Movie Review: Dr. Strange opens multiverse with maddening results

Leave the expectations at home, perhaps along with the wee ones and a babysitter as the long-awaited Sam Raimi and Marvel collaboration, “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” called moviegoers in mass to a eye-popping, mind-bending popcorn fare this weekend.

Come to think of it, consider skipping the popcorn this time too, depending on your capacity for discomfort in the theater. Yes, Marvel made a horror movie. And it is absolutely terrific.

Multiverse director and horror master Raimi’s fingerprints are all over the movie with his trademark ‘rock-em, sock-em’ cinematography.

Raimi pulls the audience in early with a chase-and-face encounter, revealing the intriguing new character, America Chavez played by Xochitl Gomez, and our title hero trying to escape certain death.

Immediately viewers will brace themselves for a high-throttle, cerebral jolt, out of step with the typical superhero framework and the result is astounding, if at times jarring.

The story aims for the dual purpose of bringing the two larger-than-life mystical characters played by Elizabeth Olsen and Benedict Cumberbatch to account for past and current rogue actions. And for the most part, the movie lands on target.

While it may be unclear who the villain will be, the main antagonist is quickly and beautifully revealed.

Events laid out in previous Marvel projects of 2016’s “Doctor Strange,” and subsequently “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Wandavision” and “Spiderman: No Way Home” all contribute to give us the story we have in Multiverse.

In 2018’s Infinity War, our Dr. Strange character uttered the now iconic phrase, “We’re in the endgame now.” Clearly that line is repurposed here, if unspoken, informing us through the plot that we are in the multiverse now. And anything goes.

As many reviewers and moviegoers have stated, Olsen’s Scarlet Witch steals the emotional story here, depicting what is at its core — the moral dilemma of a mother willing to do anything to be with her children again.

Her depiction of a fiercely loving, if misguided mother in agony at the loss of her children is no less than stellar and gripping.

Her performance will sit heavy on the head after leaving the theater.

In other recent show-stealing moments, Marvel has featured the double-whammy of cameos from major actors revealing or reprising legacy comic book characters as in the recent “Spider-Man: No Way Home” return of fan favorites like Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe in their alternate respective roles.

The Multiverse trailer showed us prior to release, Patrick Stewart as an alternate universe “variant” of Professor Charles Xavier from Marvel’s X-Men films, leading a group from the comics called the Illuminati.

Strange faces a collective judgment for his meddling with the fabric of reality, even if he was well intentioned.

Super fans will most definitely smile and clap at the reveal of other surprise Illuminati characters with familiar real-world faces, but cheer-worthy moments are held to a minimum. There isn’t much time for that.

The usual roaring applause provoked by the storytelling and strong continuity threads might be replaced here with more gasps and grunts as we witness two powerhouse characters battle with their most sinister depictions we’ve seen to date.

The Twitter-trending rating of PG-13 for Multiverse has been a matter of debate since the movie’s release.

Raimi masterfully crafts a visually arresting spectacle with a Danny Elfman score that is wild, sweeping and even visually incorporated into the action but its execution is indeed gruesome in parts.

For a story mired in ambiguous fantasy, the core truths addressed here force us to enter a journey of might versus right moral dilemmas of the highest order.

Following the events of the Disney Plus series, “Wandavision,” Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff has solidified her witchy self with a “I mean business” scarlet red costume as she is left searching the realities of the multiverse for a place where she can return to her role as mother of her children.

Navigating the terminology and rules of a new and huge concept like the multiverse containing a vast array of possible alternate concurring realities could have used just a touch more finesse to bring in the casual Marvel viewer.

My main complaint here is that of all movies to cut the run time, this one clocking at just over two hours could have still easily woven in another half hour of plot and character development.

Still, undertaking the massive display of a relatively new concept while depicting variant characters, one tends to forgive some imperfections, though some might leave confused as to exactly what they just watched.

Epic sagas can present mixed results when they deviate from the norm of a successful formula. It’s the biggest risk a franchise can take.

Yet ever defying the odds, Marvel Studios with its massive catalogue of 28 movies and nine Disney Plus series shows has earned its badge in artistic license to deviate.

And they use that license with no apologies in their latest outing.

My advice: Find a friend who’s a Marvel fanatic, go out to eat with them and have them fill you in on what you need to know. But don’t let this be what would inevitably prove as a very confusing introduction to the superhero saga.

In the world of creative storytelling, stretching the imagination is what keeps us coming back for more. It is exactly this niche that Marvel has carved out with little fail during the last 14 years, unfurling previous decades of page and ink into a life-sized depiction of some of our favorite stories.

Dave Campbell is a Columbia resident and guest columnist for The Daily Herald.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: Movie Review: Dr. Strange brings mind-bending emotional roller coaster of surprises