Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

 

Dimension-hopping teenager America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) arrives in New York pursued by demonic creatures, drawing sorcerer Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) away from his colleague/former girlfriend Christine Palmer’s (Rachel McAdams) wedding. Sensing witchcraft at play, Strange calls upon his friend Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), only to find that she has been corrupted by the Darkhold, a grimoire that convinces her that she can have the family she has been dreaming about…by taking America’s power (killing her in the process) and relocating to another dimension. To stop her, Strange, America, and Wong (Benedict Wong), will seek allies in whichever dimension they can find them.

 

With directors as distinctive and diverse as James Gunn, Taika Waititi, and Chloe Zhao helming entries, one would think that criticisms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as cookie-cutter cinema would have waned by now. The addition of Sam Raimi (replacing previous Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson) suggests a further corrective to that narrative. However, like Zhao’s Eternals, Raimi’s stab at an MCU film is an awkward fit that shows a talented director not quite hitting the mark.

 

On paper, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness should have been a dream project. After all, Raimi is beloved for the first two Spider-Man films, and he cut his teeth as a horror director well before then. A project that combines both seems like a no-brainer. Moreover, writer Michael Waldron experienced more recent Marvel success with last year's Loki series. Add a Danny Elfman score and lots of returning faces, and what could go wrong?

The answer, sadly, is a lot. Pointing out the MCU’s interconnectedness and reliance on prior familiarity is beating a dead horse, but despite drawing from that shared history, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness doesn’t seem to understand it. In WandaVision (which ended with the character using the Darkhold), Wanda committed heinous and destructive acts, but Olsen delivered a complex, anguished performance. Here, the character is more powerful yet feels cheapened and one-dimensional, a dark magic-empowered Terminator with T2 Sarah Connor’s motives. This character neglect extends to Strange as well. The character is once again chided as being an arrogant risk-taker, the one who always has to be holding the knife. For most of the movie, he justifies that reputation rather than challenging it, only breaking from it in the form of a cliched late-game pep talk. Neither Olsen nor Cumberbatch are mailing it in here and embody the characters as best as they are able; they just don’t have a ton to work with. The Illuminati – a well-intentioned but secretive and ethically dubious council featuring some of Marvel’s heavy hitters – shows up in one of the film’s visited dimensions, but don’t get too attached. Their brief appearances are part fan service, part Marvel bragging about the character film rights they have reacquired, part inflating the danger an out-of-control Wanda poses, and part Raimi utilizing his penchant for shockingly violent slapstick. Undoubtedly, some of these faults can be pinned on a script that seemed to change by the day during production, but even with a more solid plan from the get-go, Raimi’s type of conspicuously comic booky superhero film would have been a better fit for audiences fifteen years ago than audiences today.

 

While the film arguably wastes its characters, one can still see where the money went. Even as MCU films become more and more visually audacious, Raimi’s work here stands out. It captures some of the exhilaration of his Spider-Man films, but its also fluid, getting weird and wacky or darkly terrifying as the occasion demands. Elfman’s score is serviceable and perhaps a good complement to Raimi’s throwback approach, but it isn’t particularly memorable.

 

To borrow the film’s central conceit, in a dimension where the Marvel Cinematic Universe didn’t exist, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness would be a thoroughly entertaining if weird and wonky two hours. But in our reality, it doesn’t measure up to the expectations created by what came before, rendering it a frustrating – if also at times thrilling and daring – outing. At the very least, however, it leaves the door open for further adventures featuring these characters, hopefully by a creative team that will better utilize them.