For a movie with the words ‘Multiverse’ and ‘Madness’ in the title, you know it would require something different, something bolder, something that breaks the clutter of the otherwise assembly-line Marvel formula for its franchise. The studio has been making some wise choices by bringing on board strong, distinct voices like Chloé Zhao and Taika Waititi, who do exactly that; not always to popular vote, but there’s no denying that they bring their own zing. Well, director Sam Raimi brings a lot more than just zing to Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, giving it an almost eldritch quality that makes you forget this is a superhero movie. In that, Doctor Strange 2 is perhaps the MCU’s creepiest, goriest, scariest film, and undeniably trippy. But does it do justice to the stories of Doctor Strange, Wanda Maximoff aka The Scarlet Witch, and the newly introduced America Chavez? It’s complicated.
And we’ll try to discuss it in a totally spoiler-free way, lest the souls of the damned take us down for trespassing.
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Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), in the absence of our core team of superhero mentors, has taken over babysitting duties. He’s practically the psychiatrist that other superheroes come to, sound off their problems and their plans to counter them, and then seek those ‘magic pills’ aka spells, that will help them… well… cause more problems. After tinkering with the fabric of the universe despite warnings for our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, Doctor Strange is now responsible for yet another disoriented teenager, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), who apparently has powers that make her a very covetous MacGuffin for those who’d wanna use that power to tinker some more with the Multiverse.
So Strange, along with Sorcerer Supreme Wong and the entire might of Kamar-Taj, get down to keeping America safe (how it sounds is not lost on me, or anyone else for that matter). In the process, Strange encounters some familiar faces like his former paramour Christine (Rachel McAdams), his former ‘brother’ Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and of course, the very formidable Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) who is fresh off her R&R at Westview and transformed into the multiverse-threatening Scarlet Witch.
The result is a very trippy ride traversing through a couple of universes, some very ambitious set pieces, and yes, confirming some of the cameos that if you are a true fan who has followed everything from Reddit threads to red carpet, you will probably know about. Ah, the things superheroes will do for children!
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Let’s start with the good bits before we move on to the Strange ones, shall we? In an interview, Sam Raimi was asked whether he was able to infuse his own style into the film, like Taika Waititi has done, and superimpose it over the MCU formula. And the man practically denied it. Looking at Multiverse of Madness now, I think Raima’s signature is very much legible but not as pronounced as you’d expect, which explains the denial. Doctor Strange 2 begins with a sequence that tips its hat to its comic book origins with its look and feel.
As we go in deeper, you’ll encounter everything from those all-too familiar Dutch angles, edits that bring you from one universe to another as if you just teleported, and legit jump scares. The story takes massive cues from Disney+ series What If? which gave us a zombie Doctor Strange, but in live-action, he looks positively scary. The macabre and gore are always looming, threatening to just swoop in any time there’s a fight sequence with monsters who have their eyes popping out or characters getting graphic brain aneurysms, and it makes for an especially spooky experience when you know what’s coming.
One of my favourite sequences is when America Chavez and Doctor Strange are hurtling through the Multiverse in a kaleidoscopic way, and enter some trippy dimensions like one that is entirely paint! In another, sequence, we see musical notes transfigured off sheets into weapons, which are then Wingardium Leviosa-d and sent sharply to attack the opponent. As if it didn’t look mindblowingly ingenious, it is accompanied by keys playing, and at one point, a guitar riff? In yet another stunning yet heartbreaking scene, which to me was kind of reminiscent of the Kings Cross scene from Harry Potter (probably because the music and all the magic kept reminding me of it), a snowy field of white gets slowly engulfed in scarlet.
Reinforcing the spookiness is an exceptionally amazing Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch, consumed and corrupted by the Darkhold that she was introduced to by our friendly neighbourhood witch, Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), in Disney+ series WandaVision. I swear, make her the big bad in a Hocus Pocus reboot or something, she is so good! If you’ve caught a glimpse of her in the trailers, you know she’s come unhinged, and that makes for a very interesting point in her arc, because didn’t we think she was in a better headspace at the end of WandaVision?
But then again, what is MCU if not loopholes persevering?
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Another little bit that has been revealed in the trailer and can be talked about is the dark Stephen Strange that we will bump into as we tiptoe through the different universes. Now see here, Doctor Strange’s scrubs and eventually his cloak are made from God complex material of the smuggest kind. The man thinks that no matter what the precedent is in the other universes, his version is going to be infallible. It’s a nice conflict for our titular character to insert himself into, because on the other side is friend who also believes they must have what they want, the universe will somehow get over it. Benedict Cumberbatch plays this Strange with ease and finesse, the dry wit now a spell he is adept at. He is charming both when he is talking and spell casting, but I was left wanting more of the other versions of him from the Multiverse because they clearly had something different to offer.
