It’s fitting that the film’s release date was Mother’s Day Weekend, and that its acronym is MoM, because it’s all about warped mothering instincts. It actually seems to be pitting a Bad Mom against a Good Dad, which I’d be fine with if the story was stronger. Unfortunately, this is one of the rare Marvel movies that I couldn’t really buy into. This is a particular bummer because I’ve loved Sam Raimi since I saw the first Evil Dead back when I was… twelve? Thirteen? And I LOVE the first two Spider-Man films, and I’ll make a case for about half of the third one, and I was excited to see what he’d do with Strange.
And to be clear, there is a good movie trapped inside Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness—but we only see glimpses of it, a rad Yeti appearing in the blurry background of a polaroid.
[Spoilers for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness below.]
To dispense with the plot: Stephen Strange is deeply unhappy. We know that because people keep asking him if he’s happy, and he says “Yes” with all the brittle delusion of a Raymond Carver character. He attends Christine Palmer’s wedding, and somehow thinks it’s appropriate to bring up their long-gone relationship during a five-minute conversation. (Christine also drinks red wine while she mingles with guests in her white wedding gown. Christine is the bravest person in the MCU.)
Of course, there’s a monster attack, and Strange has to swing into action float down to the street with his cloak, battle a monster, banter with Wong, and have a superheroic meet-cute with America Chavez, the monster’s intended victim. America talks Stephen and Wong through the concept of Multiverses, the fact that she’s able to move through them, but can’t control this power, and the fact that at least one AU Stephen betrayed her and destroyed her trust in him.
Strange attempts to get help from another hero, his plan goes awry, and he and America flee through the Multiverse, meeting other heroes while Stephen tries to come to terms with himself. If he’s a good person—and he thinks he is—why are so many of the AU Stranges terrible? Is it possible that he’s as big a villain as the person pursuing America? Is it possible that that villain isn’t really a villain at all?
These are interesting questions, and I’m sad to report that the film doesn’t deliver on them. There are some excellent setpieces, and wonderful Raimi horror imagery, but I think this is the first Marvel movie since Age of Ultron that I just couldn’t engage with.
If you’ve been on social media at all, or followed the Marvel Disney+ shows, it should be obvious that the person Stephen approaches for help is Wanda. He only realizes after he’s said wayyy too much that she’s the powerful force that’s pursuing America across the Multiverse. Her motive is simple: she wants to take America’s power to hop into another part of the Multiverse, where she can be with her boys. The fact that this will mean killing a young girl and displacing another version of herself is not enough to slow her down, let alone stop her. So we’re left with two hours of a woman who used to be one of the most complex characters in the MCU losing her mind because she doesn’t have children.
I’ll admit that this whole arc doesn’t sit too well with me, over Mother’s Day weekend, at this exact moment in U.S. history.
But again it could have been great, and Elizabeth Olsen does an incredible job both with giving the role emotional nuance, and with diving fully into the film’s horror aspects. Knowing that she dreams of Billy and Tommy every night is a gutpunch. When she finally meets up with a version of the boys, and they scream in terror at the witch who has invaded their home, it’s heartbreaking. But tying that grief to Wanda’s Terminator-esque determination to murder another child for her own needs, and her relentless killing of anyone who stands in her way, finally tips her too far into villain territory for her arc to have real depth. And since the film somewhat mirrors her howling rage with Strange’s lukewarm romance with Christine Palmer, the film’s emotional arc gets bumpier and bumpier as it goes. We’re given Wanda, willing to destroy reality itself if it means she gets Billy and Tommy back, and Strange, mumbling about how Christine gave him a watch one time.
Meanwhile America Chavez has a much more compelling storyline just sitting there, and rather than chase that down, the movie uses it as a way to humanize Strange by forcing him into Cool Surrogate Dad mode—you know, the thing the MCU just did with Tony Stark? And then we get into the Multiverse itself, which sucks all the stakes out of everything,
If Wanda gets America and takes her power, America will die, and the Multiverse might be… destroyed, I think? Or realities will collide, causing an incursion? But I only have a foothold in the Multiverse from watching What If…? and Spider-Man: No Way Home. I only care about Wanda because of WandaVision—and this Wanda does not seem like the character who felt genuine remorse at the end of her television series. I’ve only just met America, and she seems cool, but her backstory is buried in so much exposition that I can’t completely care about her, either. And after everything I’ve watched Stephen Strange go through, living through Endgame however many thousands of times, I’m supposed to care about whether he gets back together with a woman he had already broken up with before his first movie? Where, again, this plot was already done in the cartoon that I saw on Disney+ nine months ago?
Meanwhile, the thing I was invested in, the continuation of his journey as Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, is completely buried. We can see he’s miffed that Wong is Sorcerer Supreme, but he doesn’t seem to be working to improve on his own Mystical Mastery. We see him meet an AU Mordo, whom he immediately trusts and accepts despite their history together. There’s a battle at Kamar-Taj, but there’s no indication why one wizard is more powerful than another. There’s a fun freefall through the Multiverse, but I feel like Into the Spider-Verse did this in a way more inventive way.
