Sometimes it feels like every other Marvel movie is "Marvel's biggest risk yet!" We said that about Thor back in 2011. We said it about Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014. Some said it about Ant-Man in 2015. And we said it again for Doctor Strange here in 2016. The difference here is that much of the content within Doctor Strange requires the filmmakers to "break" the cinematic universe we have become familiar with. It could go really well, or it could quite possibly go very poorly!
But Marvel Studios has some intelligent folks in charge. The way they get around their weirder properties is by making them rather similar to the other popular ones. Doctor Strange is visually very different from everything we have seen yet, but structurally almost identical to everything else (especially Iron Man). There's a lot to like about this installment, but I suspect that this is one where people will see the visuals and say, "This is great because it's so different!" while in reality, in terms of substance, it is not different at all.
Perhaps the first problem with the film is that it is your very traditional superhero origin story. Dr. Stephen Strange is your typically arrogant (white) man who comes from a place of relative privilege. He is kind of unlikable, but then he screws up and suffers a personal tragedy. While losing his mind trying to recover from his position of sudden disadvantage (something he is not accustomed to), he stumbles upon an even greater power. Inheriting this power forces the character to learn to become less arrogant and more responsible. It's literally nothing you haven't seen before.
The first ten minutes of the film drag as a result. Fifteen movies into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's starting to feel like they can, at some point, just start their movies. These constant "origins" lifted from the comics as much as possible are starting to slow everything down. In this particular case, it feels a lot like they could have just started with Strange searching for a healer, with maybe a training sequence resulting in a flashback that showcases his personal tragedy. We literally don't need anything from the opening ten minutes - and yes, that includes the quasi-love interest in Rachel McAdams. At this point, viewers are familiar with entire alien civilizations, other realms, gods, robot armies, Hulks, and dudes with arrows. Are we really still at a point where to introduce a new power or concept, we need to "ground it in reality" for the audience?
Once Strange finds the Ancient One, however, the film gets on the right track. Yes, I know, I'm supposed to be outraged that the Ancient One - one of the few comic book characters that was specifically created as an Asian person - was instead cast as a white person, but Tilda Swinton is just great, and she is predictably perfect here. (The real problem, by the way, is that Marvel is too obsessed with casting "according to the characters' origins," ignoring that almost all of these characters were created in the 1960s and '70s, when racism was much more in the open. But this is another topic.) Additionally, Chiwetel Ejiofor's Mordo is one of the most interesting "side characters" in any of the Marvel movies. His development felt, in many ways, more natural and clear than even Strange's. It is even possible that this film laid the groundwork for a Marvel movie to finally get an interesting villain in the future.
Oh, that's right. If you're looking for Doctor Strange to finally break the drought of bad Marvel villains, you'll have to keep searching. Mads Mikkelsen's Kaecilius is actually one of the better Marvel movie villains. Unfortunately, that doesn't actually mean anything. One of the other problems clearly plaguing the MCU is that their films don't really build with villains as part of the foundation for the story and themes. Instead, the villains serve a very pragmatic purpose; to introduce a world threatening scenario for the titular hero to stop.
The visuals are likely to be the lasting legacy of the film. In terms of the action, it would be fair to say that Doctor Strange is not like any superhero flick you have seen. There's alternate dimensions, magic shields and weapons, realities folding in on itself, warping, demons, and astral projections. This isn't like Iron Man or Captain America when it comes to the action. It isn't even like Guardians of the Galaxy when it comes to the visual style. A lot of this is what makes it so interesting to view. There is indeed no shortage of strange things that occur on screen, and there's plenty of potential "favorite moments" to discuss post credits.
Still, you could shoot some interesting stuff in Fantastic Four, it's still going to be a crap movie. This is not, of course, to suggest Doctor Strange is bad (and it's probably unfair to even mention Fantastic Four). It is more to say that while it is visually different from everything else, it is actually a very by-the-numbers film when it comes to its plot and structure.
When the Ancient One starts to teach Strange about the world of mysticism, Strange makes a comment about how it "doesn't make sense." The Ancient one replies, "Not everything does. Not everything has to."
The writers seem aware that she is not just addressing Stephen Strange; she is also talking to the audience. This scene is great in that it functions to get the audience on the same page as the filmmakers. As she chides Strange for trying too hard to "make sense of the world" and that he should just "go with it; surrender to its power," she is essentially encouraging viewers to do the same. Let go of logic. Stop trying to make sense of everything. We don't need to know all the ins and outs of magic. Just ride along and enjoy the show! If you can do that, you will enjoy the film a lot more! It's handled very well!
But about half an hour later, we enter yet another exposition dump wherein the film gets very "talky" and "explainy." Much of the dialogue is explanation and exposition. It's a lot of holding the audience's hand and walking them through things - many of which don't even actually matter much. It feels a little counterproductive to their opening statement that "things don't have to make sense," when the spend much of the film trying to explain things to the audience so it all "makes sense." This rotation of training/studying sequences filled with lots of spelling things out, to crazy, awesome, wild action sequence where who even knows what the heck is happening gives the film a rather inconsistent pace throughout. For a film that has a lot of visually interesting and exciting moments, it does have a few bits where it's downright boring. This, of course, is not helped by it's completely formulaic structure.
Yet for all that, they actually found a rather clever way to conclude the film. Without going into specifics, the filmmakers actually did come up with a unique, creative, and rather humorous way for Strange to save the day. Think along the lines of Guardians' dance-off distraction and hand-holding friend circle, only better. The solution to the threat is made even better by the fact that Strange was specifically told he lacked imagination. It can be really difficult to figure out a new, interesting, memorable way to have heroes save the day from yet another global threat. Doctor Strange manages to provide one of the best examples of it.
It does seem like the distinct visuals and the "universe-altering" introduction of magic will make many feel that Doctor Strange is one of the more refreshing and unique Marvel installments. Of course when it comes to art and judging it, we all live in our own realities. In mine, it fits rather squarely in the middle of the pack. For you nerds, it's worth seeing on the big screen, but it lacks anything of substance to really stand out above the rest.
REDUCTIVE RATING: It's Fine
No comments:
Post a Comment