'Dr. Strange' throws magic at Marvel formula
Back in 2011, many questioned the blockbuster viability of Marvel’s “Thor,” a movie about a guy with a magic hammer. Nordic mythology wasn’t exactly well tested at the box office, but the Marvel machine used the film to pivot into even more cosmic territory.
After two “Thor” films and the talking racoon-starrer, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” Marvel adds mysticism to its cinematic universe with “Dr. Strange.” It’s a crazy movie featuring a bunch of magic mumbo-jumbo that’s difficult to explain in just a few sentences. The goofiest stuff, at least, is backed with some of the most exciting special effects in recent memory.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Stephen Strange, a brilliant neurosurgeon with an attitude problem bigger than that of Tony Stark. After his hands are severely injured in a car accident, Strange seeks an alternative healing method in Nepal from a sorcerer named only as the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton, super bald).
Fixing his hands proves to be incidental to the journey of this cocky doctor, because the world is apparently full of sorcerers fighting a greater battle against the monsters and gods of the cosmos. One particular sorcerer (Mads Mikkelsen, the terrifying TV version of Hannibal Lector), hopes to use some stolen mystic texts to summon an all-powerful creature from the Dark Dimension. Dark Dimension is capitalized, so you know it’s serious business.
Although mouthy and extremely skeptical at first, Dr. Strange learns how to utilize the astral plane, where a soul can move outside the body. Strange and the sorcerers also utilize something called the Mirror Dimension, where they can fight and move about the world without causing damage to the physical universe.
I don’t pretend to understand it, but the Mirror Dimension is the source of all the film’s dizzying effects sequences — think the “folding of cities” sequences in “Inception” on an even grander scale.
The mystical angle is key to making “Dr. Strange” decidedly different from other Marvel entries. The core mechanisms of the storytelling, however, follow over-familiar arcs we’ve seen a few times before in the franchise.
Much of the movie follows a similar origin story to Tony Stark’s in the first “Iron Man.” Rachel McAdams, routinely underutilized, is stuck in a thankless role as a quasi-romantic foil to Strange, much like Gwyneth Paltrow in the “Iron Man” series.
Meanwhile, Mikkelsen, an intense and captivating actor, struggles to make anything out of another underwritten Marvel villain role. Chiwetel Ejiofor’s sorcerer character, despite some third act revelations, also falls into a Marvel stock type — superhero sidekick.
Swinton’s casting as the Ancient One reeks of unnecessary whitewashing. Still, she’s an Academy Award-winning actor with the film’s liveliest character. Her and Cumberbatch together make even the craziest conversations about sorcery and spirits seem playful and believable. Strange’s magic cape also delivers a few moments of needed levity.
Ultimately, “Dr. Strange” succeeds on spectacle, and the climax finds a way to be visually interesting without resorting to the same slam-bang action sequence we’ve seen in too many other superhero movies. Director Scott Derrickson (“Sinister”) and his massive technical team deserve credit for finding new ways to make the comic book eye-candy sparkle.
Just being visually inventive won’t propel “Dr. Strange” to long-term admiration, but it does serve as a competent and sometimes thrilling stepping stone to whatever grand plan Marvel has in mind for its next wave of “Avengers” films.
Unstoppable green monsters, dudes with lightning hammers, shrinking people, talking trees and racoons, and now a guy with a magical pet cape — weird is definitely the new normal.
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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.