Not going to say much here about my own personal thoughts on the film. From what I’ve seen and experienced its a very controversial movie, so I’m curious what the consensus here might to be?
So, What do you all think?
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Hum, I find marvel’s movies generally entertaining,
On Doctor Strange, I was particularly amazed by the trippy sequences, kaleidoscope like … very awesome at all levels. All the other FX are great, but I tend to forget them quickly. But these mostly abstract / graphical sequences I find them quite inspiring and that would be something I could take as a reference/inspiration for personal/professional work.
Generally there are only a few blockbusters that are interesting/inspiring as a whole movie and worth discussing to me. Compared to a Gilliam’s, some Burton’s, Anderson’s… movies that while being generally also mainstream strive to add artistic values, personality, innovative narrative or visual universe that’s is much worth discussing, and when I recall these movies I always have images in mind. Somehow blockbusters, especially marvel’s one I tend to forget them really quickly.
Yeah, I’d agree with that. I’ve always appreciated Anderson’s stuff for sure, especially his animated movies. Haven’t seen as much Gilliam or Burton as I would like, been going to watch more burton recently actually, just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’ve always liked Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve a bit more in terms of style, (aside from obviously the great classical directors).
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Nowadays, Disney is getting aggressive in making sure you sign up for Disney+ and binge-watch their Marvel shows if you want to actually understand what you are watching in the theater. This could ultimately lead to worse performance for the movies in the long run (because not every Marvel fan is going to be interested in everything from Loki to Moon Knight), and because this will be a serious barrier for lower income fans or fans who don’t live in the cities.
What that means is the company is intentionally making sure you spend a bit of money on more than just movie tickets now, I do not think they have the audacity to make you pay for a high-priced ticket to the Magic Kingdom itself if you want to understand future movies, but who knows at this point.
Not only that, but by bringing in the multiverse they can now do the hero/villain revolving door (where popular characters return for no apparent reason like they did in Once Upon a Time), Iron Mans and Captain Americas for instance can be found by the hundreds now if you go through enough universes.
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“Doctor Strange” was certainly one of their most-interesting comic book characters, and largely the artistic creation of just one enlightened pen-and-ink artist. I think that the movie’s visual effects designers tried very hard to bring that look to the screen. But maybe they tried a little bit too hard … it sort-of turned into a “VFX orgy” where the effects overload became distracting.
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This post contains spoilers!
I found it a great movie I didn’t enjoy. I mean this in contrast to a bad movie I did enjoy, like Pacific Rim 
Everything visual was gorgeous, I loved Wanda’s story, I really liked America, and the first 30 minutes or so of the movie had me absolutely hooked. I also loved a lot of the conceptual stuff. Ruined-dimension Doctor Strange, and his excellent delivery of “it was probably me”, were super cool. Benedict Cumberbatch did some incredible acting, the slightly different mannerisms of each Doctor Strange were award-worthy acting on his part.
For me, it all started to fall apart when the Illuminati showed up to say stupid one liners and get absolutely shafted for some reason. When Professor X was one-shotted by Scarlet Witch, I think that’s when I started to get truly annoyed. As a comic nerd with a Nightwing profile picture, Professor X isn’t some silly goofy guy in a wheelchair. He’s a lot more powerful than that movie made him seem. And Black Bolt is not a joke, he would never lose his calm and scream.
After that, Scarlet Witch’s wildly inconsistent power levels (how was the woman able to rewrite reality with two words slowed down by some falling rocks in the tunnel scene??) and the standard lack of consequences in Marvel movies- “the Darkhold is dangerous and will destroy anyone who uses it!”, cut to Doctor Strange immediately using it with no consequences whatsoever- took it down to a 7/10 or so for me. There was just so many things about it that annoyed me that it was hard to enjoy.
I think the post credits scene summed it up perfectly- the payoff of that scene was a joke at the sake of the audience, which annoyed me. The whole movie felt like that, where when it was payoff time, I ended up rolling my eyes saying “oh come on”
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Well, this movie is maybe good for someone… My only complain are that title is deceptive. This is NOT a Dr. Strange movie. Instead they use it as vessel to advertise next Marvel ‘phase’… And they do it in most, amateurish, poor way. So they not only destroy DR. Strange character, they don’t make any favor to other characters which they push… because this are bad movie. And such shenanigans will bite Marvel in future.
I’m not a fan of superhero comics… Imagine people which wear underwear above pants 
From time to time read some, mostly exclusive short stories made by top artists. Dr. Strange is special case… Very "strange’ comic. However I was surprised how good first movie are. Although some … ‘changes’ he was more or less good movie. Perfect introduction for new character. Then instead to make second movie which further establish character, they sacrifice poor Doctor to make room for Wand and one other character… Pheh… Wanda, psychopaths, villain, bad, bad person and other for which no one hear and care.
