MOVIE REVIEW – Martin Scorcese says superhero movies are not really movies, compared to amusement parks. I have protested against this myself, but in the case of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the analogy remains unchanged. Marvel’s latest creation is extremely spectacular and entertaining, but don’t look for any level of logic, rational motivations or character development in the story.

“The multiverse is a concept about which we know frighteningly little,” warned Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in Spider-Man: No Way Home. By comparison, Marvel has shoved the multiverse down our throats so many times, in various films and series, that we know just ‘frighteningly’ little about it. I, for one, would not be scared if I knew a little less about it. But then, what can you do when the latest story of the Marvel mage hero on duty, played by Benedict Cumberbatch: Doctor Strange, revolves almost entirely around the multiverse.

What’s wrong with the Marvel multiverse?

Before I get into the details of the film, I want to explain a little bit about why I don’t like the multiverse as a story element in general and in Marvel films in particular. The basic premise of the multiverse is that there are multiple universes, each with its own counterpart. In Marvel movies, this means that each superhero is a little or a lot different. Just how different depends on what other characters they want to drag into the new movie (or if they want to drag them at all), or what kind of a forced story they want to tell.

Spider-Man: No Way Home, all of the Peter Pakers looked different and had different life stories, because in that film they wanted to bring together the heroes and enemies of three different Spider-Man franchises. The Spider-Men in the animated Spider-Verse movie were similarly different. But in this multiverse movie (I’m probably not telling you a big secret), the Doctor Strange’s are all played by Benedict Cumberbatch, as are the Wands, all played by Elisabeth Olsen. Why the characters look different in the previous films and why they look the same now is not too much logic.

Nor why Wanda can have children in all universes and not here. (OK, I haven’t watched the WandaVision series, but I won’t now.) If everyone has their own equivalent (I mean, that’s the rule of the multiverse, which, with a little logic, makes sense), how come Wanda’s kids don’t? All this wouldn’t be such a problem otherwise (I, for one, wouldn’t care at all), except that the whole movie is built on this conflict.

“Never without my kids” (Scarlet Bitch)

The basic conflict of the film is that Wanda, aka “Scarlet Bitch” (yes, the spelling is not accidental), snaps and since she has no children in this universe, she wants to invade other universes where she has them in order to… er… er… “get them”! When she is asked what in that universe she will do to herself (or her self in the other universe), since the children there would not be separated from their mother there, Wanda just looks like Rozi in the cinema. As I watched in amazement, how could such a blatant nonsense be invented.

And to cross over to the other multiverse, she needs a new character named America Chavez (a young girl) who she can manipulate to get to her children. Again, why he needs the girl so badly when, for example, Doctor Strange can easily pull off such a multiverse trip is again not very logical. Anyway, moving on.

I wouldn’t give away much more about the story, but honestly there’s not much to spoil. Doctor Strange is so devoid of any logic or coherence in its multiverse of madness, and so full of logical blunders, that it almost hurts.

Apart from that, it’s still painful to see how Strange himself, or any other character who only makes cameos, or any of the major characters in general, are made complete fools by the script. Speaking of cameos: Scarlet Bitch is so good at mouthing off to more well-known Marvel characters that it makes you wonder, if she’s such a big ace, why didn’t she just sweep Thanos away with a wave of her hand?

But sticking with those classic Marvel heroes, I almost apologized, laughing shamefacedly, as Wanda snapped the neck of one of the cameo legends with a single wave of her hand. It was a pathetic execution. (That’s the other big problem with multiverses: here you can do anything to anyone, there are no consequences.)

Visual orgasms served

If we get past the immense silliness of the story, then really, it’s quite a fair little Marvel theme park, with everything to please the eye. Go on, go on, go on! Need a little horror-tinged, zombie-zombie Doctor Strange? Sam Raimi, director of Evil Dead, is a pro at this and he didn’t disappoint. Looking for a video game-like spectacular platform hopping experience, floating in one of the universes? Of course, there’s no shortage of that. Fighting a giant, one-eyed tentacled “beholder” in the big city? Check!

There’s really nothing wrong with the visual orgy in general, although we’ve seen better action sequences, but in the end this is basically a battle of wizards, so the focus here is on killer, terrifyingly powerful spells, Strange or Wanda obviously aren’t going to be kung fu-fu-fying each other.

Leave your brains in the cinema cloakroom, just remember to bring them home

Doctor Strange is a veritable theme park in the multiverse of madness: just as Martin Scorsese described superhero movies. The emphasis is on teleporting back and forth between different universes, with huge magical clashes, spectacular orgy, and CGI mountains. If that’s all you’re after, and you’d like to turn your brain off for a poodle two hours of mental chewing gum, then this film might be fun for you, otherwise the immensely stupid and logic-less story will hurt more, a hearty smack from Hulk.

-BadSector-