‘The bill comes due…. There’s a reckoning’, Baron Mordo told us at the end of Doctor Strange, the first film from 2016, after Dr Strange, the character, took a trip to the dark dimension with the Time Stone as his plus one to bargain with Dormammu. And in subsequent movies, the master of the mystic arts has broken a few laws since, from handing over said Time Stone in Infinity War, to helping breach the multiverse in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Prior to this Doctor Strange sequel, I hadn’t been to a cinema in over a month; which doesn’t seem like long, but given my run last year, was relatively a drought. So, when I made my way into one for Multiverse of Madness, and given the crowd I witnessed, it was obvious that they were many like me who expected the bill to come due in the MCU’s 28th movie. But frankly, this was something of a pasty disappointment. But we’ll get there.
The Good
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has a decent portrayal of a ruthless and unyielding Wanda Maximoff, or more appropriately, the Scarlet Witch. Driven by a combination of a hankering for her kids that never really were and the powerful control of The Darkhold, she was very much on it. There was a dead-eyed conviction to her aims, however ludicrous and dangerous it seemed.
This sequel always gives more flesh to Rachel McAdams on screen, and not just something of a prelude and an inconsequential afterthought like the first movie. But, frankly, as far as commendation for this movie goes, that’s pretty much it.
The Bad
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was touted by some to be a horror movie, so much so that a handful are suggesting it should have gotten an R-rating. But very few things in this movie would frighten a 12-year-old, much less an adult. I’d say Multiverse of Madness confuses gore with horror, but that would they provided any proper sense of graphic disturbance, or even feature. Horror isn’t just snapping necks, and zombies getting up from graves. It’s not just pseudo-skeletons or physical implying that someone got sliced in half. And this movie doesn’t do much beyond those things, and offers little to linger in the memory.
Multiverse of Madness also reflects where the MCU continues to be in, in terms of film. Look away now, MCU die-hards, but this is a franchise that’s creating content rather than making movies. The supposed cameos that confirm fan theories prove that. At this point, it’s simply watching another installment of Fan Service: The Movie. The MCU has become so invested in selling moments that it doesn’t matter if they have any sense of reasoning, cohesion, or relevance to it. It’s all that Instagrammable video of fans in the cinema yelling as Captain America picks up Mjolnir, or as Patrick Stewart shows up as Professor X, and little else. All the cameos barely matter, make sense, or add anything real to the film (although, do we come to MCU for anything real?).
So, of course, in terms of story, we get very little. It’s quite paradoxical that this movie is a sloppy mess and yet riddled in basic banality. And as you watch this movie, you could almost imagine director Sam Raimi wincing as whatever he’s shooting for misses.
Multiverse of Madness is another Marvel movie that tries to subvert expectation, and tell us that what we see in the trailer is not quite how it would unfold in the real thing. It does that, but it subverts expectations so much that it undermines itself. Isn’t this movie supposed to be the consequences of Stephen Strange’s actions? Instead, it all boils down to one character’s motivation, and feels far too isolated, which is all the more galling for a franchise that’s centred on connectivity.
The Ugly
For all the head snaps, head pops, and zombies, nothing comes as ugly in this movie as that musical number fight scene. Even by the MCU’s standards, that was proper cringe.
In conclusion, and at the risk of being overtly harsh, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness offers nothing. It’s neither a decent story of note in the MCU, a bold move for the franchise, nor is it a proper indicator of whatever multiversal issues that will come in the future. This movie is rather similar with Eternals of last year in the sense that, amidst the less-than-impressive CGI, bland fight scenes, and inconsequential cameos, there’s probably a movie in there somewhere, struggling to come to life.
On About Nothing Rating: 4.5/10
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