Hello readers! I'm sorry to be reviewing Doctor Strange so late in the game, but in case y'all are unaware, America decided to go to shit over the past couple weeks and elect an outrageous fuckhead as its leader, so I've had other things on my mind.
And I realize the irony of giving this review the same title as Ben Carson's memoir. Hey! It fits with the themes of Doctor Strange!
And onto the review.
***
While I enjoyed Marvel's latest big-budget superhero flick and have nothing bad to say about it, I also didn't love it. It's the movie equivalent of a turkey sandwich: yummy and filling, but not exactly anything to write home about. That said, comfort food in the form of movies is nothing to knock, especially in these troubled times.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays Dr. Stephen Strange, a neurosurgeon with exceptionally gifted hands who is a minor celebrity in the world of surgery. Stephen apparently enjoys being a cliche because, like all surgeons, he's arrogant as hell. And why wouldn't he be? He's wildly talented, fantastically wealthy, and he literally plays God everyday, saving the lives of thousands of people with his mad surgery skillz. Well, fate has a little shit-kicking in store for Stephen.
While driving to a party, Stephen is in a car accident (he's talking on the phone! Don't talk and drive! He's using Bluetooth, but still...). The accident destroys the nerves in his hands to the point where he will likely never perform surgery again. Because his hands are his life and identity, Stephen falls into a deep depression while also seeking cutting edge medicine to bring his hands back to their former glory. Along the way, he hears tell of a man named Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt in a nice cameo) who fully recovered from a severe spinal cord injury. When he finds Pangborn, the man tells him to head to Kathmandu and seek out Kamer-Taj, a secret compound.
Having nothing to lose, Stephen makes the journey. He meets a sorcerer, Mordon (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and a master sorcerer known only as the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton). After scoffing at the idea of magic, the Ancient One reveals her (should I say "her"? Ancient One would probably identify as agender on Tinder) powers, shocking Stephen to the core. Although the inhabitants of Kamer-Taj reject him for his arrogance, Stephen grovels long enough to be given a chance to learn the secret ancient arts of...all kinds of shit. One thing the sorcerers do is create portals that let you jump around all over the earth. They're also able to play with time--but that is forbidden to everyone except the Ancient One because of its inherent danger (y'all saw The Butterfly Effect, right?). Of course Stephen, who is a fast learner and thinks rules don't apply to him, wants to uncover and learn the forbidden knowledge.
Meanwhile, a traitorous ex-pupil of the Ancient One, Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen), is gathering minions and planning to overthrow the Ancient One and tap into a dimension where time does not exist, thus granting him and his followers immortality. Once you actually get to see this timeless dimension you're like, "well, this is a piece of shit. Who would want to live here for a day, let alone eternity??" But I digress. One cool thing about Kaecilius is that he's a bad guy who doesn't think he's bad. In fact, he believes that the Ancient One is a liar who disavows the timeless dimension and its dangerous powers to her pupils while also utilizing energy from it to give her a long life. So Kaecilius loses faith in the Ancient One for good reason.
If this all sounds really woo-woo, well, it is. Doctor Strange definitely has a very different feel than many of the other Marvel films. It feels strongly embedded in fantasy, whereas some of the other films, such as Iron Man, are more embedded in science-fiction. But like other Marvel films, it's very well made, funny, and has great actors showing up and doing a great job (unlike *cough*DC movies*cough). Benedict Cumberbatch is delightful with an excellent American accent in that deep voice of his. His famously weird-but-sexy looks work well in a movie filled with characters who all have otherworldly looks, from the dark makeup around Kaecilius' eyes to the Ancient One's bald head. Truly, the film is as much character driven as it is plot driven.
The central message is about gifts, talents, and purpose. Stephen Strange, like so many characters in literature and movies, must fall hard and be humbled before he realizes his true potential (which was...*sniffle* inside him all along). And he has to accept that the closing of a door might mean the opening of a window that, hell, you didn't even know existed in your house. It's a very positive message in an overall positive (but not sentimental) film. The only thing that annoyed me was the not great gender ratio. There is one clearly female character in the movie--Stephen's ex-lover and fellow doctor, Christine (Rachel McAdams, sweet and strong as she always is), who gets some screen time, but her character is there to prop up Stephen's and doesn't really have her own story. And then I guess you could consider Tilda Swinton's Ancient One as female, but she's really more agender as I mentioned above. Which is cool in its own right I guess. Still, Doctor Strange is one more on a long list of superhero movies that tell a (usually white) man's story with women and minorities bolstering that man up.
But other than that quibble, I found Doctor Strange to be a solid, fun movie. In the wake of this election, where it feels like we're living in an alternate reality--and not a good one--Doctor Strange is ideal escapism: it gives you the escape you need with side helpings of hope and heroism. It's important to remember than good can still destroy evil.
Grade: B
No comments:
Post a Comment