Marvel breaks the formula with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Marvel movies tend to stick to the same formula – some quips and earnest hero exploits. This one is different.

SPOILER-FREE

Twenty-eight movies into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and there’s a pretty established formula.

There are slight variations to each title – Eternals had a quiet intimacy at times, Guardians and Thor: Ragnarok were more playful – but there’s a consistent tone across all the Marvel Studios titles and each one sits somewhere on that scale.

Not Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. After the initial 30 minutes, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness shifts to be the closest thing the MCU has to a horror movie and the self-knowing quips and earnestness fade away into something genuinely different.

It’s a choice that may alienate some fans who like the uniformity of the MCU but it’s exciting to see that the well-oiled Marvel machine is willing to take a risk when they know what works for them.

Benedict Cumberbatch reprises his role as Doctor Strange. Picture: Marvel Studios

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’s original director Scott Derrickson was on the record as saying he wanted to make this a full horror movie, and of course there was a question as to how an essentially family friendly franchise could pull it off.

When Derrickson left the project due to creative differences, the hope for a horror movie lived on when Sam Raimi, the filmmaker who kickstarted this current superhero movies dominance with the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, was hired in his place.

Raimi marries the macabre sensibility he brought to The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness and Drag Me to Hell with his love of the wild possibilities of comic books to create a Marvel movie that is expansive, ambitious and overwhelming.

The Multiverse of Madness? Yes, it’s more than a little mad. And madness means it doesn’t always work. There are definitely story and character flaws and it over-relies on CGI-driven set-pieces, but there’s a loose boldness do to it, a devil-may-care attitude where Raimi and screenwriter Michael Waldron decided to just throw everything in.

The film introduces America Chavez, a character that can travel between universes.

Expounding on the finer details of the plot or characters veers dangerously into spoiler territory because there is so much to spoil – and there are certain revelations that are best experienced for the first time in a communal setting.

Revel in the crowd’s gasps and cheers of delight, it’s all part of the MCU ride, or as some may call it, the MCU cult. If you care about such things, it’s best to hurry along to a screening because these spoilers will be all over the internet as soon as it’s released.

But this much is safe to acknowledge, that which has been in the trailers and clips released so far – the story involves sorcerer Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) meeting America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a young woman who has the power to travel between universes.

Doctor Strange characters Wong (Benedict Wong), Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Nicodemus West (Michael Stuhlbarg) all reprise their characters, but they may not all be the versions you know because, you know, the multiverse.

The movie also involves the second-billed Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), whose emotional state is volatile and her powers expanded after her grief-fuelled exploits in the WandaVision streaming series.

WandaVision is essential viewing to fully grasp the emotional weight of Multiverse of Madness. Picture: Marvel Studios

More than any other Marvel movie besides Avengers: Endgame, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness does not work as a standalone film – and this is a frequent criticism of the connectedness of MCU projects, that it requires audiences to be at least semi-familiar with about two dozen other titles.

Now with the prolific release schedule of MCU streaming releases on Disney+, that’s nearing three dozen.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a direct sequel to WandaVision and a cursory scan of the streaming show’s Wikipedia entry isn’t going to give you an understanding of the emotional stakes of this movie.

Especially as one of its strongest points is Olsen’s hefty performance, doing almost all the heavy lifting from a character arc perspective, and if you don’t have the full backstory to it, it’s not going to have the same weight and impact.

On other levels, Raimi brings many of his visual flourishes to the film, including recognisable horror elements with nods to some of his own work but other classics from the genre canon, including Carrie.

Seeing those tropes within the MCU in this scrappier, less polished entry is legitimately exciting, even when it’s exhausting.

Rating: 3/5

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is in cinemas Thursday, May 5