Some people say that Disney intentionally make such movies as new kind of anti piracy… really, you must pay me to piracy this movie… and even triple to watch it.
I agree. I personally feel it had potential, but it was completely wasted by the way they portrayed it. I find the increasingly larger and larger scale in each new marvel movie to be a huge turnoff. I was really hoping that this movie was going to delve into the Dr. Strange character and discover a sort of anti hero mentality in there, his constant attraction to playing God, and manipulating the course of action in a lot of things. And I thought it would be interesting to slow down and interact with that, but I was honestly disappointed.
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It was a huge letdown due to the fact that they hired Sam Raimi and then they gave him a shit screenplay, forbid him to be himself and do what he can do…Why hire him, when he has to work with his hands tied behind his back?
On top of it, after filming that shitty script that they gave him, they decided to re-shot the whole movie because they realized that the “America” character was an useless a-hole and there was no chemistry at all between her and the Doc.
Strange has like 3 character arcs and they all go nowhere. “America” has NONE!
Wanda is no longer a person who acts logically, she has turned into a villain as fast and incomprehensible as that dragon lady from Game of Thrones.
What remains is an stupid movie with a boring meandering plot that makes no sense at all, an protagonist that lost half his IQ and all his charm and an antagonist that is acting without reason / logic and without a proper motivation (who also lost all her intelligence).
Kevin Feige is loosing it. Phase 4 is nothing but mediocre at best.
Doesn’t help that they double down on woke shit, making their movies unbearable stupid in the process.
But that’s just how it is, political activists are never good artists…
PS:
If you want to see a Superhero-movie, go and watch The Batman, which is actually a good movie.
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Dude that’s what I said when I walked out of the movie Lol. “Should’ve watched Batman instead”. Haven’t seen it yet though, gonna wait for it to go to a movies 10 near me and watch it then.
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Even a most-talented actor (Cumberbatch) can’t rescue a film from a crappy screenplay pushed by a studio who is utterly convinced that they own “a sure thing.” Especially in the case of the less well-known comics, such as Dr. Strange, fans have very high expectations.
So, above all, you’ve got to serve them a great story which great actors can then play into. But these days, studios don’t seem to see things that way: they think that audiences come to watch the kewel special effects. Which they pour on so heavily that, thanks to the piss-poor screenwriting and character development, even the most lavishly-financed movie project can simply fall apart. Fans talk to other fans and the later fans just don’t buy tickets.
If you don’t have a rock-solid screenplay, you don’t have anything at all, and CGI can’t save you. Even great actors can’t save you.
I used to enjoy the Star Wars movies, even despite the ewoks and 
“Jar Jar Binks,” but I simply stopped paying attention to them after watching the first Disney movie and walking-out on the second one. (“Mark Hammill was right.”) Nothing wrong with the actors, but I couldn’t stomach nor accept the story nor the characters they were obliged to play. I’ve paid no attention to the franchise since, so to me Disney’s $4 billion purchase is down the drain.
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Honestly I just want a big budget movie that has very hidden special effects. Something like Christopher Nolan would do. I get so tired of lavish effects because they’re so overdone. And somehow the more groundbreaking they get, the more boring they become. Every time we see a cool effect now, it just looks and feels fake.
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I think that this studio wasted the very considerable talent of their cast. I think that all of the casting decisions were solid.
The outcome, to me, is very disappointing … and, entirely avoidable. But, the people on the set can’t tell the studio what to do with their “sure thing.” (sic) They give you the script, you do it as best you can, and a few years later you see what all those blue screens were used for. (And, by then, you’ve moved on with your career – there’s nothing you can do about it now.)
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Based on comments online, there are many Marvel fans who felt they were treated to a bait & switch scheme (because instead they got a movie about American Chavez and Wanda, with Doctor Strange himself only being a side character). Disney could’ve just named the movie Wandavision and the Multiverse of Madness for the purpose of being accurate (though Disney lately has been pretty innovative and even sneaky in trying to separate as much money as they can from their customers, something which has been especially bad in the park and resorts division).
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I don’t know if I’d ever call myself “a Marvel fan,” but I always admired the idea and the lavish artwork of “Dr. Strange.” (He was also always pushing the edge of the accursed “Comics Code.”) In this case, I simply feel that a potentially-great movie fell short of the mark, due to a combination of the studio (politics …) and the screenwriter. “The script wasn’t there.”
The actors did a great job: Cumberbatch nailed the lead character, and the supporting cast was also solid. The overall CG design was true to the [innovative …] graphics of the original comic book, which is saying a lot (!!). 
But there was IMHO probably too much CG, and the screenplay couldn’t hold it together. It could and should have been much better.
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