On the same day that I watched Doctor Strange, I also treated myself to As Good As It Gets, a 1998 comedy that got nominated for Best Original Screenplay. As you can imagine, this heightened my awareness of how so many superhero movies can be generic. That's exactly what the plot of Doctor Strange is: a retread of everything we've seen before, just with a new set of superpowers.Except these superpowers aren't clearly defined. Even though there's a bit of exposition explaining how his powers work, it isn't enough. I still don't understand what he technically can and can't do. Therefore, I can only conclude that he can and can't do whatever is convenient for the writers. If the writers want a scene to play out a certain way, then his powers are written one way for that scene. They will be written another way for another scene. I don't know how many people will notice this about the movie, but I did, because I like to get nerdy and try and think of the possibilities of what I would do if I had the hero's powers. When I watch a Spiderman movie, I definitely like to imagine what all I could do with his very specific power set. However, with Doctor Strange, I can't quite imagine what it would be like to get creative with his powers, because I don't understand what his powers are, or why they work the way that they do. They get a little bit into the metaphysics of it, but it isn't nearly enough, and this is one of those situations where I feel that the story could have benefited from more exposition. However, this is a Marvel blockbuster, so I know not to expect that.
Meanwhile, Strange isn't the most original character. He definitely has a variant of the Tony Stark vibe going on, and he doesn't quite stand out as an original character. He's a brilliant genius with an abundance of natural talent and technical know-how, who gets a bit cocky and can be a bit of a dirtbag while still being the kind of guy that you can root for. Doesn't that sound a little bit familiar? He even has the same goatee as Tony. His powers are new and unique, but his personality isn't.
The venerable doctor still has more of a personality than Mads Mikkelsen's villain, though. Like just about all Marvel villains outside of Loki and Kilgrave, this villain is thinner than paper and doesn't leave much of a lasting impression. Someone maybe got paid a couple of dollars to write him up, and everyone else paid an eight dollar entry fee so that they could watch this movie and totally not notice him. The only thing that this villain has going for him is that he's played by Mads Mikkelsen, who does villains quite well, but even then I'm conspicuously aware of how he's a million times better as Hannibal Lecter, arguably the greatest villain of all time. This new guy is a serious downgrade for him. He's not even that intimidating. He defeats a bunch of people off screen, and he's as competent as he needs to be in order to pose a serious threat to the world, but he's remarkably average in other scenes when the writers need Strange to survive a fight. Why is Mads so unstoppable when he's up against the armies of other wizards? Why does he conveniently possess that level of competency? Why is it that the villain is a better wizard than all of the other wizards? Because the movie needs someone to be just enough of a threat to keep the plot going, but I'm still not entirely sold that he could have been such a huge threat in the first place. Top that off with his lack of any reeal features as a character beyond being a simple plot device, and I just don't like him. In fact, I distinctly remember my first impression of him being how vague of an impression he made. His name is Kaecilius? What's the ethnic origins of that name? Is that Latin? Except he looks really German. Although his hair looks oriental. If you want someone to make a strong impression, you have to pick traits that make sense together and compound on each other. It's like his different characteristics are canceling each other out, creating an un-character.
Chiwetel Ejiofer's character is a bit more developed, although not by much. I see huge similarities to the Operative from Serenity, in part because it's the same actor. However, his motivations aren't quite as well-defined or thematically prevalent as the Operative's. I mostly took to thinking of him as the Operative, Jr. Still, it isn't bad to have a character like that in this movie.
Overall, Doctor Strange is exactly what thee trailer shows it to be. It's exactly the story you'd expect, and it has all the visual effects that it's marketing team has been boasting of and more. Truly, the visuals are the best part of this film, and I do regret not seeing this in 3D. It was definitely designed to look good in that format. So, if you're planning on on watching this movie because it looks like it will blow Inception out of the water, by all means go ahead. In spite of how harsh this review sounds, I actually did enjoy the film, because like all Marvel movies, it's packed with fun. It just doesn't hold up to a more serious artistic inspection.
Seriously, see this in 3D. I watched it in 2D so that I could tell you to watch it in 3D, you got that? You will not be disappointed.
