Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - A Different Style Marvel Superhero Movie with Some Chaotic Multiverse Concept

After failing to acquire tickets to this movie during the pre-sale period, my wife and I anxiously waited till today to see if there would be any new studios showing it. As luck would have it, there were indeed plenty of other studios that started to sell tickets this morning and we were able to get nice seats for 12.30 PM show in a theater near our home. And so how's the movie? Let's find out more, shall we?

Brief Synopsis

While attending the party for Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams - Game Night, The Vow etc), Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch - The Current War, The Grinch 2018 etc) and Wong (Benedict Wong - Raya and the Last Dragon, Deadly Class TV series etc) had to work together to save a young girl named America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez - The Baby-sitters Club 2020 TV series etc) who was from another universe. As it involved things that he was not expert of, Stephen decided to seek the help from Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen - I Saw the Light, Godzilla 2014 movie etc). 

So what was the reason America was being chased across the multiverse? And how would Doctor Strange deal with this problem? Find them all in this exciting and a bit mind bending movie.

End of Brief Synopsis

For this movie, my wife and I purposely did not see the trailer as we were worried there might be spoilers or hint which would ruin the surprise. And as we watched this movie, there was a stunning turn of event that we did not foresee. It was an interesting surprise which might not be fun if we had known about it before. After we finished the film, we watched the trailer just to find out if there was anything shown there, but we felt that the plot was quite well hidden. So it was a great work by the ones who created and edited the movie trailers.

The film started off brightly with some intense actions. Although it was heavy on the CGI not only in the beginning but throughout the entire movie, I personally felt the effects were really good. You know how CGI could sometimes be too obvious? Now I did not have such feeling in here. So it was pretty satisfying especially since having multiverses would mean lots of CGI required. I really love the scene involving Dr. Strange and Chavez in the middle showing the multiverses and both of us were in awe with the special effects during the climax fight.

I read years ago that this movie would have a dark tone and horror elements. It turned out that Marvel Studios were true to their words. The film did have a bit of horrifying images and combined with brief jump scares like in horror movie. But the biggest surprise to me was the existence of some graphic violence which I never saw in other movies/series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The movie itself was classified for 13+ in Indonesia (same as in the US), which I believe should be implemented properly as young kids might be shocked by those scenes.

The movie was directed by Sam Raimi who was experienced in directing superhero movies (the 2002-2007 Spider-man trilogy) and horror films like Drag Me to Hell, Evil Dead franchise etc. Even though it felt dark, there were still few lighter moments usually involving Dr. Strange and Wong, but it was less humorous than its predecessor. However, I liked this one better since Doctor Strange was more mature and had evolved so much from his earlier days of superhero. The cast here mostly did their job wonderfully with critics praise on the performance of Cumberbatch and Olsen. Aside from the names I mentioned above, there were appearances of Chiwetel Ejiofor (The Old Guard etc) and Michael Stuhlbarg (The Shape of Water etc) reprising their roles of Karl Mordo and Doctor West respectively, plus few other support cast as important characters.

Overall this was an entertaining movie for me and my wife, even if it's unlike other lighter Marvel superhero movies and the multiverse concept require extra work to understand. Despite seemingly no direct relevance with MCU Phase 4, I believe the multiverse would be part of something really important in the future. The movie had duration of 126 minutes which had plenty of intense and suspenseful actions with awesome special effects and fabulous music & few emotional moments. 

There was a very intriguing mid end credit scene and a fun post end credit scene. Before I forgot, I personally felt that watching Wandavision first might be better to understand the whole picture (this movie was set after the events of that series). If you have the chance, catching up with What If...? would be nice too, although it was more for references only. So if you are fans of anything in the MCU and Marvel comics superhero, I am sure you would have gone and seen this movie at the first chance you got and there was no need for recommending it. 

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars