Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) Review

 "Somewhere out there, I had a ponytail."
-Dr. Stephen Strange



Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) comes across America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a teenage girl with the ability to travel across the multiverse.  She is being hunted by monstrous creatures that want her power.  Out of his depth, Strange goes to Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) for help, but she has an agenda of her own that sends Strange deep into the Multiverse.

Spoilers below!  I can't really say much about this movie without spoiling things.  This is a fun and bonkers entry in the MCU.  Not everyone will like it, but I did and I hope you give it a chance.  Final warning!  SPOILERS!


What Works:

 I've mentioned in others reviews that I've written that I love stories that have to do with the Multiverse.  It allows movies and TV shows to get really weird and creative.  It's a really fun element that can get extremely wild.  In this post-Endgame world we live in, I've been wanting to see Marvel get really weird with their products, and they absolutely do that here.  This is absolutely the weirdest movie in the MCU and I love that they are taking some bizarre swings.

I loved getting a peak into one of the other universes out there with its own history.  We get to see a lot of characters who haven't appeared in the MCU before, but are Marvel characters.  I won't spoil all of them, but one we get from the trailer is Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) from the X-Men series.  It's awesome to see these characters here and their fight sequence is darkly hilarious.

We also get an elite and unexpected villain.  Wanda Maximoff fully embraces being the Scarlet Witch after the events of WandaVision.  I was not expecting her to be the villain.  This is a character who has been around the MCU for a long time now.  She's an extremely sympathetic character and it's pretty wild that she goes full-villain here.  I love it and I hope we get more heroes becoming villains in future movies.  She's one of the most developed villains of the series and Elizabeth Olsen does a fantastic job.

Finally, everything in the 3rd act was absolutely incredible.  Director Sam Raimi got to go full Raimi and really make the movie his own.  The music fight and Dr. Strange's corpse are amazing elements of this final act.  It felt more like Evil Dead 2 or Army of Darkness than a superhero movie and I was totally ok with that.  It's one of my favorite 3rd acts from any Marvel movie.


What Sucks:

Some of the visual effects don't look great, especially early on in the movie.  The fight with Dr. Strange, America, and Wong (Benedict Wong) taking on the octopus monster has a few shots that look...dated and they really took me out of the movie.

The middle of the film has some pacing issues.  Strange and America end up in the Multiverse, which is all awesome, but we keep cutting back to Wong and Wanda, which isn't nearly as interesting.  I felt myself aching to get back into the Multiverse of Madness.


Verdict:

This film is certainly one of the most unique in the MCU.  It's a super weird film with an awesome story, a fantastic villain, unexpected character appearances, and a god-tier 3rd act.  The visuals don't always look the best and the film has some pacing issues, but it's certainly memorable and has definitely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good 

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