‘Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness’ Review – Questionable Intent

I’ve seen every single MCU movie in theaters, and I can very easily tell you where just about every movie ranks based on a few factors. When the first ‘Doctor Strange’ film came out, I thought it was good…but not great. Nor did I think it was a movie that FELT like a Doctor Strange movie. So with its sequel, I was hoping for more. More magic, more fun, and when the Multiverse got added? I was very hopeful that this could be something special. But as my ‘Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness’ Review will reveal to you…my faith was misplaced.

…just to be clear here, I’m REALLY going deep into the spoilers because it’s my unfortunate duty in this Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Review to literally pick it apart for the movie I feel it is, and spoilers are intrinsic to that. So…still, want to go in? Alright, you’ve been warned…

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness is honestly a very simple film in terms of premise, which is both good and bad overall. As we find out REALLY early, America Chavez is on the run in the Multiverse from a being who wants her power (an accurate take on the character from Marvel Comics. Look her up, she’s really cool). She runs into MCU/616 Doctor Strange and Wong and they do their best to help her. Including bringing in the Scarlet Witch to try and protect her…but…

…within minutes of the film, we find out that Wanda (straight off her run in WandaVision) has truly embraced the Darkhold’s power and wants Chavez’s power for herself so she can finally “be with my boys.” The rest of the film is about the struggle of Strange, Chavez, Wong, and more to try and stop Wanda from getting what she wants.

On the surface, that’s honestly not a bad plot, and to be clear here, there are a set of great things in this movie that elevates it from being a truly bad one. I’ll start with those first.

For a comic fan like me, some of the best parts of Multiverse of Madness were the various references to comic book lore both big and small. For example, we heard about Incursions (realities folding in on one another, a major event in the last decade that lead to the massive Secret Wars event), Chthon (the eldrich god whom Wanda is meant to be the perfect vessel of), we got a Defenders reference for Doctor Strange, Shuma Gorath (another god, more on him later), and of course, there was the Illuminati.

If there was one scene that made me so happy I almost leaped out of my chair, it was the arrival of the Illuminati. This is the “secret team” of Marvel Comics and seeing the group they assembled, and kept secret was incredible. Including bringing back Anson Mount to be the REAL Black Bolt (the Inhumans series sucked, like, hugely sucked), Hayley Atwell to be the live-action Captain Carter, and…John Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic!!! THE FANS GOT THEIR WISH! …kind of…more on that later. Oh, and Professor Xavier was back in X-Men TAS form, but that was already spoiled so…yeah. Seriously, that scene of them uniting was so much fun, and no matter who you are as a fan, that makes you hopeful for what may come.

And I will give Sam Raimi some credit for bringing his “horror-style” into the MCU. There were scenes where it absolutely worked and gave the MCU a tone that it never really had before. I’ll also thank Raimi for giving us arguably the most action-packed opening scenes in almost any MCU film. We got from one battle scene to another to another before things finally slowed down…and given what happens…it’s kind of sad it did slow down.

Oh, and while I will debate her later, I’m glad they went straight into the Scarlet Witch being a villain because the movie wouldn’t have worked in its current form otherwise.

…then again…you could argue it doesn’t work in its current form…

One of my biggest problems with Multiverse of Madness was its desire to “give fans what they want”…and then pull the rug out from under them in the worst way. Case in point, the Illuminati, they were one of THE biggest teases for this movie, and they all die at Scarlet Witch’s hands, and in almost laughable style and fashion. And by the end…I was straight-up angry at what I saw (and the lack of consequences for this happening). Seriously, they brought a whole bunch of people together for a legendary cameo that may never be done again…and they killed them, all of them. John Krasinski deserves better! And Hayley Atwell…ok, all of them deserved better than this. Especially after they went from how they were the “ones who made hard choices” to literally falling one by one and acting so dumb as they did so. Including Mister Fantastic telling Wanda their ace in the holes weakness, and none of the others trying to save Mister Fantastic from literally unraveling…and so on.

Oh, and Professor X dying in the mindscape after a massive exposition dump, really? Also, that “Things got out of hand” Doctor Strange? Not the What If…? one like they hinted, just another Strange in the Multiverse. Shuma-Gorath? Just another monster for Strange and Wong to fight, not the key deity from lore (who had a big part in Savage Avengers recently…) and so on.

The second big problem was the question of MacGuffins. You know, the “items of importance” that people need to find for one reason or another? Do you know how many MacGuffins were in this movie, and many of them turned out to be pointless? The Book of the Vishanti, the Darkhold to an extent (“it’s a copy!”), even America Chavez was a MacGuffin and it hurt her character’s role as a result!

Speaking of which, who really had character progression in this film? I ask that honestly because a lot of the characters came off as one-note or regression of who they were before. Key among them being Wanda. Yes, we saw her with the Darkhold at the end of WandaVision, but to those who never saw that (which would be more than you think), they likely didn’t get how Wanda went from Endgame hero to Multiverse of Madness villain.

