After the massive success of Marvel’s No Way Home, which did a great job weaving in past characters from other films without it solely feeling like fan-service, people started to get hyped for the upcoming Doctor Strange instalment which also seemed to involve multiversal hopping.  Despite the first Doctor Strange film being over six years old, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness looked like it would deliver something monumental. With repercussions seeming to bleed over from No Way Home, promises of a more sinister tone that would be the MCU’s first ‘’horror film’’, having cult classic director Sam Raimi at the helm, and opening the MCU up to multiple different universes with different characters, it had the fandom on extreme hype alert and it led to so much speculation and cameo anticipation. However, this intense build-up may have featured its own drawbacks as come the film’s release, the reaction was definitely not what was hyped up. Stephen Strange (played again by Benedict Cumberbatch) is trying to process his feelings for his ex-girlfriend, Christine (played by Rachel McAdams) now that she is getting married, but a distraction comes in the form of a demonic entity chasing after a girl named America Chavez (played by Xochitl Gomez). She informs him that she is from another universe and is being hunted down for her abilities to travel to alternate universes. The person in question hunting her down is Wanda Maximoff (played again by Elizabeth Olsen), who after the events of WandaVision, has spiralled even further into her mental breakdown and is now wishing to take America’s powers in order to find a universe where her children exist in order to be reunited with them. With Wanda willing to do anything to get what she wants (even child murder), Strange agrees to keep America safe and both are forced to outrun her pursuit, even leading to a multiversal chase where it is soon discovered the dangers that Wanda can bring, but also the damage Stephen can also inflict on the world. For what people were expecting, Multiverse of Madness did not deliver for them, and despite not being the worst that the MCU has to offer, it is definitely a messy product.

When a movie opens up the potential of something like the multiverse, its bound to get people thinking about the endless possibilities, and with comic’s ability to create different versions of pre-existing characters that could be portrayed by different actors, it has the ability to be something massive. After No Way Home used this idea to its advantage, people expected a movie with MULTIVERSE in the title to offer even more. In hindsight, this probably wasn’t the smartest decision as not only does this intense focus on the cameos eclipse what should be the focus of the film (the main characters and their dilemmas), but this pressure is placed on a movie that feels like its been ripped apart and stitched back together from a past visionary. With the original director of the first film and potentially this film, Scott Derrickson, leaving the production after creative differences, that kind of departure can have more ramifications than anticipated, as his ties to the story-line and literal direction of this character’s narrative meant he had an advantage over anyone coming after him,  so regardless of who the replacement was, it wasn’t going to be an easy fix. That replacement, Sam Raimi, also feels like a double-edged sword choice as a replacement; on the plus side, Raimi does have a fantastic talent at creating wonderfully weird, in-your-face, and slightly creepy concoction for his films, and a movie of this type sounds perfect for this visionary, but he’s also a very hammy director and one that hasn’t directed superhero movies in years, and it shows. The film’s atmosphere, tone, pacing and even writing feel weirdly outdated and portrays the film in a manner not seen for a long time, and in a franchise which is flexible to an extent, but still needs a firm consistency in some places, it can feel a little jarring to see how different it is from other MCU films (especially when the weirdness moreso feels in service of being random for the sake of it rather than in advancing story or character). The movie feels like it doesn’t have a strong enough punch of emotional weight to make any of the plot feel impactful; it’s almost like sitting in a daze while watching it, not feeling angry per say, but definitely not taking things in. It needed a stronger rewrite , which is ironic as this movie was rewritten several times thanks to the COVID pandemic, but clearly what was redone or touched up wasn’t the correct elements and the final person to handle the screenwriting title, that being Michael Waldron who previously worked on Loki and was known as a writer for Rick & Morty, wasn’t able to make any of this work.

