain since Malekith, and is similar to him as a generic evil sorcerer who wants to shroud the world in darkness. He particularly suffers from being sandwiched in between Zemo and Ego, who are both well fleshed out, on account of them being in sequels that dont have to establish their protagonists.

Having said that, the film does break away from the origin story mould with the final battle, or rather the lack of one. The bad guys succeed in bringing the Dark Dimension to our world, and recognising that he poses no match for Dormammu, Strange instead asks Dormammu to leave using the power of his 70 alternative accounts. Even the MCU fancies a change from Upgrade VS Prototype Fights once in a while.

I realised while watching the post-credits scene that Doctor Strange 2 may involve Mordo gunning for Wanda to take her magic away. Im sure he wouldnt take kindly to her having gained her powers from HYDRAs experiments instead of training, and then theres her inadvertently killing innocent people in Civil War using her magic (on top of whatever happens in Wandavision, but I havent seen that as of this writing, so Im assuming magic is used in a way Mordo would deem reckless.) Hopefully he doesnt end up as a cold-open villain dispatched in the first 15 minutes when Tom Hardy Venom appears from the multiverse and glomps him or something.

Mr Crispy
Pretty much a live action version of your typical shonen anime (the hot topic villains, the edgy rival, putting up barriers to fight in imaginary space without hurting people and damaging buildings). Though I don't particularly mind that. I kind of agonized over where to place it, since there isn't anything particularly wrong or offensively bad about it, but it's pretty lacking because it feels more like a phase one movie (particularly since Strange channels MCU Tony quite a bit) than a phase three movie that should show the experience that Marvel has built up in making movies since then. So here's probably fine.

ScepterOfLove
(No write-up.)

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