Xochitl Gomez does her best with a thankless role, where she’s either explaining that she doesn’t know how to control her powers, being A Sarcastic Teen in a Sam Raimi Movie, or screaming her head off because she’s being murdered. The only characterization she gets is that she blames herself for the loss of her mothers—she opened a portal by accident and they were sucked through it together, and then she, too, went cartwheeling through the multiverse. (Again, happy Mother’s Day weekend!) She assumes they’re dead, but my more pressing question was: how the hell has she survived all these years? And why is she so clean? And not an utter traumatized wreck? The one time we see her steal food she immediately gets caught. She’s willing to open up to Strange and Wong, and seems to genuinely care about Strange’s feelings for Christine Palmer, when really I don’t think she’d care about anything but finding a place to live, and eat, and try to plan a search for her mothers.
One thing that especially bothered me: Strange’s hands only shake occasionally, he punches things, gets in an actual brawl with Mordo. I speak now as a person with several disabilities, one of which is centered in my hands—I don’t punch anything, ever (and not just ’cause of the pacifism). When it was really bad, back in high school, I literally walked with my right hand tucked into my stomach, like I’d been shot, to make sure no one would graze against it in the halls—because that could mean hours of pain. An even now, when the pain is usually only an echo of what it used to be, even if I’m having a good day, even if I’m having a good month, I don’t punch, I don’t slap, I don’t high five. My issues? Nowhere near as severe as the damage Stephen dealt with in his first film. I’m nowhere near as traumatized as he was, and I really don’t buy that he’s going to engage in wizard fisticuffs.
Also why are the wizards punching each other??? Use magic, you dorks.
And okay I could see that maybe that seems a little nitpicky, but my point is that I was looking for anything to hold on to in this film. And moments that felt human, or real, or like they mattered. I knew that as soon as Marvel went full multiverse stakes and consequences would be thin on the ground, but I didn’t expect to feel like I was in freefall the whole movie.
And finally (deep breath). If you’ve read any of my stuff on this site, you’ll know that my particular fascination is religion and the way it intersects with pop culture. Obviously, Strange was always going to deal with this a bit—it’s about magic, a man who is forced to reject his former materialism for sorcery, and who goes on a quest that is kind of an update of the old ‘70s hippie trail, following mystical teachings and hints of transcendence until they lead him to Tibet Nepal Shangri La Apple Corp Kamar-Taj.
And that’s fine! Or it would be if the movie committed to exploring how that magic intersects with the rest of the MCU. But here what we get (a week after Moon Knight seemed to imply that a ton of people who do not subscribe to the worship of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon still end up in an Ancient Egyptian afterlife) is a Doctor Strange who can “dream-walk” using the Darkhold, but in order to dream-walk he has to evade the “souls of the damned” who will try to—I assume, given this is Raimi—drag him to Hell?
Okay, but… what? What does Hell mean in this context? Is it a physical place, a part of the Multiverse that people can travel to? And who damned these souls, anyway? Is there a special feature on Thor: Ragnarok that I never saw, where the literal Asgardian gods pass judgement on the souls of the dead? And why is Stephen Strange, a white rural US-ian who moved to the big city and became a doctor, using a mystical technique that’s actually a real thing done by some Indigenous cultures and some New Age-y Wiccans? Strange is already part of a weird riff on Tibetan Buddhism that he learned from an Ancient Celt, so I know, we’re pretty far afield—but then why not just make up a dream-travelling practice? Why use a term that describes something that real people do in our world?
To go back to Thor: Ragnarok, we see Thor (and Loki, a little) praying for Odin in Valhalla, and later, when Thor battles Hela, it’s implied that Odin speaks to his son in a near-death vision. Cool! The gods of Asgard do the things that inspired Norse religion! This makes sense! In Moon Knight, there’s all sorts of stuff where people who are, for various reasons, invested in Egyptian religion interact with gods and realms from that pantheon. Again, cool! The Egyptian pantheon is, it turns out, also literally real, and interacting with humanity! This also makes sense until you think about how Marc Spector is Jewish, but I am NOT getting into that here! But still: Why is Strange battling the souls of the damned? Who’s damned, and why? Like, are Hitler and Thanos and Ulysses Klaue and Blackbeard and the starting line of the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers all trying to grab Strange? And why do they care that Strange is using the Darkhold?
Maybe not everyone cares about this stuff the way I do. But I’m already living in a world where Thor can turn out to be real, a Jewish mercenary can face the judgement of Osiris rather than Yahweh, and Matt Murdock can still think he’s a good Catholic even after killing like eight billion ninjas, and I just need some solid ground here.
But remember when I said there’s a good movie in here? I meant that. There are moments when Raimi goes full Raimi that are fantastic. The eye creature that attacks America is fun as hell. Watching Wanda take out the Illuminati was incredible. First the film introduces John Krasinski as Reed Richards, Lashana Lynch as Captain Marvel, Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter, Anson Mount as Black Bolt, and, of course, Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier. There are pauses for the audience to applaud. (My audience did not.) And then, having set up their import, we get to watch Wanda tear through them all like tissue paper, and it’s fun, at least if you’re a sick bastard like me. Reed Richards is streeeeeetched and bisected until he’s torn apart; Black Bolt’s voice is directed back into his own head so his brains burst inside his skull; Peggy Carter is sliced almost in half with her shield, which then lodges in a stone pillar; Wanda snaps Charles’ neck when he ventures inside her host’s mind. But nothing gold can stay, and the dark fun is cut short by the fight with Captain Marvel. Two overpowered characters just pummel each other with ever bright beams of light, until Wanda finally drops a statue on top of the other woman.
Wanda possesses another version of herself and shuffles through a prison facility like we’re suddenly in a superpowered Resident Evil, which is great, but only a preview for Raimi’s commitment to giving us more Marvel zombies. The scene where Strange dream-walks into his alternate self’s corpse and pilots it over to a final battle with Wanda never quite hit the heights of Ash vs. Evil Ash in Army of Darkness, but it came damn close. Watching Zombie!Strange break free of his grave and shamble up to the camera with a half-rotted face? Heck yeah! Seeing him defeat the souls of the damned and fashion them into wings to fly himself over to Wanda for the final fight? Excellent. And then to turn the souls themselves into a prison for Wanda, who has used the Darkhold way more than him? Gorgeous. No notes. (Except for the part about why are there damned souls in this universe and why do they care about the Darkhold and what is cosmology here? Okay, so three notes.)
And then there’s my favorite thing, the thing that I wished could have been most of the movie. Stephen finds yet another version of himself hiding away in a beautiful, crumbling gothic manor version of the Sanctum Sanctorum, and fights himself. They have an intense conversation, and Gothic Stephen opens a third eye in the middle of his forehead that calls some excellent Evil Dead moments to mind, and then they circle each other for a wizard fight. But unlike the battles with Wanda and Mordo, this isn’t just people either flinging balls of light at each other, or people punching. Instead, they fight with music. They lift notation from sheet music, and pluck sounds from piano keys and harp strings, and hurl actual music at each other like Dark Universe Fantasia characters, and it’s beautiful. (I’d say “no notes” again, but there are a lot of notes!)
And of course I can’t leave this review without giving special accolades to the King himself, Bruce Campbell, who has an adorable cameo as a pizza ball seller (And seriously, Marvel, if you want to market this stuff maybe give us pizza balls? I want a pizza ball.) and proves he’s still extremely good at beating the crap out of himself for Sam Raimi’s amusement.
I also guess I should weigh in on the horror element, since people seem to be worried about it. There was not a single thing in this movie that scared me. Hell, there wasn’t a single thing in this movie that would have scared me when I was ten. The only images that I could see lodging itself in someone’s consciousness are maybe the eye monster’s defeat (if you happen to have an issue with eye stuff, but we’re not talking about Fulci’s Zombie here) and, more likely, the scenes with Black Bolt. The scene where he executes an AU Strange by whispering the words “I’m sorry” is genuinely upsetting, and Black Bolt’s final scene, when Wanda turns his words back on him to kill him, was the one moment when our theater gasped aloud. But nothing here has the impact of, say, the Tree Scene in Evil Dead, or any of the insect stuff from Drag Me to Hell, or, to speak of purely PG-13 matters, the heart-ripping scene in Temple of Doom, the intensity of Jurassic Park, the jumpscares in Arachnophobia… the horror here is almost all fun riffing, and doesn’t feel designed to actually scare anyone.
But this overall, this is what I’ve been afraid of. Expanding the Marvel Cinematic Universe, bringing in the concept of the Multiverse, throwing pantheons at the wall to see which ones stick—it’s feeling more and more unwieldy with each film. I enjoyed Spider-Man: No Way Home a lot, because there was a real beating heart in there—but I do have to admit that if I didn’t go in loving Tobey Maguire’s and Andrew Garfield’s Peters Parker it might have fallen flat. I thought The Eternals asked some fascinating questions, but it was impossible for me to lose myself in it the way I lost myself in, say, Winter Soldier or Black Panther. I liked Shang-Chi a lot, but it was another goddamn origin story.
I also want to be super clear that I’m only being this critical because I love Sam Raimi’s work, and I like what Benedict Cumberbatch has done with Stephen Strange. I was excited by the promise of a Doctor Strange story that was a gonzo horror film—I think that movie got lost in the machinations of the MCU.
Leah Schnelbach really loves that Cloak gets patched in the Ulluminati-verse! This movie needed more Cloak, too! Come yell about zombies and damned souls in the Multiverse of Twitter.
I echo many of your comments. This film wasn’t perfect and didn’t really scratch any of the itches that I hoped for.
You mentioned Strange’s hands, but the film goes to great length to show that– somehow– by the end of the film, he has full use of both hands. Notice the *surgical* precision in the final scene with the watch, echoing his use of his hands in his prior life. Exactly how this happened is unclear. Did they heal? Was it part of the Darkhold’s bargain? Did the Doctors in 838 do something? This plot point feels like it was supposed to be important, but really wasn’t.
I did not enjoy the multiverse snuff film. The Illuminati was fine, but bringing back Patrick Stewart only to have him be killed off immediately is terrible. Imagine in NWH that precious Andrew or Toby had been killed before the final conflict. And did you catch that they used the animated X-Men theme as X’s leitmotif instead of anything from the film series?
I wanted there to be some redemption for Wanda in the end. I had hoped even that they might bring an alt-Wanda and her boys into 616 so they could hang out and eventually be Young Avengers. Instead, all we got was a downer ending, the death of a major character, and the hint that maybe the bad guy won after all.