For a sequel to Doctor Strange, the film doesn’t do its titular character much favors in making him a better lead.  Doctor Strange is unfortunately a role that works in a supporting space, but isn’t one that has had the greatest success in his own outings, and here its not too different. While the potential for the character arc is there, and it is refreshing to hear Cumberbatch finally improve his America accent, the character of Stephen Strange is just a little bland and not that memorable. He works in other films and there’s plenty of potential storylines that could play up his power set, the magical space he occupies, and the grey area that comes with his position, but he never feels fully realized. On the other side, Wanda has erupted into a really popular character; with WandaVision propelling her from a forgettable side character to a deeply tragic heroine. It was great to see, but within this film, the direction she shifts too goes a little too far off the deep end. Originally becoming a morally grey character who had the potential for evil, she has now gone full psychotic monster and that is also a double-edged sword. Seeing Scarlett Witch as a villain is leagues better than the role she was stuck as within most of the MCU, witnessing the onslaught she puts the heroes through is pretty cool, and there is still a hint of tragedy to the character that would help her feel more rounded, but it feels like the movie skipped a step to get to this level of extreme. To see her suddenly go this evil is not only bizarre and out of nowhere, some of the choices she makes do feel a bit out of character and pushes her to extreme levels of villainy. It’s a shame to see a character that has this much potential as a fantastic tragic complex villain stumble upon reaching the final stage to form into this mostly two-dimensional psychotic force with little sympathy attached. Thankfully, Cumberbatch and Olsen are still fantastic in these parts, and despite sometimes facing awkward writing, they do the best they can with it. Another character of focus, America Chavez, unfortunately comes across more as a plot device rather than a properly set-up character; she isn’t unlikeable, the actress is fine and her power set looks pretty cool, but its not a great first impression.

If there’s anything that’s going to be correctly executed with Raimi at the helm, it’s the aesthetics, atmosphere, and visuals of the movie, and thankfully a majority of that aspect is pretty well handled . The first movie’s depiction of magic was very clean, angular, sci-fi esque, giving an almost trippy ‘’Inception’’ feel to its visuals and presentation, whereas this movie’s magic is pure, emotion-driven, colorful, and definitely more in the realms of the typical warlock sorcery you’d expect from a Doctor Strange project. While the original film ran with its chrome metallic visual design, it is nice to see a new look to sorcery in this universe and how it can be appropriately wispy, unformed, seeped in rich colors and even”magical” feeling.  Having Raimi’s image at the forefront means that the movie isn’t just going to try and look gothic and surreal, it will feature his Raimi touches like odd camera tricks (which are handled by John Mathieson), striking music which can sometimes be odd and unfitting (composed by Danny Elfman), and a tone that balances between creepy and comical enough that it isn’t fully a tonal mess, but just enough so that it feels 100% its own thing. These aspects do shine brighter than some of his other shortcomings attached to the film as it helps give the movie a bit more of a unique identity away from other similar films within this Marvel universe, but his oddities will be an acquired taste and might make or break the film for its viewers. The movie does try its hardest to get away with some scary and graphic material despite the PG rating, and despite not really being scary, there are parts of this film that do attempt to reach that level and it does make for some fun moments (whether intentional or not, which also feels very Raimi).

Doctor Strange’s first movie was good for many people, but it had its fair share of flaws. Regardless of what people thought of it, they were able to recognize what it was trying to do, had a definite clear vision that led to some wonderfully creative effects, and provided an origin story to a character that while still not overly interesting, gave him enough time, good writing and payoff to make it feel like a complete movie. This sequel doesn’t feel like a complete movie, it doesn’t even feel like a Doctor Strange movie, more like ‘’Multiverse Bonanza and Camoes to Scream Over, with Scarlett Witch (and Doctor Strange, i guess)’’.  The movie isn’t really that bad in many respects, being no where near the levels of bad that other comic book movies have strayed (even ones from Raimi’s own library), but it is a very flawed picture with a lot of little issue holding back what could’ve been a massive movie. It has its moments, the acting is good, the visuals are memorable and there are good pieces that feel like they fit into what a true Doctor Strange movie should be, but overall, the pacing is off, the writing is inconsistent, the Sam Raimi elements are divisive, the characters aren’t properly fleshed out, and outside of a few choice scenes (as well as a few choice cameos even one from the Raimi favourite himself, Bruce Campbell) its not one to stick in your memory. Not a nightmare, but not the most pleasant dream either, there is sadly not a lot of positive madness to this multiverse film.

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