Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

 

Disclaimer: for your watching enjoyment, it helps immensely if you know quite a bit about the lore or if you've spent some time getting acquainted with the shows and films. Not that this is a horrid experience if you haven't, but it is quite telling that having background info makes quite the difference. 

Anyway...

You know what's really cool about this one? They brought Sam Raimi back. It shows. It's been a while since a Marvel adventure has had visuals that felt more personal and definitely a changeup with some of the spooky scares and images this one brings to life. No, it's not flat-out horror (which is a bit of a shame), but at times it gets close. 

Imagine that: a Marvel horror flick with no holds barred. Take my money.

Who am I kidding? Marvel already takes my money anyway.

Another disclaimer: while I don't dislike the first 'Doctor Strange', it never tickled my fancy the same way as other entries in the franchise do. Cool visuals, though. Now this one does tickle me and so I actually prefer this one over the original. Maybe because this one is more balls-to-the-wall insane, or because it has some fun references to 'The Evil Dead' (oh yes) or maybe because Raimi has a style and flair that just speaks to me. It won't be the story. 

Following the intra-dimensional stuff that happened in the last 'Spider-Man', there is a girl called America Chavez who hops dimensions as there is something after her. She eventually ends up on our version of Earth (well, the Marvel one, that is) where she once again comes across Doctor Strange. Strange and Wong quickly discover that it is in fact Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, who is after America. 

You might wonder why?

Well, Wanda has had a psychotic breakdown and wants her children back. Children that she conjured up through magic. It's never a good thing when one of the most powerful magical beings ever goes off the proverbial rocker. Wanda needs America's power to travel to another dimension and be with her kids again, forgetting that her otherdimensional version would then be gone. 

It gets a bit convoluted, but that's comic books for you. People tend to forget that at times.

This creates a massive problem and now Strange and America are hopping across dimensions, hoping to find a book that can stop Wanda from ripping apart several dimensions at once and killing America. 

Like I said: the story is bananas and most non-comic book fans will roll their eyes and shrug. But if you like this sort of zany and bonkers stuff, this is the film for you. Good thing they brought back Raimi as well, because he knows how to get stuff like this across in a visual style that is both his own and Marvel approved. It's also enormously colourful and bright, almost like a happy feeling that gets torn apart in contrast to the black and ominous red of the Scarlet Witch. 

And make no mistake: this film is all about Wanda. Elizabeth Olsen manages to be both tragic and one of the scariest villains the Marvel Universe has ever had. And all that with that sweet face. Most other characters just go with it and several quirks, quips and jokes make clear that everyone involved knows how absurd things are getting, yet that is part of the fun. Comics are inherently absurd, especially when dealing with superheroes and doubly so when there's interdimensional hopping concerned. 

Can it get tiring and overblown? Absolutely. But that doesn't take away from the fact that this is another enjoyable entry in the already massive list of Marvel films. It might not be among the best, but for me it is more enjoyable than the first and more serious 'Doctor Strange'. With a character name like that, going strange is the best way forward.