Punisher (Video Editor/Podcast Personality)
Let’s start off by advising that there will be spoilers in this review. If you have not seen this movie yet, please don’t keep reading. I do suggest that you should see it. Also if you please comment we would love to hear your thoughts on the movie or anything.
This movie was great! There is no down time and also for people not familiar with Doctor Strange comics, you get a kind of crash course on his persona and how he treats people. I have a small problem with Doctor Strange, but I’ll explain a little more later. During this movie we see how careless he gets seeing a text message while driving high speeds on a cliff. (Kids, don’t text and drive!!!) In the middle of the accident, you see his hands get crushed by the dashboard of his car. I felt every impact on that crash. The visuals in this movie were just simply amazing! If I was on acid or smoking weed I know this would have blown my fucking mind. This movie doesn’t really have a slowdown moment, and the cameos are not as heavy. I do love it when it shows the Avengers tower in NY and also Stan “The Man” Lee.
What I also enjoy is our villain has meaning to why he is doing this. In one part of the movie, he tells you why he is doing this while shedding some tears. I felt bad for him to the point I almost agreed with him. You actually feel his pain in losing everything but also knowing a secret where Strange had to see for himself.
I felt Strange needed a montage for his training like in the Rocky movies. The characters were great in this movie. I was worried about seeing Dormammu on the screen, but seeing him kill Doctor Strange countless times was awesome. Not only does Dr Strange fuck with him, but we get to see his power and how fast he kills Strange all those times and also how. He would use spikes from the floor, lasers beam, and slamming him. All I know some people wished they would see him like in the comics or in Marvel vs Capcom 3, but we get what we get and fuck it. It was still better than Galactus in the Fantastic Four movie.
But I want to end this on a good note and say this movie was worth to watch and easy to follow. Also, the mid-roll and end credits scenes were awesome. We now know we are going to have Strange in Thor: Ragnarok. We also see Mordo stealing powers because, and I quote, “There are too many Sorcerers.” I’d like to hear your thoughts and also comments about Doctor Strange.
Uncle Willy (Editor/Old-School Gaming Specialist/Podcast Personality)
No spoilers here, which is silly coming after a spoiler-filled review, but I’m just looking to convey my feelings about this movie.
Back when I started writing for this troupe of mentally-unstable degenerates, I wrote an article detailing what I wanted from 2016’s slate of superhero movies and what scared me about them. In the entry for Doctor Strange, I wrote this bit:
I have long stopped doubting Marvel Studios and their ability to make movie gold out of anything they touch. Hell, if they can make everyone care about talking Raccoon and tree buddies, they’re good at this! But the Sorcerer Supreme may be a tough sell for the average moviegoer. This movie is most likely going to dig deep into the occult, and even the great Benedict Cumberbatch might not be able to rescue this project if the story loses the audience. Yes, I know that moviegoers are savvier than most people give them credit for, but movies like generally succeed because of phenomenal screenwriting and a director who knew how to convey it. Please let the script and direction be airtight and easy enough to follow that the average person doesn’t get lost.
After seeing the movie over the weekend, I can happily say that Doctor Strange was pretty airtight and very easy to follow. But something about it still doesn’t sit right with me.
Let’s get the superlatives out of the way first: this is a visually brilliant movie. I went with Punisher to a special 15-minute IMAX 3D screening of this movie a month ago, and I almost got a nosebleed from the clarity and sheer awesomeness of what I saw. Many have said that this movie brought Steve Ditko’s original artwork for the comics to life, and I have to agree. This movie looks stunning.
Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange is also an unqualified home run. He doesn’t resonate with me as completely as Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, but I can’t see a better choice to play the brilliant but egotistical Doctor. It helps that the writing nailed his boorish personality well, to the point that there are times where you really want to loathe the man. His American accent, which has rankled some people, wasn’t that bothersome to me. Overall, he was spot-on.
Chiwetel Ejiofor was great as Mordo. Honestly, I’m tired of heaping superlatives on this man; he is a phenomenal actor. Here, he gives Mordo a tinge of the unbending acolyte, similar to his role as The Operative in Serenity (a movie Punisher STILL has not seen!)
In fact, pretty much every casting choice was great. Tilda Swinton’s Ancient One, the most controversial casting in the movie, was well done, as was my favorite character, Benedict Wong’s character…uhh, Wong. Mads Mikkelsen, everyone’s favorite bad guy, turns in another good – not great – performance as Kaecilius. He is at least more menacing than clowns like Ronin the Accuser and Zemo. Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, the Night Nurse, was seldom used, but she did help sell one particularly emotional scene with Strange very well.
So everything about the movie was great. So why do I feel like something was off?
It’s the whole tone of the movie. To me, it felt like I was watching a re-telling of Iron Man, but with less hubris and more mysticism. In Iron Man, Stark sees the consequences his egocentricity and lack of accountability. We actually SEE him want to do better, and we FEEL his desire to correct his mistakes. In Doctor Strange, we don’t see that. It’s all about Strange and how he sees himself, until it just isn’t anymore. Sure, there’s a moment when he’s confronted with having to care for someone other than himself, but I never felt the struggle.
That lack of feeling carries out into the battles with Kaecilius and his goons. The battles are visually spectacular, but they don’t show much in the way of weight. In the most visually spectacular fight, the one in New York where buildings are folding into each other Inception-style, Mordo and Strange almost seem bored.
Maybe I didn’t have enough vodka to appreciate what I was seeing.
Still, the movie was very entertaining. It established the Sorcerer Supreme in a simple yet effective way, something I appreciate greatly. Having Strange in the MCU going forward will definitely ramp up the stakes, which is what we should expect as we head towards Infinity War. Marvel Studios definitely has another hit on its hands.
UPDATE: Punisher is watching Serenity now. The lesson, as always: peer pressure is a bitch!
