Doctor Strange 2016
I didn’t know anything about this movie going in except that it was yet another Marvel property. I keep going to see these movies mainly because I feel like it is better to see this type of movie in a theater. This one got pretty good reviews according to Metacritic (72), but I didn’t read any reviews. It’s a good movie, but with comic book characters, believable characters take a back seat to the plot and story. Dr. Strange is a genius surgeon whose hands are injured and he isn’t smart enough to figure out that there are thousands of other great jobs he can do without surgeon’s hands? Another character turns into a bad guy for the flimsiest of reasons, just because a bad guy is needed.
So the characters didn’t really grab me, but the story is still kind of neat. Unlike the normal superhero movie, there is definitely more sorcery in this one, rather than just superpowers. So it is neat watching Dr. Strange develop his powers and learn about all this magic, but magic is unsatisfying because they can change the rules of magic to make it do whatever they want. Except when they can’t. The visual effects are pretty amazing as the magic dices and slices the real world and turns up into sideways and every other way. I did not see the movie in 3D, but I can see how maybe that would work well here. Even in 2D it is impressive to watch though it’s basically just a new kind of explosion that then gets overused. The Matrix and Inception had similar reality bending scenes, but there is a lot more of it here.
It is a good movie and fun to watch, completely enjoyable, but with my usual Marvel complaints of mindless crazy action sequences and amazing powers that don’t seem to do that much because everyone else has them too. I did like the story itself, not crazy about Benedict Cumberbatch doing an American accent, and he isn’t quite funny enough to be the occasional wiseguy that he tries to play. It’s a Marvel movie.
Follow up in June 2019: I wound up getting this movie on Blu-ray and finally watched it to break in my new home theater speakers, and I have to say it sounds great, with lots of low rumbling and good use of distinct surround speakers. The beginning is a little tedious until Dr. Strange finally starts developing his powers, but it is mostly good after that. Not as jokey as I remembered. I like that he turns away from violence, a nice departure from the usual Marvel movie. The Blu-ray extras are good, but I would have liked to have seen a little more about how they did some of the effects. This is a solid movie.
Written: 11 Nov 2016
Owned on: Blu-ray, Digital