DVD Review: Doctor Strange
Marvel are really getting good at fine-tuning their movies. Doctor Strange feels like it has all the best elements of previous Marvel films with a few new and exciting editions thrown in. It is very obviously an origin story. Prepare yourself for a lot of blatant explaining of everything that Doctor Strange encounters in a short frame of time (I guess it’s necessary so they can squeeze all the info in), but also no real explanation for how he’s suddenly so much more awesome than those who have been training for years.
The casting of Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange is simply perfect. He manages the action with ease, a wide range of emotions as his character develops and the quirky humorous moments we’ve come to expect from Marvel since Guardians of the Galaxy. It took me awhile to get used to Benedict Cumberbatch as an arrogant surgeon with an American accent, but unsurprisingly he pulls it off without a hitch. Doctor Strange’s Cloak of Levitation was a fast favourite of mine as well and played a very similar sort of role as the Magic Carpet in Aladdin. Rachel McAdams, as Christine Palmer, was also great. The role didn’t seem much of a challenge for her and she certainly didn’t stand out as much as some of the other characters.
Tilda Swinton stole the show to a certain extent. As the super powerful and mysterious ‘Ancient One’, she somehow managed to convincingly seem humorous and intimidating all at the same time. Chiwetel Ejiofor gave a classic ‘straight-laced’ performance as Mordo, a devoted follower of The Ancient One, and Benedict Wong brought many chuckles to the table as the dead-pan ‘Wong’.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Mads Mikkelsen as the villainous Kaecilius. He just had a really good face for the role (yes the dark shimmery eye make up looked dang good on him okay!?).
Every fight scene and ‘out-of-body’ experience is pretty mind-boggling and several scenes are the exact definition of trippy. The powers that the sorcerers posses are crazy-awesome to witness but it won’t take long for a million plot holes to be poked through them all on Reddit – I assure you.
Prepare yourself for an exhilarating ride, it might not be a flawless plot and it’s certainly nothing super new for marvel over-all, but it’s a whole bunch of Benedict Cumberbatch-y fun!
Rating: M Violence.
FILMGUIDE rating:
