Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: a big letdown

(SPOILER ALERT FOR THE MOVIE AHEAD.)

Doctor Strange is a character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe who is portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch. His first appearance was in Doctor Strange, directed by Scott Derickson. Strange would continue to make many more appearances in other Marvel Studios movies, like Avengers: Infinity War and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Six years after his first movie, Doctor Strange is finally getting his second movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. 

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was released in the U.S. on May 6. The film is directed by Sam Raimi, who is also responsible for directing other movies as Spider-Man (2002) and The Evil Dead (1981). Stars of the movie include Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as The Scarlet Witch, and Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez. In this movie, it follows Doctor Strange and a new face in the MCU, America Chavez, going across the multiverse in order to stop The Scarlet Witch, aka Wanda Maximoff.

The movie had its ups and downs, and it wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t horrible as well. My favorite part of the movie by far was Wanda, as she is a great villain. Her motivation to find a universe to be with her kids is strong, and she is willing to stop anybody who is in her way.For example, when the Illuminati tries to stop her, she pummels through all of them with little effort and ruthlessly kills all of the members, which showcases how evil she, and how the horror genre of the movie is real. She is a menacing villain, and she matches the horror tone of the movie that Sam Raimi delivers, and this tone of the movie is also one of my favorite things.

Another thing that this movie does really well is the visuals and the CGI. The CGI is showcased amazingly in scenes like the universe hopping and in the fight between Doctor Strange and Strange Supreme.

My final highlight of the movie story-wise was the amazing cameo made in the scene to the introduction of the Illuminati. The Illuminati is a group of Earth’s smartest intellects and warriors, who arrest Doctor Strange and America Chavez for traveling in the multiverse. In the movie, the big cameo that is made is Mr.Fantastic of the Fantastic Four is a member of the Illuminati. To make it even better, he is portrayed by John Krasinski, who has been a fan favorite to join the MCU to play Mr.Fantastic.

One of the positive things about this movie is that it doesn’t even have to deal with the story at all.  Instead, it deals with representation, specifically with America Chavez. She is played by  Xóchitl Gómez, a Mexican-American, and in the movie, she is lesbian and she has two mothers. This is great representation for the LGBTQ community and for Hispanics. 

While the movie is good in certain aspects, some things were not done well. My biggest complaint is probably the wasted potential of this movie. The runtime of the movie is way too short, as it is two hours and six minutes, which feels way too short for a movie about the multiverse, which has endless possibilities. 

Another one of my disappointments with this movie is how the promotional material for the movie revealed too much and left the movie feeling a bit empty. Marvel fans were expecting a lot of cameos, and the promotional material had shown cameos such as Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier (aka Professor X) and Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter.

My final thought is how Wanda was so good that she outshined Doctor Strange in his own movie and really made him feel like a side character. With all these positives and negatives, my rating of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a 6/10.

I wanted to see if other people had enjoyed the movie, so I asked the friends I went out with to watch the movie to give me their opinion on it. I asked Arely Tapia, Jacob Ayala, Aro Lopez, David Guzman, and Alex Lainez.

I first asked Arely and she talked about how she enjoyed America Chavez’s character and said the movie was fun, but she did not like how Doctor Strange was put more to the side in his own movie. Her overall rating on the film is a 6/10.

Going onto Jacob’s review of the movie, he said he liked Mr.Fantastic’s cameo, but would say how the Illuminati getting killed off too fast was a weak part of the movie. He rates this movie a 6/10 as well.

Very similar to Arely, Aro said he liked America’s character as well, but felt as the movie was too fast paced, and he rated it a 5/10. David came in with a higher rating, rating the film a 8/10, as he liked the characters but did not like how weak Doctor Strange was. Finally, Alex gave a rating of 5/10, liking parts of the plot twists, but the movie felt underwhelming and he expected more.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is an okay movie and I would recommend this to anybody who is a fan of good visuals/CGI, as the movie does this really well.