#trippy villain sensei

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(I’ll give you two guesses as to who made this header.) (Spoiler alert: It was @caseyblu.)

DOCTOR STRANGE (2016)

AKA: Inception with wizards.

(Spoilers for Doctor Strange, don’t read if you haven’t seen.)

Another movie that I think didn’t quite get the attention it deserved when it came out. Maybe because Dr. Strange isn’t a really famous superhero either, maybe because of the casting complaints (which I’ll get to later), who knows? But I’m here to tell you that it’s a good movie.

I said this in the Iron Man review and I’ll say it again here: Dr. Strange’s backstory is a lot like Tony Stark’s. Character is rich, arrogant, exceedingly good at his job, and pretty self-centered until a traumatic event turns his life around and he must change. It’s also not unlike Thor’s story. I’ve actually pointed out multiple times how much Marvel favors this trope.

There are differences, of course. Tony made a choice to discontinue weapons manufacturing at Stark Industries, but Strange initially had no choice in giving up his surgical career. Tony is shown to be more of a womanizer than Strange, whose ex-girlfriend Christine is the only ex we ever see, etc. But a lot of surface-level details are the same. However, watching Doctor Strange doesn’t feel like watching another Iron Man movie, save for the first twenty minutes or so. Past that, it’s its own story.

And it’s a very compelling one. This is the first non-Thor Marvel movie with characters who have magic abilities, and the battles are some of the coolest of the MCU. It’s not just punching and kicking, it’s manipulating surroundings to their advantage and expelling each other through portals. There’s lots of really trippy scenes in this one, and the special effects are some of the most impressive in the franchise.

The story moves at a good pace and there’s enough action scenes to keep it interesting without being overwhelming. There’s actually not a romance sub-plot like there usually is in origin movies, but instead we get a nice friendship between Strange and Christine. Whether or not this grows back into a romance in later movies is unclear, but regardless, the characters have good chemistry (even platonically), and they share some nice moments.

I remember there was some controversy surrounding the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch, because apparently Strange isn’t always portrayed as white in the comics. I don’t think Strange’s race has ever really been confirmed, and he certainly looks white in some comics, so I don’t think it was 100% white-washing, but it’s a totally valid complaint nonetheless. Marvel still has room to improve in their racial diversity. It would’ve been awesome to have a poc play the role, but as always, Cumberbatch does do a great job and his American accent only slips a couple of times.

Tilda Swinton was also a questionable choice to play the Ancient One, who is an Asian man in the comics. I guess this one is a point for women (cause otherwise there would only be one female character in the entire movie, an all-time low for the MCU) but definitely not a point for poc. This one is definitely a case of white-washing, as I’m pretty sure the Ancient One has always been Asian. Swinton does a good job--she’s suitably mysterious, all-knowing, and just a little unsettling--but I’m not sure she was the right choice for the part.

Note: @caseyblu has mentioned that Scott Dickinson specifically cast a white woman in an effort to subvert the racist stereotype of an ancient, wise sensei-figure (ala movies like Karate Kid and Kill Bill). But, there were other ways he could’ve done that without white-washing the part, such as casting an Asian actress. The wise, old sensei is never a woman. I would’ve liked to see an actress like Lucy Liu in the part.

It serves to mention that there are two poc in the cast: Wong, whose actor is Chinese, and Baron Mordo, whose actor is Nigerian. They both play very important roles and it looks like both will be coming back in later movies (Wong is actually in Infinity War). I feel like we should’ve included a “poc characters” category in rankings, like the “female characters” category, but it’s a little late to change it now. It would definitely bring down lots of the movies by several points, since most of them only have the one token black guy and no one else. We’ll see.

Racial issues aside, Doctor Strange is a really good MCU installment and definitely worth a rewatch if you haven’t seen it lately.

RANKINGS:      Hero: 7 Mr. Doctor’s out of 10. While he is a bit of a Tony Stark clone at times, Dr. Strange goes through a great character arc and ends in a much more mature place than Tony, at least initially, does. Plus, he’s about a hundred times more powerful.

     Villain: 7 smudged eyeshadows out of 10. We don’t know much about Kaecilius’ background aside from he was a pupil of the Ancient One’s who turned to the dark side. This doesn’t make him the most interesting villain, but his blind devotion to Dormammu is intimidating and a cool quality in a villain.

     Supporting characters: 7.5 Beyoncé playlists out of 10. Wong, the Ancient One, Baron Mordo, Christine, and Strange’s sentient cape. This one doesn’t have an excessive amount of side characters to keep track of, which keeps things simple. However, while they’re all good characters, none of them really stand out.           Female characters: 6 Bechdels out of 10. This one definitely does not pass the Bechdel test--the only time the two women ever meet is when one of them is dying. However, they both have important jobs and aid the plot in a lot of ways. Plus, neither of them is really a love interest.

     Action scenes: 9 punches out of 10. As I’ve said, the fight scenes in this movie are completely unique and extremely visually interesting. They never feel repetitive or boring, as is sometimes the case in other MCU movies.

     Stan Lee: 4 cameos out of 5. The fact that he’s reading a book on different dimensions (and laughing at it), as well as the fact that Strange is slammed against the bus window while he does so, makes this cameo a really funny one.

     Charisma: 8 points out of 10. The movie’s theme of time especially shows up again and again throughout the movie, whether it’s in Strange’s obsession with watches or in direct discussions of the consequences of messing with time. The movie feels complete and relatively well-paced. Maybe my only complaint is that Strange’s training feels like it starts really late in the movie.

In total: 48.5 out of 65, an 75%. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a higher score of 89%.

#marvel #doctor strange #great marvel rewatch of 2k18