Yeah, this film is down there with AoU, Iron Man 2, and Thor 2. Maybe better than those, but I had hoped that we had put the sequel-curse behind us.
For the record, I seriously contest the notion that Wanda runs amok because she doesn’t have children – she tears open the Big Book of Evil and starts tearing into anyone who comes between her & her goals because (as Wanda understands it) she HAD children, but they were taken from her (Along with the love of her life, whom she most assuredly DID have).
This motivation applies whether Schroedinger’s Twins were objectively real or not – especially when Wanda is haunted by dreams of a world (or more than one world) where her kids are inarguably her children (and not constructs of her power, coupled with her desperate desires for family & security).
Really, if you’re looking for Madness in this multiverse, try working out whether children created by the powers of a … we’ll stick with “Superhero” since I’m not sure if this Wanda counts a Sorceress or as Super-science … with the power to warp reality to her wishes count as real or unreal when their mother loved them with all her heart and they loved her.
After all, isn’t one of the key definitions of a mother somebody who creates life?
Magic can do ANYTHING but a punch is always a punch; put another way, if it takes you five minutes to whip up a spell and five seconds to throw a punch, which is more likely to prove helpful in a combat situation? (Especially when your opponent is so busy trying to out-spell you they’ve left themselves open to being sucker-punch … ).
I went in not knowing who directed it and, when his name popped up at the end, it definitely explained a few things.
It definitely reminded me why I didn’t like Avengers Disassembled.
My biggest question coming out of the theater was, how did Wanda destroy the Darkhold throughout the multiverse if she couldn’t travel between dimensions without stealing America’s powers?
Kinda assuming it also means she’s not actually dead and will, hopefully, get a redemption story.
Logically they’re most likely to be the souls of those unwise enough to use the Darkhold and become trapped in it’s binding, now just keen as a knife edge to inflict the horrors they’ve endured on this new generation of optimist/desperate fool.
Thanks for this!
My reaction was that our Doctor Strange learned from No Way Home. That’s the movie where we see him acting out because Wong is Sorcerer Supreme, and to use the line, “things get a little out of hand”. So to me, him being the Strange that decides to trust America is a result of being influenced by Peter’s relentless optimism and seeing several versions of himself make the same mistake.
Likewise, I took the Darkhold itself to be the villain. Strange Supreme in What If? didn’t even need to be exposed to a corrupting influence to destroy his universe over the death of Christine, and Gothic Strange ends up doing the same thing because she marries someone else. Wanda was screwed the minute she cracked that book open. It’s only a line but Wanda clearly blames Strange for invalidating her sacrificing Vision, so she didn’t reach out to anyone who could help her. Strange bowing to Wong at the end is him learning a lesson in humility and the dangers of using magic out of a place of pride and solitude.
And who among us hasn’t finally gotten to a healthier place emotionally only to have a third eye suddenly erupt from the seed of corruption the use of dark magic lodged in our soul?
@2’s point about Wanda’s kids being real makes me wonder if her fairytale made up life in wandavision would have actually worked out if she had just taken a large plot of empty land, built a home, and did what she did with vision (I guess that part would still be problematic) and created her boys to live a life of happy solitude without enslaving an entire town to add to the experience.
Anyhoo, the dialogue in this film was atrocious. They really did not give America any chance of having personality, opting instead to just let her run and scream in terror until it took just being told to believe in herself to suddenly master her power.
Wanda going toe to toe with captain carter in a fistfight was baffling, especially as she dodged Peggy’s punches seemingly without any red light flares to indicate magical assistance.
And my god! The lack of urgency by the chased! So many of us rolled our eyes and grumbled at Wanda keeping pace and closing ground with her shambling limp while Strange & co. “sprinted” away. It made no sense. Or that they’d stop to argue when death is closing in on them OR HOW LONG IT TOOK STRANGE TO PICK UP THE BOOK and of course they take just enough time for Wanda to arrive & wreck them.
About the souls of the damned: ignoring where they may or may not have come from, I thought they only went after Strange because he dreamwalked with a corpse instead of a living person?
@8 That was my impression as well. He’s both dreamwalking and necromancing. The souls are coming from whichever ‘intersectional plane of untethered consciousness’ lays claim to Stephen’s soul.
Ahem. For the record my observations above were written as I read through the body of this particular article and as they caught my particular interest, which is why they’re not part of this summation; one would also like to state that while I disagree with some of Leah Schnelbach’s opinions I don’t find her attitude towards the film in any way objectionable; this is simply a case where two viewers walked away with a different take on the same film, rather than a case of Right or Wrong.
In a nutshell I walked away from this film liking it even more than any other superhero film I’ve seen since WONDER WOMAN was in cinemas (and I’ve enjoyed a great many superhero films since then, including JUSTICE LEAGUE, so please be aware that my enjoyment is always subjective); For my money Mr Sam Raimi might well be Marvel’s single best hire as a director and this film is proof positive of why this should be the case (For almost all of the same reasons Leah Schnelbach lists).
