It's no secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has expanded into the multiverse, with Disney+ series like Loki and What If...? as well as last year's blockbuster film Spider-Man: No Way Home directly dealing with the concept. The multiversal direction that the MCU is going in has only been further cemented with the release recent of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (henceforth referred to as Doctor Strange 2), which sees Benedict Cumberbatch reprising his role as the titular hero. To save the multiverse from an old friend-turned-foe, the Master of the Mystic Arts and one-time Sorcerer Supreme must cross the border between worlds so without further ado, let's dive in.
REVIEW (SPOILER ALERT)
Introduction: Doctor Strange 2 more or less picks up after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which saw Doctor Stephen Strange assisting the wallcrawler with a multiversal disaster. Strange now continues his job as one of Earth's magical defenders but things go completely awry when a young girl from another universe named America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) crashes into his, chased by otherworldly forces. After saving her, Strange learns more about the secrets of the multiverse and approaches Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), the Scarlet Witch, for help. Thinking that she'll be able to protect Chavez, Strange soon finds out that Wanda has been corrupted by the evil Darkhold and was actually the one sending demons after Chavez in a bid to gain the girl's multiversal power and reunite with Billy and Tommy, the children she created during the events of WandaVision. Strange and Chavez must now race against time and traverse universes to both escape and bring down the Scarlet Witch, a near-impossible task. Will they stop her? Well, watch the film and read on to find out.
Film vs comics: As Doctor Strange and Wanda have had their origins covered in prior media, I won't be touching on them here. Instead, this section will see us taking a look at another of the film's protagonists, America Chavez. In the comics, Chavez is the superheroine known as Ms. America. Having once been part of various teams like the Young Avengers and the Ultimates, she's currently a member of Avengers World. For some years, she was thought to originate from the Utopian Parallel, an extra-multiversal dimension and when she was a child, Chavez believed her parents sacrificed themselves to save the Parallel from destruction. In the aftermath she would run away from her responsibilities by travelling the multiverse and eventually operate as Ms. America.
However it was recently revealed that Chavez wasn't actually an extradimensional being at all and in fact, she has always been an inhabitant of Earth-616 (don't forget this), the mainstream Marvel Comics universe. Suffering from a genetic disorder alongside her younger sister Catalina, Chavez's scientist parents would seek a cure for their daughters using resources provided by billionaire Mr. Gales. After her disease went into remission, Chavez's powers would emerge and be exploited by Gales. In a bid to save them, Chavez's parents would help their daughters escape but died in the process. The young girl suffered severe trauma from this incident and fundamentally altered her memories, thinking herself to be from another universe and wiping her parents' brutal deaths from her own mind.
In the film, Chavez is indeed from the Utopian Parallel, a universe outside of the mainstream MCU continuity (more on this later). Unlike in the comics, where her extradimensional origins were cooked up in her own head, she inadvertently caused her parents' deaths when her powers first emerged and she sent her parents through a portal into another universe as well as getting sucked through herself. At some point, Chavez would find herself in the same universe as an alternate version of Doctor Strange and be chased by demons sent across the universe by Wanda Maximoff.
Powers-wise, America Chavez is pretty much the same in both mediums. Naturally, superhuman physical attributes are a given when it comes to most superheroes and Chavez is no exception but what really makes her stand out is her ability to create what's known as Star Portals. As the name suggests, Chavez is able to create star-shaped portals in both the comics and the films which she can then use to traverse the multiverse or even offensively to power up her physical attacks. An interesting difference though is that the comics iteration of the character is capable of travelling through time using these portals and as of right now, the MCU's version has yet to demonstrate that ability. However, the MCU's Chavez does have very limited magic capabilities since she's currently training at Kamar-Taj with the other Masters of the Mystic Arts, something that she hasn't done in the comics.
Pros: The best part of Doctor Strange 2 is probably the cast performances, specifically by our main cast of Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen and Xochitl Gomez. Cumberbatch and Olsen have been playing their respective roles for many years now and they're still killing it. Throughout all the films he's been in, Strange is a character who has been through all kinds of trials and tribulations, carrying an increasingly heavy burden. From having to shoulder the weight of his decision to follow the "only way" to defeat Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, to the multiversal mayhem that spun out of Spider-Man: No Way Home's events, there's a lot that the sorcerer has been through.