You see, Doctor Strange still gives off secondary character energy because Wanda practically overshadows him. None of it bodes well for America (Chavez), who then gets the short end of the stick in terms of things to do. Xochitl Gomez is promising and does her best with what she has. But listen, not everyone can pull off a Benedict Wong, i.e. be instantly endearing and make you die for them, despite actually being a secondary character. Wong is easily one of my favourite people in this film; he is funny, moral, such a cute little know-it-all, and if anything ever happens to Wong in the MCU, I promise I will go full Scarlet Witch to avenge my Sorcerer Supreme. Rachel McAdams, who as the memes go, finally gets a character that time travels instead of just being a time-traveller’s love interest. But what really annoys me is that her character really just serves the purpose of furthering Doctor Strange’s arc, being at the right place, at the right time, identifying the right weapon because she is armed with the right knowledge. Pfft!
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness does rely a couple of such convenient solutions to our heroes’ and villains’ dilemmas, which retroactively undermines the cosmic stakes that the film really wants us to believe in. For example, Wanda’s entire gameplay is about wanting to be a mother, which to begin with itself is a very restrictive character trait. Hell, I think it does in many ways undermine the ending of WandaVision, because the character progression of Wanda Maximoff from the end of the series to where she is at in Multiverse Of Madness is as haphazard as Daenerys Targaryen’s descent into madness in Game Of Thrones Season 8. We get it, that was endgame for these women, consumed by grief and corrupted by power, but this couldn’t be an overnight thing, no?
Another thorn in my side was actually the fan service, which don’t get me wrong, as a fan who follows all the little tidbits of news and Disney+ series, I understood and enjoyed. Hooted at even, as I had those OMG moments when you realise that this is indeed your favourite comic book verses colliding. But it made me wonder, in hindsight, if anyone who had seen just the movies and the series would still catch all those references which make the film so much enjoyable for the hardcore fans. And if not, would that hamper how they experienced the film? If removed, what would this film then be left with?
I have a feeling that Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness was meant to not be such a cosmic event for the MCU. I mean, there aren’t even THAT many multiverses we go to. The Multiverse in the title really overplays the stakes of this film, because mostly it is just Doctor Strange averting another disaster that didn’t cost all that much in the universe that really mattered to us. It merely propelled his personal story forward by a little, which you know is okay and very welcome. If it did more, my limited brain could not comprehend the galaxy brain machinations of the MCU architects, so forgive me. What I do know is that the fan service in this case undermined the personal journeys of the lead characters, as the film suffers from some shaky writing.
Furthermore, and I don’t know if it is just me, but wasn’t the Infinity Saga a little less self-indulgent than what the MCU Phase 4 is shaping up to be? Marvel legit gives you homework before every film or show, where you have to remember things that happened in four of its web series—including actual set pieces—read the comic books (or the Cliff’s Notes version of them on Wikipedia) to figure out how one bunch of superheroes connect to the other, and despite all that studying, still require an ‘Ending Explained’ article to guide you through a character’s choices. It’s like when in HP 2, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart asks the class to read all the books he has ever written before school even begins because if you don’t then how will you understand his self-aggrandisement?
Right now, the MCU stories all feel like random twinkling stars across the night sky, some shining brighter, some not, until that one movie comes that connects the dots to form a constellation and you finally figure what shape it is taking.
Verdict
I for one, am loving the reimagining of very formulaic films as horrors, like we recently had with Pablo Larraín’s Diana biopic Spencer and to some extent, even Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers. While the horror was of course psychological in those films, in Multiverse of Madness, the creepiness is physical, typical and thoroughly enjoyable, to the extent that sometimes these superheroes make the same ridiculous errors in judgement like the characters in your typical horror film when confronted with monsters, and you find it so inherently human. Personally, I think the Marvel Cinematic Universe only benefits from these distinct voices telling its stories, which are getting experimental by the day. But I know not all fans want to try something new.
In Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, Sam Raimi brings the spectacle, and gives us a trippy ride that is visually enjoyable because you’re just hurtling from one set piece to another without getting much time to dwell on the loopholes and conveniences. It also plays the whole ‘neither side is actually bad or good so you can pick your player’ trope rather well, helped immensely by the performances of Elizabeth Olsen (*chef’s kiss*) and Benedict Cumberbatch. It is easily the creepiest, scariest Marvel film we’ve seen.
But yes, when you do slow down and think, there might be a few questions that might, shall I say, break the spell? Nevertheless, still a crucial cog in the MCU Phase 4 wheel that you cannot afford to miss, lest you want more homework when the new one comes out.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness will release in theatres on May 6, 2022.