For me this film was, in brief, a TRIP and rather a grand tragedy to boot – the Tragedy of Wanda Maximoff, to which a purely happy ending would have felt like a callous dismissal (Although my warm summation of the film might be assisted by the fact that I felt Doctor Strange’s arc to be one of acceptance, of learning to move on from “what might have been” in a way that the Scarlet Witch proved completely unwilling to countenance much less pursue – though in fairness to Wanda the ‘lost boys’ were her children, whereas Christine Palmer remains as Stephen’s friend even though she’s never going to be his significant other … at least in the MCU core timeline).
One point that I think not only could, but should have been stressed would have to be the very real parallels between America and the Scarlet Witch – both enormously powerful young women who lost their families under tragic circumstances and find themselves alone in the world with enormous powers that, to some degree at least, they can only regard with a certain ambivalence; I feel it to be a telling display of the Darkhold’s corruptive effect on Wanda that she never at any point tried to reach out to America as a mentor and friend, instead of hunting her down with the intent of stealing her power(s).
It’s painfully easy to imagine such a relationship being good for both characters; Wanda gets the little sister she never expected and America gets to work with someone who really gets her. Instead America gets hunted, the Darkhold gets it’s hooks all the deeper into Wanda’s painfully vulnerable mind & spirit.
As I said – this film really is the Tragedy of the Scarlet Witch and her conscious refusal to see these parallels might well have helped to drive this home.
Oh, and I’m sure somebody has mentioned this before, but somebody needs to pass Mr Benedict Cumberbatch (genuinely Very Good in the role of Doctor Strange) a little note saying “A touch of Vincent Price, please” in the interests of finally giving us the fully-rounded Stephen Vincent Strange we all deserve.
Well, the Stephen Vincent Strange I dearly want to see, anyway; I’d imagine Mr Cumberbatch channeling the man, the legend Mr Vincent Prince would be a sight to see!
If I may submit one last “No Prize” answer – could America have spent most of the years between the loss of her mothers and the events of this film in a single universe (hence her healthy, non-feral child appearance) where she was reasonably secure? (I’m not sure it’s ever made clear whether it was the use of her powers that drew Wanda’s attention or whether Wanda’s pursuit pushed America into a brief but intense career across the Multiverse).
ALSO – I’ve never felt the Multiverse and the existence of various versions of the same character across it mitigated against the existence of dramatic tension; treating the death of a Doctor Strange with a shrug because they have counterparts elsewhere is roughly as callous as telling a parent that the death of their child doesn’t really matter because that child has siblings.
true i can see Wanda’s madness being troubling to some people. (another powerful woman gone mad. I get it) Did not bother me and I enjoyed the faster pacing
“1976 Philadelphia Flyers.”
Heh. Nice Simpsons reference.
My opinion mostly matches the article, but I have two big complaints as follows:
1. Wong was in Shang Chi. Wouldn’t he have wanted a little extra backup from Mr. Ten Rings? Great place for a quick crossover.
2. Wong was in Shang Chi with ABOMINATION. Wanda’s ten foot goons knock Wong off a cliff, he climbs back up and she says “I have servants to defend me. What do you have?”
Wong’s Sling Ring portal would appear as he says, “An Abomination.”
WHY WAS HE EVEN WITH WONG IN SHANG CHI? WHY WAS THIS NOT A SCENE? IT WAS A PERFECT SETUP!
I think my experience most closely mirrored @10 ED, enjoying it thoroughly.
I do think calling the jump scares not designed to scare is a bit of a misnomer. I have a close friend who won’t be able to watch this with those in there — that sort of build-up and jump, even if not ultimately scary, triggers panic attacks in her so… that’s unfortunate. Maybe they aren’t scary per se, but they are a ‘scare’ due to the execution.
My quibbles and observations
* Could not figure out how she beat Captain Marvel. There was something about destroying her helmet, but generally not even a statue falling on Captain Marvel ought to have been destructive so… puzzled. Maybe she was just disabled.
* Destroying every multiverse Darkhold is a bit of a huh? moment considering the entire movie mechanism is centered around her not having that sort of access. Also presumably all the transcribed copies of the rituals still exist.
* I thought the Incursion-Strange might have been the What If-Strange, except I guess he was locked in a pocket universe. Too many universes to keep track of.
* Would have liked more America.
* The wizard punching happened because both Mordo and Strange had their powers damped, so they were sort of both equally handicapped. Though I would not have thought Strange could do the wall walk thing — limber little minx!
* I actually am not wholly convinced Wanda is gone — certainly Multiversal versions of her exist. And with the power of the Darkhold and stuff, again, would think crumbling rubble would not be enough to stop her, must like Captain Marvel.
Yeah, you actually summed up a lot of my feelings. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun, I saw it with my kids on Mother’s Day and laughed at the irony, watching Wanda wreck shop was in some ways delightful (“What mouth?” will probably go down forever as my favorite pre-mortem, even as I saw it coming.)
But I’ve definitely got some nits to pick.
1)I DO feel they did Wanda dirty here. This is not me misunderstanding WandaVision as some defenders like to claim – I think Monica’s ‘absolution’ in the last scenes was unearned and she had no right to give it. But to me the key part was that Wanda was beginning – maybe not there yet, but beginning – to understand that and it was the start of her own arc regarding her grief/trauma. Obviously the Darkhold stinger is a forbodeing note, but I guess I was hoping the movie would be a bit more nuanced in showing her struggling to atone and against the temptation instead of going all in. It also felt a little too similar to what Wenwu faced in Shang-Chi since the villain there was some other-dimensional being taunting somebody with a false hope of a lost loved one.