Even in this film, he has to sit back and watch the love of his life Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) get married to another man, which happened because he chose to stay in the Sanctum Sanctorum and be the then-Sorcerer Supreme after the events of Doctor Strange. Through it all, he maintains this fake façade of happiness, masking his pain with dry humour, wit and arrogance, all traits typically associated with Strange. Cumberbatch portrays both aspects of Strange really well and he was thoroughly entertaining to watch on screen. In fact, Cumberbatch actually plays a couple alternate universe versions of Strange in the film and while they didn't appear long, his acting definitely convinced me that they were all different people.
Likewise, Elizabeth Olsen was fantastic as Wanda. After portraying the broken widow in last year's WandaVision, everything is dialed up to eleven when Wanda wreaks havoc in an almost psychotic burst of rage throughout the film, and Olsen gives a great performance. She's very clearly the antagonist of this film and has gone into full-blown villainy, with nothing standing in the way of achieving her goals. Wanda is delightfully evil and Olsen is wonderfully menacing in this portrayal while also being pitiful when she needs to be. She's come a long way from her first appearance as the character and is a huge plus point for this film.
As a newcomer to the MCU, I thought that Xochitl Gomez also had a pretty good performance as America Chavez. Even though she's had very few acting credits to her name and she didn't have all that much to do in the film, I thought Gomez still did quite a good job with what she had. I also thought that the film's visual effects were pretty good and there were some really cool scenes, with one of my personal favourites being the battle between Strange and one of his evil variants, wherein they used magical music notes if you will.
Cons: Of course, Doctor Strange 2 isn't without it's flaws. For starters, I found the most hype moments of this film to not actually involve the titular character but were all fan service moments that introduced new characters. I'll expand more on this later but when a film's best moments aren't even about the main character, that's when you have a problem. Don't get me wrong, we still get Strange in spades but I just wished that I felt more invested in his story.
Speaking of Strange, I found his character motivations to be somewhat confusing. From the events of Doctor Strange, we know that he was once in a relationship with Christine Palmer but in subsequent appearances, it was never made clear to us that he was so deeply in love with her. That's why it feels a bit jarring for him to suddenly be so caught up about losing her, to the extent where losing her even becomes an event that creates splinter timelines and alternate universes (more on this later). This plot point just felt very random and didn't really have any set-up.
Finally, as we all know the Disney+ series are all meant to tie-in to the films to some extent, and there have been concerns raised about the feasibility of such a plan since the majority of the audience wouldn't be watching the series. Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige have reiterated that knowledge of the series won't be strictly necessary to enjoy the films but we've never actually seen this come into play as none of the Phase Four films have actually had ties to the Disney+ series. Doctor Strange 2 presents strong evidence as to why this could be a problem and we see this with the character arc of Wanda. If you didn't watch WandaVision, the last time you would've seen the Scarlet Witch was in Avengers: Endgame, where her limited screen time presented her as a widow devastated over the loss of Vision. WandaVision is where her character really gets fleshed out and you see her stepping down the path to full blown villainy, especially in the post-credits scene where she's slowly being corrupted by the Darkhold. In this case, the series provides a slightly more natural segue into Wanda's development from grieving widow to broken psychopath.
However, without any knowledge of the series, audiences would functionally see Wanda going from a hero at the end of Endgame to a, dare I say, diabolical villain in Doctor Strange 2. Not to mention, there're quite a few references to WandaVision's events that will go right over many viewers' heads so it really removes a lot of context from the story. I fear that this will be a recurring problem for the MCU's future, what with the upcoming Ms. Marvel series directly tying into 2023's The Marvels, so viewers who don't watch the series could be left in the dark about a ton of character development once again.
Miscellaneous/little touches: I usually cover Easter eggs in this section but I think for this film, we need to talk about the elephant in the room. That's right I'm talking about the Illuminati. There were tons of theories floating around about who they would actually be, whether they were all from different universes and were some kind of multiversal organisation or something else entirely, and people were also theorising about who the members would be. Many supported the idea of Tom Cruise appearing as an Iron Man variant but of course, that didn't come to fruition. First off, the Illuminati in this film are revealed to all originate from Earth-838, just another alternate universe to the mainstream MCU. We've known from trailers and TV spots that variants of Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) aka Captain Carter and Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) aka Captain Marvel would be on the team but let me tell you, nothing could've prepared me for the rest.
