So, the time has arrived! "The Scarlet Witch and the", I mean "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" has hit cinemas around the globe! Despite a hugely successful opening weekend at the box office, the film has left fans with a wide variety of emotions and opinions.
The film is the second outing for Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange as a solo project. However as you will probably already realise, this film can't necessarily be classed as a solo character film.
In a traditional Marvel Studios style, the film is a continuation on from many other Marvel Cinematic Universe projects rather than just the first Doctor Strange film from 2016. So if you want to be in the know before seeing Multiverse of Madness, then there are a few specific titles that you should probably watch or recap before seeing this film.
Those titles are as follows:
Wandavision - The first tv show from Marvel Studios and Disney+, starring Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany as The Vision. This is probably the most important title to watch as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness very much has Wanda/The Scarlet Witch at the centre of the film as it very much focuses on her story following the events from the Wandavision series.
What If...? - The first animated series from Marvel Studios and the Disney+ streaming service. Ideally you will need to watch the entire series, however if you choose not to, then you can just get away with watching episode 4 which is titled "What If...Doctor Strange Loses His Heart Instead of His Hands?"
Doctor Strange (2016) - The first Doctor Strange movie. This will give you a brief history of Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and will clue you in on just how he became a sorcerer in the first place.
Avengers: Infinity War - Probably not one you were expecting to see listed here. Although possibly as important to watch alongside "Wandavision". You will be surprised as to how many references that are made regarding the events of Infinity War in Multiverse of Madness.
Film Review
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness delivers Sam Raimi's signature directorial style perfectly within Marvel Studio's first ever horror movie! This feature truly is the MCU's most violent film to date as it showcases frame after frame of creepiness, plenty of jump scares (which work extremely well alongside Danny Elfman's musical score) and even scenes that provide a complete gore fest! This definitely brings something brand new to the MCU, which is something I would really like to see continue with some of the darker storylines based on the comic books making their way onto the big screen within the Marvel films.
Benedict Cumberbatch reprises his role as the titular character, a character in which I feel he was born to portray. We also get to see the phenomenal Elizabeth Olsen return to her role as Wanda Maximoff (now officially appearing with the alias of "The Scarlet Witch" since the series finale of "Wandavision"). This movie also introduces newcomer Xochitl Gomez as she takes on the role of multiverse traveller America Chavez (aka Miss America in the graphic novels). Returning stars also include Benedict Wong as Wong (the current Sorcerer Supreme), Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo and Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer.
There really is so much going on within this film, brutal fatalities come hard and fast with consistent action sequences from start to finish throughout it's 2 hour and 6 minute run time. But, no need to fear if the horror genre is not for you, there are still some moments of love and humour to balance out the violence and darkness quite nicely.
As you can see in my intro to this post, I feel this film may have been better titled as The Scarlet Witch in the Multiverse of Madness as Olsen's character is at the forefront of this sequel. The Scarlet Witch completely drives this entire story forward after becoming possessed by The Darkhold (The Book of the Damned), leaving most of Wanda trapped behind her new alias. I warn you now, if you're a huge Wanda Maximoff fan (just like myself), this version of the character may change the opinions of many "Wandastans" out there. The plot tells a twisted tale of a mother in search of her children. As a mother, of course this is something that I can strongly relate to as I too would do anything for the sake of my own children in order to protect them. Although as Elizabeth Olsen's character develops, she makes a consistent string of poor choices (including obliterating the sacred grounds of the Kamar-Taj singlehandedly) regarding how she goes about travelling through the multiverse in order to reunite with her children Billy (Julian Hillard) & Tommy (Jett Klyne), resulting in The Scarlet Witch to appear as absolutely chilling and outright terrifying for a large part of the story making Olsen's portrayal of the character in Multiverse of Madness undeniably the best performance she's ever shown on screen.
MCU newbie Xochitl Gomez makes a brilliant debut with her character America Chavez. A teen with special abilities to be able to create star shaped portals in order to travel through the multiverse. America is a naïve, but a very likeable addition to the world of superheroes. Gomez's portrayal of America Chavez also compliments Benedict's Stephen Strange very well as the two interact on screen.
The trailers for the film did not shy away from the fact that we were going to be seeing some familiar faces reappear in front of our eyes. Yes, I mean cameos. Trailers openly showed audiences that we would be watching scenes that would include appearances from Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter (taken straight from the "What If...?" series), as well as a glimpse of a Captain Marvel variant and even the return of the one and only Sir Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier. As a long term MCU fan I know that Marvel Studios are very good at keeping the majority of their films (or appearances at least) as well kept secrets under lock and key, leaving the fans desperate to know more as we come up with fan theories. An example of this was Spiderman No Way Home. Trailers for the film clearly showed appearances from some major Spiderman villains from previous Spiderman films going all the way back to the original Sam Raimi Spiderman trilogy starring Tobey McGuire as Peter Parker. Even though we all knew they were coming, fans were still surprised and absolutely elated to see Tobey and Andrew Garfield reprise their roles of their versions of the character alongside Tom Holland's Peter Parker. This is one thing I feel let Multiverse of Madness down. The hype surrounding the film became too much. The trailers showed way too much of the film's footage before release, making fans raising the bar for their expectations in regards to cameos (myself very much included as I had listed up to a possible 13 cameo roles to appear). So I will tell you right now, if you still have not yet seen Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, please don't have your expectations set too high when it comes to cameo roles appearing in the film. Yes, there is the odd nice surprise, but nothing that wasn't overly predictable to fans that are well versed in the graphic novels in particular. I was definitely one of those fans that had built this up in my mind way too much before hand which led me to disappointment while watching the film at the cinema.
As much as I absolutely loved Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it was visually stunning, the camera angles were absolutely on point, roles were portrayed by the actors extremely well. But I just have a few niggles too. There were some scenes in the film that caused my mind to become filled with more questions than answers, maybe this is a good thing and it's Marvel Studios' way of keeping us guessing so that we are desperate to see more in order to find out more (which let's be honest, we all are). But because of this factor, some of the writing just didn't work or flow well at all in some places within the film as there were just things that didn't add up or make sense in regards to prior storylines. This made me question, did the writers even watch Wandavision at all? Which in turn affects the character arc of the most prominent character of the film. What is frustrating is that the writers of this film were the same ones that wrote the Loki series, so it should have worked perfectly as that series also ties very much into the events occurring across the multiverse.
I have to say it, but as much as I adore the work of Benedict Cumberbatch and I am a big fan of Doctor Strange, this film would be very little without Elizabeth Olsen's input as The Scarlet Witch. She managed to share every single emotion possible within this one film role to the highest of standards. There are moments where we love her, others where we loathe her and scenes where we just feel nothing but empathy and compassion for her. The entire range is there! Lizzie Olsen was indeed the real star of this movie. Just give her every award out there already!
Don't forget that much like in all other Marvel films, please do stay seated at the end of the film. There is a mid credit scene that actually gives us an insight to the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as a smaller post credit scene - which had everyone in my cinema complaining "I waited all that time for that?"
Overall I am going to award Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness a solid 4 out of 5 stars as it's rating from us. The film is absolutely brilliant despite there being a few aspects that let it down very slightly. I can still say with confidence that I absolutely recommend that you see it and experience it all for yourself rather than just take my word for it. And if you have seen the film, please feel free to share your spoiler free thoughts with us over on any of our social media accounts.
The Realview Room will be sharing more Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness content over the upcoming weeks including breakdowns and Easter eggs to look out for in the film although we cannot guarantee that this upcoming content will be spoiler free so you have been warned.
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