(That said she was absolutely fabulous)
2)In general I’m kind of sick of the ‘love/grief makes you evil’ trope, and while they did try to provide a male parallel with Strange (and I had the same thought – since when was I supposed to be so invested in his relationship with Christine?) I was definitely aware of some of the more gendered implications surrounding motherhood, intentional or not. Which – obviously is a rich mine for a reason, it is a very powerful relationship. But I’d like to see other motivations for female villains (if we are even going to go there – I didn’t want to see her as a full bore villain at all). That might be why Hela is still my favorite, as campy/cheesy as she is, haha.
3)I also feel Strange got a little more leeway from the narrative (which they even lampshade). His evil never feels as all encompassing (except for Sinister Strange). Although – we do see the one in the beginning also willing to sacrifice a child. But even Strange-838 it sounds like mostly made an arrogant accident. Then we see this Strange use the Darkhold and Dreamwalk in the end, after the whole movie telling us how horrible Wanda is for doing it…and there are almost zero consequences. He gets a third eye, but…it didn’t seem to be that bad.
4)I do think there is some interesting parallels that could have been made with our Strange seeing some of the ‘bad’ variants of himself and realizing how far he could go, and the idea that the ‘good’ Wanda could have the same revelation after seeing our version’s Wanda. I guess I feel like if Professor X is going to tell our Strange that he deserves a chance, that should be true of Wanda too (and to be fair, he was also trying to save her as well).
5)I had the same thought about who these ‘damned souls’ were and what they were damning him too and why. Not that it ruined the movie or anything, but just wondering.
6)Wong probably could have prevented a bit of the movie if he hadn’t just given up the location of the shrine so easily.
7)Seeing the multiverse characters was fun (the music cue!!) but I do think it means the writers are getting a bit lazy – like, hey, here’s this shocking scene where Wanda just destroys all these cameo characters (and I was actually hoping we’d get more of a mindfight between her and Xavier) but it ‘doesn’t count’ since it’s not our versions anyway, so there aren’t really any consequences. I get that of course ethically it does, but from a narrative perspective it just feels…I don’t know, overindulgent?
8)The whole thing with the magical book felt like such a McGuffin that didn’t even amount to anything aside from the lessons on the journey but I was also annoyed that in the end it was just a ‘believe in yourself’ pep talk that unlocked her powers. I DID like that in the end nobody really ‘beat’ Wanda…instead America just effectively showed her the result and she wasn’t QUITE so far gone that she was able to snap out of it. I do hope she’s still around, maybe she just had to divest a lot of her power (I think, again, from a narrative perspective, part of what they have written themselves into is that they now have this massively powerful character they have to either…depower or kill somehow or else pretty much every story you would just ask why so and so doesn’t do this or that).
9)I was kind of hoping the last stinger would be something like a nice suburban town where a nosy neighbor/housewife blinks to herself as she comes out of her spell-induced trance ;)
@16 / Lisa:
Seeing the multiverse characters was fun (the music cue!!) but I do think it means the writers are getting a bit lazy – like, hey, here’s this shocking scene where Wanda just destroys all these cameo characters (and I was actually hoping we’d get more of a mindfight between her and Xavier) but it ‘doesn’t count’ since it’s not our versions anyway, so there aren’t really any consequences. I get that of course ethically it does, but from a narrative perspective it just feels…I don’t know, overindulgent?
I mean, you could argue it served the ‘Superman Stays out Gotham’ trope and why Strange didn’t try to bring in reinforcements outside Kamar-Taj after Wanda’s attack.
The Illuminati were the 838 equivalent of the Avengrs and she plowed through them like a hot knife through butter. None of the remaining Sacred Timeline big guns would’ve fared any better.
But I do think we’re gonna see Wanda’s rampage on Earth-838 have long term repercussions. 838-Mordo is just as much of a zealot as his Sacred Timeline counterpart. With the Illuminati dead, I can see Mordo embarking on a multiversal crusade to eliminate not only Stephens, but Wanda variants.
It’s equally possible Kang could end up recruiting him as an ally or General if their goals align for the larger multiverse.
Well, it’s possible that Wong did ask but that The Abomination was either too busy (it’s perfectly possible for characters to have adventures even when we’re not following them, as Doctor Strange’s allusion to the Mordo of his Earth makes clearly) or was deeply, deeply reluctant to pick a fight with somebody who is (A) Powerful enough to work reality the way a sculptor works clay and (B) Happens to be someone the Sorcerer Supreme is clearly very much afraid of.
Also, it’s quite possible the two of them aren’t really friends – enjoying Fight Night is something people can do with casual acquaintances, after all.
This could be a bit of wishful thinking for the Good Doctor; it’s also fair to suggest that the Darkhold being a book in many volumes constantly being added to – Wanda may have ruined every existing copy that she could reach, but those still being written and those yet to be written would be beyond even her power.
That’s what the British said and look how that ended up!
As mentioned, I feel that the Stephen/Christine angle works much more elegantly if it’s not about the All Consuming Important of Old Flames, but the importance of letting go rather than trying to hold onto what was never your personal property in the first place; of working to build new relationships (and rebuild old friendships) rather than fighting to turn back the clock when that clock is a sundial.
