I feel as if Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is living up to my worst fears for the MCU after Disney+ took control. First, it became obvious that one had to keep up with the slew of programs offered only by the streaming service. And it ends up making the MCU less focused on telling a cinematic story, leaving the film collapses under the weight of such expectations and becomes a mindless mess of CGI excess.
The story follows Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) as he tries to save America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) from a demon, while the two attempt to retrieve a mystic book surrounded by yellow light (so it has to be good). But things go south and Strange decides he has to kill Chavez to keep her power from the demon. That doesn't end well either, revealing it to be a dream Strange awakens from in the current universe. Yeah, it appears dreams are only you experiencing something happening in another part of the multiverse. Hey, I didn't write it. Just go with it.
Strange is attending the wedding of his ex, Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), but his mourning her decision to be with someone else is cut short as Chavez (and the corpse of the other universes Dr. Strange) arrives in the MCU universe, followed by a multi-tentacled monstrosity (called Shuma-Gorath in the comics, but unnamed in the movie, due to rights issues with the copyright owners Heroic Signatures). Strange and Wong (Benedict Wong) defeat the creature and discover Chavez is being chased because of her ability to travel through through the multiverse. And she is the only one able to do so, as she doesn't dream. Strange and Wong vow to protect her and, as expected, mayhem ensues. Lots of CGI mayhem.
Okay, what have the CGI staff have in store for us now?
You might notice I haven't talked abut the villain yet, as that will involve spoilers. So, let me take a few paragraphs to discuss how this film failed before the infamous spoiler warning.
The film is directed by Sam Raimi, who needs no introduction to most genre fans. His Evil Dead trilogy, and the Starz series, as well as the first three Spider-Man films show he's a talented director. And all his trademark camera work is on display here, working well within the story during the non-CGI moments. And, of course, Bruce Campbell does show up, so keep your eyes open. His cameo is pretty funny, and harkens back to his work on the Evil Dead series.
But while a bit of Raimi's Evil Dead homages are fine, he went into overdrive at some point, lifting sound cues lifted from the series. Raimi's sweeping POV camera, moving and hiding like a Deadite stalking its prey is to be expected. It's part homage, part Raimi's style. But inserting sound effects from Evil Dead into a superhero film feels like too much fan service, and doesn't serve the story. It took me out of the story playing on screen, and reminded me of the classic movies.
I suspect the inclusion was because, as the promotional buzz proclaimed, this is the first Marvel horror film. And I'm sure everyone involved with the film figured what better way to proclaim it's horror roots than tying it to the Evil Dead franchise as often as possible. But the film is more a superhero movie with horror tones, or horror lite at best. Yeah, the film includes some horrific deaths, a zombie and some demons, but it feels like the sound cues from Raimi's horror films were meant to give the impression of something horrific, rather that showing it on-screen.
And no, this don't count as horrific. Unless you want to talk about the CGI...
This is a shame, as Raimi showed he could deliver true PG-13 horror with Drag Me to Hell. But I suspect Marvel/Disney didn't want to go full-bore horror, and would rather keep the mayhem from going full-blown horrific.
And that leads us to the on-screen violence, which is pretty brutal at times. But, unlike other internet posts I've read, I'm not questioning how this movie received a PG-13 rating. Instead, I'm going to say that was the rating the film deserved.
Look, I'm old, and I was growing up, a PG rating meant a film could contain nudity and pretty intense violence. Hell, back then, even G rated films could contain some pretty adult moments (unless the film was from Disney, which seems pretty funny to me now).
I'm sorry, you never saw a movie in the 70's, did you?
PG-13 started out once filmmakers started walking on the razor's edge between PG and R. If you didn't know, Raiders of the Lost Ark avoided an R-rating by covering Belloq's exploding head with super-imposted flames in post-production. After Steven Spielberg lobbied the MPAA to create the PG-13 rating, filmmakers could bring more intense scenes to the screen, garner a teenager audience with the idea that the film is too intense for kids, and avoid upsetting parents concerned about their children seeing gremlins explode in a microwave.