My mind was blown when I saw the reintroduction of Black Bolt, who was last portrayed by Anson Mount in the less-than-stellar Inhumans TV series, and Mount reprises his role in a far more comic accurate fashion for Doctor Strange 2. His appearance marks the first time that the MCU has directly mentioned Inhumans in any of their films and gives me hope that other Inhumans will pop up in the MCU soon (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. anyone). Seeing Black Bolt was awesome but nothing, and I mean NOTHING, could prepare me for freaking Reed Richards, Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four himself, appearing in the MCU for the very first time. Played by none other than John Krasinski himself, who people have fan-casted in the role for years, this has undoubtedly got to be one of the greatest moments of fan service in the MCU's history, up there with the return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Previously, we've had discussions about whether the MCU was still contained within the Marvel Comics multiverse, especially since the mainstream MCU was once considered Earth-199999. However, with Doctor Strange 2, we have further evidence that the MCU has now totally distanced itself from the comics multiverse, especially because the MCU is now designated Earth-616. This designation is actually what the mainstream Marvel Comics universe is referred to so with this overlap, it's practically confirmed that the MCU is now out of the comics multiverse.
The future of the MCU: Doctor Strange 2 has steered the MCU into some pretty uncharted waters and I have absolutely no clue what's going to happen next. At the end of the film, we saw that Strange has been corrupted by his use of the Darkhold, spawning a third eye on his forehead. This can't possibly be a good sign for the sorcerer, since we saw what happened to his alternate self after he got corrupted (basically he became evil). This opens up a lot of doors for the inevitable Doctor Strange sequel and Marvel Studios has a lot of opportunities to play around with the future of the character.
Not only that, the film's mid-credits scene introduced us to Clea, played by Charlize Theron, a character that I'm certain I was the only one in the theater to recognise. The niece of Dormammu, Clea is a powerful sorceress from the Dark Dimension and in the comics, is Strange's wife. Following her husband's death in recent times, she's know taken on the role of Earth's Sorceress Supreme. The mid-credits scene showed her confronting Strange about his incursion-causing antics whilst fighting Wanda and going with him into the Dark Dimension to fix his mess. This is definitely going to be the sequel's direction but we shall see where we go from here.
Also, even though Wanda supposedly sacrifices herself at the end of the film to remove the Darkhold's presence throughout the multiverse, I'm almost certain that this won't be the last time we see her. Elizabeth Olsen is a fantastic actress and with a few more films in her contract, she's definitely reappearing somewhere in the MCU. As they say in show business, no body equals to no death.
As mentioned earlier, this film has also further explored the multiverse and unlike previous interpretations of the concept within the MCU, Doctor Strange 2 seems to be making it quite clear that the MCU's multiverse isn't just splinter timelines but totally different universes in and of themselves. I'm very excited to see where they go from there and we're bound to see the multiverse pop up more often from here on out. However, the multiverse does also pose some problems with future appearances of characters, namely that of the Fantastic Four, the Inhumans and the X-Men.
While Patrick Stewart and Anson Mount were returning to their roles as Professor X and Black Bolt respectively, this film marks the first time that we're actually seeing any sign of the Fantastic Four in the MCU, albeit with John Krasinski playing an alternate universe version of Mister Fantastic. Unfortunately, the Illuminati were absolutely massacred by Wanda so they're all deader than doorknobs and quite brutally killed too. This raises some questions about how audiences will react to seeing any of them, especially Mister Fantastic and Professor X, return in upcoming MCU films set in the mainstream Earth-616 continuity. Will the general public find it confusing that a character they've seen die on screen has suddenly reappeared? Whatever it is, I can only hope that Marvel Studios handles this well and gets Krasinski back for the part because it's such a waste to have him for only one short appearance. As for Professor X, when the MCU's proper iteration of the character makes his debut, I hope he's played by a new actor because let's face it, Stewart's getting on in years and his version of the character already had a proper sendoff in Logan.
Final thoughts: Doctor Strange 2 had some big ideas at work, trying to expand the multiverse while still attempting to tell a good story. Unfortunately, it crumbles a little bit under the weight of everything it's trying to accomplish, presenting us with a film that's just missing the mark. As only the second of Doctor Strange's solo films, I am a bit disappointed that the character wasn't as fleshed out as I hoped but nevertheless, I still had a pretty good time watching it, even if it was just setting up for future MCU products. I can only hope that the MCU can rekindle it's fire and become more like the blockbuster juggernaut that we know and love.
I give Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness a 6.5/10. Thanks for reading.
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