Strange is not only the title of this movie, it perfectly describes its story, main character, and how you feel after seeing it. Captain America this movie is not, but if you are sick of the cookie cutter Marvel films welcome to a little Strange.
Doctor Steven Strange is an accomplished and arrogant surgeon who is at top of his field, until he crashes his car, breaking and permanently damaging his hands. Not being able to perform surgeries Dr. Strange searches to cure himself until finally going to a guru called the ancient one as a last resort. The Ancient one turns out to be more then smoke and mirrors and teaches Dr. Strange magic in return for his help in defend the world from a demon named Dormamu.
Confused yet? This movie does a great job of walking you through in baby steps, I promise. The story is well written and all though Dr. Strange is a big departure from Captain America and Iron Man, Marvel grounds this character in a universe that they have set up so well. Dr. Strange would really suffer if not for the performances of Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Switten; they deliver very believable characters to an unbelievable world.
The biggest complement I will give this film is that it is different and unique. I have never seen a film quite like this or a film that looks like this one does. Dr. Strange does a good job of carving out a unique space in the ever growing superhero genre, and will blow audiences away with stunning visuals that really shined when I saw it in IMAX 3D.
My two complaints for Dr. Strange are the same for every Marvel Film; they feel like episodes in a larger series and they have weak villains. One of the symptoms of the episodic nature of the MCU is the shallow supporting characters surrounding Strange. They suffer from not having an identity and not being fully formed by the end of the movie. I know there will be more in the sequel, but telling me half of a story and teasing me with the ending doesn’t make care for a new franchise like this. Although the villains are rarely the focus on a Marvel movie, Strange had a glimmer of hope until the story breezed by any set up and just gave a typical faceless bad guy to fight in the end.
Overall, Dr. Strange was unique, fun, and very re-watchable. The supporting characters suffered a bit from a fast paced plot but in the end I had a good time in the movie and I am interested in seeing the role he plays going forward in the MCU.
My Ranking: 4 out of 5 time turners
