I finally got the chance to watch this movie yesterday when there was a brief moment of time where I do not need to be involved in an activity. Unfortunately my wife had to do something personal so I had to watch the movie by myself. I chose to watch it at Epicentrum XXI where earlier some of my wife's sisters and family were hanging out around that area and also because the movie was having the Dolby Atmos sound effect. To my surprise, when I went to buy the ticket at 11.30AM, the theater was still having a lot of empty seats for the 12PM show. Not sure whether it was the theater or it was because Saturday noon not a lot of people want to see movies. Anyway, let's find out what the movie was all about.
Brief Story Line
Movie started with the scene of Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen - Casino Royale, The Hunt, Hannibal TV series etc) trying to steal some pages from an ancient book in the library somewhere in Nepal. After tearing his required pages, a person dressed in a yellow priest robe came to the location and tried to capture him. Kaecilius and his fellow students tried to escape by opening the library door where they reached to a modern western world. It gave us an idea that all of these people were able to do some magics and Kaecilius was able to escape through another dimension after having to fight with the person pursuing them who seemed to be very good in magic as well.
Meanwhile a very famous neurosurgeon named Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game, Sherlock TV series etc) was being asked for help to treat a victim of gunshot in the head by a fellow doctor who worked in ER, Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams - Red Eye, A Most Wanted Man etc). Being a famous neurosurgeon, Stephen always chose his cases very carefully. However, one night he had an accident which made his hands no longer can be used for performing surgery.
After having used up almost all his money to treat his hands and ruined his relationship with Christine in the process, he finally went to see Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt - Miss Congeniality, Despicable Me 2 etc), who used to be paralyzed but able to walk again. Pangborn shared that it was through a process he did in Kamar-Taj, Nepal. Using whatever money left, Stephen went there and finally met with Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor - 2012, 12 Years a Slave etc) who was good in martial arts. He was later introduced to the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton - Vanilla Sky, Constantine etc) who was able to open up Stephen's mind by showing him the possibilities of multiple dimension and the astral body existence and so on which could ultimately make him a better person and would be able to fulfill his dream of being cured.
So began the process of Stephen of learning all those areas from the Ancient One. While learning, he took a lot of practice with Mordo and a lot of theories from the library guarded by the expressionless Wong (Benedict Wong - Hummingbird, Kick Ass 2, etc). But could Stephen learn them fast enough, with the threats lurking from Kaecilius who was trying to do a lot more damages to the world? What were actually his intentions? What would happen with the relationship between Stephen and Christine? Find them all in this interesting different type of Marvel's superhero.
End of Brief Story Line
This is not the stereotype Marvel's superhero movie. It's not full of fights between Avengers superheroes with the great villains. It was an introduction to a brand new superhero who was as strange as his name was. His power was not strength or fly or anything, but instead it's more mystical. It was mentioned in the movie also if Avengers were guarding from the physical threats, the people in Kamar-Taj do them differently.
The movie had tons of crazy special effects. My most memorable scene would definitely be the fight before the finale and of course the finale fight scenes as well. Those were awesome. The sound effects were also cool and also the make up effects. However, I could not help to have some feeling of familiarity on the multiple dimension scenes with those in the 2010 movie Inception (with Leonardo DiCaprio).
I maybe biased here as I like Benedict Cumberbatch especially since I saw him in Sherlock TV series (which I happened to review all 3 seasons of them before) and I think that his performance here as Dr. Strange was awesome. I agreed with the producer/director's view that he IS Dr. Strange. I understand that was the reason why the movie was scheduled rather later as they insisted on having Cumberbatch to have the schedule for playing as Dr. Strange. He was charming here and made a lot of funny remarks and a bit naughty as well (see his funny "relationship" with Wong).
However good Cumberbatch performance here and the good special effects here, I am not too sure though if people can relate to this kind of super power in the movie. It maybe a gamble I think for Disney/Marvel in this one. But then again who knows? When they tried making Guardians of the Galaxy earlier, they somehow made it a successful one as well. Marvel always had a way of doing that in the past.
Anyway, if you are looking for a different kind of super hero without the physical appearance of the bulky with super strength, super anything super hero, then this one definitely is something different which you can try. It is a safe movie for children or young teens (no violent scenes or adult scenes at all). As usual Marvel movies, please do not leave the edge of your seats. There would be 2 scenes in the mid post-credit and at the very very end. Those scenes would give you insights on what would happen in the near future Marvel universe. Oh, this movie also having a shorter running time compared to other super heroes movies which was less than 2 hours even including those end credit scenes.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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