What’s more, at multiple points in the movie they HEAVILY foreshadowed what was going to happen with her in her quest, and almost stopped it and then something “snapped her back to her mission” and it was almost laughable at times. Then she realized the truth and…now she’s sorry? More on that later.

As for America Chavez, she was another heavily touted character in the movie, and…she honestly didn’t do that much. Half her shtick was “using her powers at the right time” and that was it. She had only one or two moments of depth and it was even about her per se. And by the end, her “realization” was that she had to “believe in herself” to use her powers. Oh, and then she’s dumped at Wong’s teaching grounds at the end to become a sorceress! Uh…what? I liked her actress, and want to see more with her, but hopefully in a way that actually gives her more to work with.

Speaking of Wong, he deserves better. The first film (and Shang-Chi) gave him more to do, and better to do. He was literally a punching bag despite being the “Sorcerer Supreme” and an exposition person in other scenes. Shouldn’t he be more powerful than Strange given his 5 years as Sorcerer Supreme?

This brings us to Dr. Stephen Strange. Whose whole arc was, “Are you happy, Stephen?” No, really. That’s it. Because he couldn’t get Christine, and apparently a LOT of his Multiversal-personas are jerks, or idiots, or betrayers, and so on, and as such, “surely he is dangerous”. Except, that’s not how life works, and most people should know that. Even America realized that, and she was the one betrayed by him at the beginning of the movie! 

Adding onto this, while he did have a wholesome moment or two, they were undercut by certain parts of the movie. Such as him saying he’s “not the same as them”, then NEEDING to use the Darkhold to stop Wanda. Because…reasons? Oh, and the ease of which he went from “not wanting to use it” to using it was laughable. And then, at the end, he tried to “embrace life” as Christine told him to do, and…they end the movie with him in extreme pain and getting a third eye! Yep, that’s how they end it, and it was so dumb. Especially since in the mid-credits scene, they show him apparently FINE with the third eye. Ok…

And there were certain moments of this film that were honestly just…dumb for various reasons. Such as how the Book of the Vishanti (a key relic from Marvel Comics) was easily destroyed despite being literally said to “give the wielder whatever it needs to defeat their enemy”. Or how after Wanda possessed the 838-Wanda and then left her body…we find out she ALSO had powers (convenient…) and her first reaction was, “my boys” and she ran off through the multiverse without a care in the world. Oh, and she told her boys about “the witch” and apparently prepared them for her return? Uh…what?

Furthermore, Wanda’s “penance at the end was honestly overdone and kind of wastes all the character has gone through. Yes, she did terrible things, but so does the comic Wanda and she truly redeemed herself many times over and STILL kept fighting to redeem herself. This one…? Never will, and that’s really sad and dumb to me.

And again, the Illuminati, how they went out was dumb. Not to mention, the film as a whole went a bit inconsistent with Wanda’s powers. She erased Black Bolts’ mouth, unraveled Mister Fantastic, and yet struggled against Captain Marvel and Captain Carter because…reasons? 

Also, aside from Wanda, the lack of consequences in this movie was shocking. In one scene, one of Wong’s disciples (who apparently had a crush on him…?) willingly sacrificed themselves to destroy the Darkhold…with a knife. A magical knife, sure, but a knife nonetheless. Really? Yes, a bunch of characters did die…but they were expendable, and treated as such with willful ease. Earth 838 lost its greatest team of heroes and…we know nothing of what happens next for them. That’s kind of wrong, don’t you think?

Yes, Strange got “cursed” by using the Darkhold…but it clearly didn’t bother him in the mid-credits scene with Clea! Charlize Theron for her…nice choice.

Finally, while I did praise Sam Raimi for his style of horror in this movie…he went WAY too far with horror-style filmmaking. Including SO MANY close-up shots of faces right when something is about to happen, or teasing a major scare and then giving the “twist” that we can all see coming. Not one single jump-scare did anything for me, and I’m not a horror guy, so that should’ve worked MORE on me. Oh, and the dialogue at times reeked of B-movie horror. Looking at you Rachel McAdams, you know what you said.

Finally, and I can’t believe I have to say this, there were some key VFX and SFX that just looked bad, or were so dumb in the overall context of things it brought the movie down more for me. For example, in the Illuminati scene where they’re talking with Wanda, some of them honestly look blurry in the background in a “non-camera focus” kind of way. And other spots really showcased how they were in front of a green screen more than anything. Oh, and that “music note” fight between the two Dr. Stranges…really? That was your big fight idea?

As we end this Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Review, I do want you to know that I didn’t WANT to hate this movie, I REALLY wanted to like it like I did ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home‘, or ‘Shang-Chi‘ from last year. But there were just too many dumb logic, misused characters, and an overall level of gratuitousness that I was REALLY hoping wouldn’t happen here…and it yet it did.

The movie does have some high points, but the low points, in my points, far outweigh them, and as such…bring the movie down hard.