But, now PG movies mean fart jokes, and PG-13 has morphed into films involving intense scenes of violence without any bloodshed. This Doctor Strange movie is a reminder of what PG-13 movies were, not what they've become. It contains zombies, possession, and some pretty gruesome, though mildly bloody, deaths. It's not meant for young children and could scare a lot of them. And it's no surprise Raimi is responsible for it, as his Drag Me to Hell pushed the PG-13 boundaries back in 2009.
And yes, I mentioned earlier that Raimi seemed reigned in by Disney, and I'll stand by that. The horror in this film is more old-school PG than a PG-13 that need to be re-edited to drop it from an R-rating.
Okay, enough that rant, let's get back to the movie and how the villain of the film really doesn't work. For that, I need to issue a big SPOILER WARNING. So, if you haven't seen the film, and avoided the reveal online, skip ahead two paragraphs and DO NOT look at the next picture.
Okay, last chance....
Who's been screwing up the multiverse?
It was Wanda Maximoff all along.
It's revealed within the first 30 minutes of the film that Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) is chasing Chavez throughout the multiverse, using various monsters to do her bidding, as she wants to rob the girl of her power and skip across the multiverse looking for a way to reunite with her sons, created in the miniseries WandaVision. Corrupted by the Darkhold, which she took from Agatha Harkness at the end of the Disney+ series, Wanda is now willing to destroy the multiverse to spend time with the children she created in Westview.
And I'm fine with that as a motivation moving Wanda from hero to villain. But it's never fully explained, and she never talks about reuniting with Vision, which was the entire plot of the series. WandaVision ends with her in isolation, with Wanda brewing tea while her Scarlet Witch persona is studying the Darkhold. Sure, Agatha said Wanda was destined to destroy the world, but the filmmakers needed to include a brief moment showing her embracing that prophecy, rather than making it a surprise reveal so early in the film. And the movie needed to include why Vision wasn't around, other than Paul Bettany might not have wanted to come back, though his answers to the press aren't very clear. Don't know if that's true or not, but I'm just putting it out there.
Okay, END OF SPOILERS. Welcome back.
I'm not saying the film is all bad. The acting is, as expected, solid. Everyone is giving it their all, and it shows. Some of the CGI is impressive, but overused at times. I know it's cheaper, for some reason, to make a CGI zombie. But I suspect Marvel could have made a better zombie with more practical, and less CGI effects, than what we got in the final act of this film.
But I will say, the CGI monsters are REALLY good. Zombies, not so much.
But for all the effort put into this film, it lands flat. It's just more of the same Marvel has dealt out since the beginning of the MCU. But over a decade ago, that wasn't bad. CGI brought to life character abilities that no effects crew could translate to screen convincingly before then. And the idea of a series of movies leading to an epic conclusion was novel and exciting.
And that is how the current crop of Marvel movies fail. Starting with The Incredible Hulk, Marvel started laying out the creation of the Avengers. Regardless of how well the continuity was followed in the subsequent films, we knew what was building. And once The Avengers came out, the reveal of Thanos gave the audience a true threat.
Now, you have to deal with streaming episodes and internet fan theories to try and figure out what's going to happen. And, given the idea that the MCU might be including the Netflix series into the mix, it leads to frustration as to why one needs to become invested in a film series that seems to have no clear direction.
And yes, I'm going on another rant. As I mentioned earlier, I told
friends that, once Disney+ announced all the series planned for the
service, if you didn't subscribe, you'd end up not knowing the full story
behind the events of the film. And while some expository dialog is
added to catch up unsubscribed viewers, it's pretty annoying Marvel is
turning it's cinematic universe to a multi-comic event. The idea that you need to read the
latest issue of a comic you don't follow, or else you're at a loss concerning the entire story,
drove me out of comics decades ago. And I suspect it will drive mainstream audiences away from the
MCU. Time will tell if the strategy pays off or not.
Still, it's not an effective way to run a film franchise, and the latest Doctor Strange movie proves it. No matter how talented the actors and filmmakers are, you need to follow your past success, not try to augment it with additional content that will force your audience to spend additional money to follow where the story is going. Unfortunately, Disney/Marvel seem happy to repeat the mistakes of the 90s comic crash in their current cinematic universe.
Look, we're standing in an alley, and have a moment to develop your character, America.
Too bad the effects house won't give us much time.
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