This was a film that I thoroughly enjoyed, would readily watch again, but also can’t bring myself to call a “good” film. And its all down to the plot for me. It was such a shallow plot for a multiverse movie, and it’s glaring despite how much I enjoyed the visuals, set pieces, and performances. I share many critiques from this review, especially in regard to the film’s missed opportunities. I just still had a lot of fun watching it, but I expected them to make better use of the multiverse than they did.
I really loved seeing Wanda go full villain, as that was my reading of WandaVision and its Darkhold teaser. I would, however, have liked to see her experiencing some doubt along the way. Maybe a mental conversation with the AU Wanda she possessed. Something to force her to acknowledge that she is causing the same pain to someone else. It would have made the moment at the end with the kids rejecting her hit harder. Also, Darkhold aside, I’d think AU Wanda would be comparable in terms of strength, so I would have loved to see her fight back more.
I also agree with @@@@@#2’s assessment of Wanda’s motivations. If anything, I think the “Madness” was mostly in reference to her, because there wasn’t really anything that complicated or crazy about the multiverse side of things.
I was gleeful at the cameos and subsequent deaths. I knew about Xavier from the trailers, but to see John Krazinsky as Reed Richards was such a fanboy moment for me. I’ve been aboard that fan cast train for years. And I was delightfully surprised to see Anson Mount back as Black Bolt after how they wasted him on the Inhumans (horrible) TV show. Some people have called these cameos a waste, but it was a separate universe. As long as they follow these up in some form in the main continuity, I’m cool with it. Though I think Xavier should have put up more of a fight in mental combat.
I like the implication that throughout the multiverse, Strange is arrogant enough to make bad decisions. I like that the Illuminati didn’t trust him because of their experience with their Strange. But I wish his spell from No Way Home had been held against him as well. The Illuminati are clearly familiar with the multiverse, having given them designations. After explaining their Strange’s history, I would have loved to see a comment about how our Strange didn’t seem any more trustworthy after nearly breaking the multiverse. That they saw those rifts from their side, and could trace the source back to the 616 Strange. As it stands, just like Wanda experienced no consequences at the end of WandaVision, Strange experienced none for casting a reckless spell in No Way Home. Peter bore all the consequence.
This film is also has some continuity issues that bug me. Strange knew where Wanda was after Westview. Yet, not only did Strange or another representative of Kamar Taj never show up in WandaVision, but he never checked up on her after? They clearly hadn’t seen each other since.
And Mordo. Somehow Strange knows that Mordo has vowed to kill him. How? That happened in a post-credits scene in the first Doctor Strange movie. Does that mean Strange and Mordo have crossed paths since? We don’t get to see any of that story?
Plus, Marvel is already getting sloppy with their multiverse mechanics. Loki already muddled the terms “timeline” and “multiverse” to annoying effect. How could the multiverse exist when the TVA was pruning branches? Did Sylvie killing Kang-Lite at the end create the multiverse? What about before that? In MoM they say that dreams are glimpses of the multiverse, and presumably people have been dreaming all along in the MCU. Is it because the TVA exists outside of time, so what happened at the end of Loki is divorced from time?
But, to finish this on some positives: I loved Raimi’s horror touches. They weren’t truly scary, but they still gave this film a refreshingly different tone from other MCU entries. And I found the visuals very creative. I loved seeing even more depictions of magic in action. That music fight is a contender for my favorite MCU fight.
My question:
Was there any point to the quest for the Book of Vishanti except to have an excuse for Illuminati fanservice?
It’s one thing to have a subplot based on getting a plot coupon, another to not even cash in said coupon.
With regards to the souls of the damned, the way I understood it is these were specifically related to the Dark Hold i.e people who died while under the book’s influence. The Dark Hold created a sort of eternal prison for these people and since Strange was inhabiting a dead body they went after him.
I agree that the Illuminati fight was fun but it also perfectly underscores how cheap everything becomes with a Multiverse.
My thought during this film was that while there will still be some fun to be had from these movies, the MCU has already reached its peak and its all downhill from there.
I keep thinking back to Emmet’s WandaVision reviews and the notion that the Wanda didn’t even begin to atone for what she did to Westview, let alone redeem herself. All I could think of was, “Emmet was right, and it was intentional.”
I don’t think Wanda is done. This Wanda, not some multiversal version but the one we’ve been following this whole time. Fiege is very good at playing the long game and to me this was very clearly the darkest moment in a three act structure that began in AoU. By the 20th anniversary of the MCU we are going to have one amazing character arc to look back on. We literally just had a film about not punishing people for being a victim of their own bad choices. I do not think this is an inconsistency.
@20 The Book of Vishanti displays a star to Dr Strange as it’s being destroyed. Strange correctly understands that he needs to have faith and give faith to America Chavez (whose symbol is a star in the same shape, it appears when when she uses her powers and in her shirt). America is the only one who can “defeat” Wanda.
I thought the souls of the damned were attacking Strange because he wasn’t the sorcerer supreme. Didn’t Wong specifically say to Wanda that only the sorcerer supreme could enter the darkhold temple? Which is why Strange could only enter after making a cloak out of the souls.
