Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Review

As a movie, it must be stated Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is uncharacteristically messy for a Marvel production, Leigh Paatsch writes.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange. Picture: Marvel Studios.

Back in 2016, the first Doctor Strange movie began to unspool a storytelling blueprint that would soon go on to radically reconfigure the shape, scale, tone and texture of everything within the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe).

We’re talking here, of course, about the multiverse.

You know, that metaphysical constellation of parallel worlds, shifting dimensions and infinite realms?

Where time is fluid, space is rubbery, and vice versa?

(Remember that last Spider-Man movie, where there was that bizarre reunion of all Spider-Men? Blame it on the multiverse.)

Trust me, you’re never gonna find the multiverse on Google Maps, but you are gonna find yourself propelled across, up and down the blasted thing for many more Marvel movies to come.

So you may as well get along to the second Doctor Strange, if only to better understand the many awesome capabilities and niggling nuances of the multiverse as its continues its inevitable takeover of the MCU canon.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange. Picture: Marvel Studios.

As a movie, it must be stated Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is uncharacteristically messy for a Marvel production.

Partly because the cast has so much on-the-spot explaining to do, acting as roving interpreters of convoluted developments for the audience’s benefit.

Furthermore, there are so many sudden mood swings in play that the movie struggles to hold a balanced state for very long.

A number of genuinely jolting diversions into the horror genre will definitely surprise (and may also polarise) many viewers.

As all card-carrying Marvel fans know, Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is never far away when the multiverse is beginning to rumble ominously.

And it is not long before the surgeon-turned-super-sorcerer is once again diving through numerous portals and roaming several dimensions to get the better of a fearsome and powerful foe (a figure well-known in MCU circles whose identity will not be revealed here).

This time around, Strange has a fellow traveller for company on many of these dangerous adventures: America Chavez (played by rising star Xochitl Gomez), a teenager with an unprecedented gift for moving between worlds in ways that even Strange and his great friend Wong (Benedict Wong) are yet to learn.

Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, Benedict Wong as Wong, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange. Picture: Jay Maidment.

Sensing that someone or something is chasing America to relieve her of this unique talent, Strange turns to former Avenger Wanda ‘Scarlet Witch’ Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) for some urgent insight as to what might be happening.

(Unusually, such is Wanda’s ongoing prominence in this movie, it will actually enhance your understanding of Multiverse of Madness no end if you are across the key story points of her TV series WandaVision).

Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, Benedict Wong as Wong, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange. Picture: Marvel Studios.

Also relevant to the new production in a new and improved manner (compared to the first Doctor Strange at least) is the character of Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams).

Though the new movie opens with Strange attending Christine’s wedding to someone else, the unavoidable fact she remains the love of his life maintains a powerful ripple effect, no matter which new version of his past life he encounters across the multiverse.

Without giving too much away, the elasticised laws of physics which govern the multiverse means that there will be occasions where multiple versions of the same person will be pursuing dangerously differing agendas.

You want two Doctor Stranges for the price of one? Believe me when I tell you The Multiverse of Madness will be delivering well above and beyond that number.

However, when either stacked alongside the game-changing achievements of the original Doctor Strange, or the wildly entertaining and popular exploits of the most recent Marvel movie Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness comes up short of the mark.