I’m with @@@@@ 23 (& Emmet lol) on Wanda & Wandavision.
I loved this movie but full disclaimer I love Sam Raimi movies & shows!
I agree with much of what was written above: this was a meh movie, with some high points, and many overlooked opportunities. Most importantly, this is really a horror tragedy, “The Downfall of Wanda Maximoff”, NOT a Dr. Strange movie–he was really a supporting character forced into taking up too much of this movie.
I mean, maybe have Wanda talk a bit about her childhood, her brainwashing by Hydra, her loss of her brother, no? Show some roots to her madness: “I was forced to kill the love of my life, to no avail, after losing my parents, my brother. Don’t even talk to me about sacrifice, Strange!”
And I did not enjoy, at all, watching the Illuminati being tortured just to show that Wanda was PoWeRfUl and EVIIIILLLL. And if Wanda could get rid of Black Bolt’s mouth like that, why didn’t she just seal off all their arteries and kill them instantly?
I’m not a huge Wanda fan; for this movie to succeed, it needed a LOT more Wanda.
Really horrible, shallow plotting.
I was expecting a Dr. Strange movie; this barely was one, if at all.
Unpopular opinion time:
No Way Home fridged Aunt May for dumping Happy under the guise of ‘but who will Peter get the responsibility mantle from in this verse’.
Multiverse of Madness is about a depressed mom who needs a great therapist & possibly some anti-psychotic meds. This is not disparaging, I genuinely think Wanda would benefit from significant psychological support. The woman killed her partner, psychically took over an entire town, and is grieving the loss of the children she invented in her mind. If ever we saw a person in need of mental health support, she is it.
I see the way Marvel is treating their women in the new phase, and I can’t say it’s better than the others.
No, you are not being nitpicky. It has bugged me for longer than I can remember that heroes with powers or just mad skillz like Green Arrow inevitably wind up looking like they’re in MMA tournaments. What is with all the fisticuffs when you’ve got powers or mad skillz????
@3 @ed
“Magic can do ANYTHING but a punch is always a punch;”
See the end of the 1977 Ralph Bakshi film “Wizards” for an excellent example of that about which you write….
@29 @trag
“See the end of the 1977 Ralph Bakshi film “Wizards” for an excellent example of that about which you write….”
Four years before the celebrated scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. :-)
Being able to hop dimensions strikes me as an enormously cool superpower that I’d love to have – but maybe not if it got me chased by eye monsters and insane witches with loads of collateral damage that I have to feel guilty about.
Why is the movie called Dr. Strange when it’s actually about Wanda?
Has anybody considered getting this woman some therapy?
Love the line about red wine and white wedding dress.
Wanda needs to talk to Corwin of Amber. In Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber a supporting character asks Corwin why he and his brothers are fighting when each has the power to find/create an Amber in which he rules as king. The answer is because the innumerable small differences between the the Real Amber and created one would lead to a serious uncanny valley effect. No kids she finds anywhere in the multiverse will be exactly the kids she knew, and they will absolutely know she isn’t their real mother.
Face it Wanda, you never had kids.
‘I also want to be super clear that I’m only being this critical because I love Sam Raimi’s work.”
So the more you love something, the more you criticise it, instead of maybe giving it some slack?
“I liked Shang-Chi a lot, but it was another goddamn origin story.”
This was a huge and long-awaited moment for Asian American culture, for an Asian American superhero origin story to be told. It was FINALLY our turn. It wasn’t another goddamn origin story, not for us. Also, if there is no Shang Chi origin story, how do you end up caring about the character the way you care about Strange and Wanda? How do you get a character arc if they don’t start with the character somewhere? Unless Marvel stops introducing new characters.
Overall, I feel MCU films are episodic mass entertainment, where the continuity, characterisations, and themes makes sense at a high level over nearly 30 movies and 6/7 tv shows so far, but will start looking shaky under really detailed examination. And thats okay. I feel blessed that we’re even getting this Marvel content for nearly 15 years at this point.
@33, In Media Res is totally a thing. Homer to give one of the most famous examples didn’t give us Achilles’s origin story but presented him at the height of his power. Personally I am sick to death of origin stories as if that’s the only way to present a hero.
And somebody should have told Wanda there’s a simpler way to get a family than the one she’s chosen.
America could have been a very interesting character. Her uncontrollable power has cost her her parents, her home and any chance at building a life since she can be blasted into yet another dimension at any moment. Frankly that’s terrible. And then it gets worse,monsters are popping up to attack her and spread collateral damage and she can’t effectively defend herself or anybody else. Frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d been suicidal; go ahead, rip out my power, I don’t care if it kills me! And the notion all she needs is a pep talk from a zombie to gain control? Between America and Wanda why is Dr. Strange even in this movie? Name recognition?
Just saw it here in Australia.
@27 Katie said ” I see the way Marvel is treating their women in the new phase, and I can’t say it’s better than the others.”
Totally agree. I found this movie really disappointing. America shrieked her way through it. Christine was really far too understanding. And I feel like they destroyed the beauty of Wandavision by making her pain so simplistic.
Didn’t realise it was made by Sam Raimi – now the whole movie (and the silly horror) makes sense!
Christine; I’m just not that in to you Stephen. But I know there are plenty of women out there who would be. Move along and find one of them, okay?