Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, frightening images and some language
So… the
multiverse seems to be the big trend in sci-fi and fantasy movies right now.
Dimension-hopping, visiting alternate versions of yourself, visiting versions
of yourself from the movies this one has rendered non-canon, and just some
really wacky stuff thrown in for good measure. And leading the charge has been
the Marvel Cinematic Universe, based as it is on a line of comics that’s been
doing this sort of thing for decades now and which has decided that, now that
audiences have gotten used to mad science experiments, World War II
super-soldiers, space aliens, killer robots, Norse gods, and more than one form
of magic all existing in the same universe, it’s time to get audiences used to
there being more than one universe. (And, of course, Sony Pictures being like
“maybe this is how we sneak into the superhero movie big boys’ club!”)
The concept had its big, proper, big-screen live-action debut last year with Spider-Man: No Way Home, and now, we get Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,
a film that aroused attention for a wholly different reason: it was the
follow-up not just to the preceding Doctor Strange film, but also to WandaVision,
the breakout hit for both the MCU’s new television projects and Disney’s
streaming service Disney+.
I, of
course, was interested for a different reason. This was Sam Raimi making his
grand return to superhero movies after having directed the original Tobey
Maguire Spider-Man trilogy, a series of films (especially the first two)
that served as prototypes for how the MCU would approach the material with
enough seriousness and earnestness to establish real stakes but also enough
whimsy and humor to avoid turning grim. It’s not the only way to make a
superhero movie, but it’s a hell of a way to make a crowd-pleasing one, and
it’s a way that Raimi perfected, rather surprisingly given his background in
violent horror movies. And on that note, the marketing for this film promised a
darker tone, building on that of WandaVision to veer into outright
horror at points, and as far as I was concerned, if Raimi was the one at the
helm for a movie like this, I knew he would deliver something scary.
And Raimi
delivered. Make no mistake, this ain’t Drag Me to Hell, let alone The Evil Dead. There’s no way Marvel was gonna let him go all-out and make a
superhero bloodbath like Brightburn or the Prime Video series Invincible,
a movie that would send parents fleeing the theater and demanding refunds while
their crying, traumatized children cowered behind them. They were only gonna
let him make something just scary enough to get people to say “did I
just see them do that in an MCU movie?” without threatening their
all-ages brand. It’s a line that Raimi, who always likes to have fun even in
his horror movies, knows how to walk, and he elevates this flick well above
what it could’ve been. This is a movie that falls into a trap that the MCU has
avoided until now, specifically an overreliance on continuity that can lock out
viewers who aren’t caught up on everything, but for longtime fans of the MCU in
general and fans of WandaVision in particular, this is a great bottle
episode for the franchise anchored by plenty of style, cool ideas, and great
performances.
Set after
the events of WandaVision, in which Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet
Witch, unleashed a lifetime of pain and grief on a small town as she
desperately tried to create the world she wanted, we start with Dr. Stephen
Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme, having a nightmare of a teenage girl being
pursued by an evil force that wants her power. Soon after, in the real world,
he encounters this girl for real: her name is America Chavez, and she has the
power to cross between parallel universes. Doctor Strange turns to his old
friend and fellow sorcerer Wanda for help, suspecting that the force that’s
after America is rooted in magic. Wanda promptly reveals to him that she is, in
fact, the force in question. Since her misadventure in Westview, New Jersey, she
has been corrupted by a tome of eldritch lore called the Darkhold as a result
of her quest to reunite with the children she created as part of her grand
illusion, believing that there is a universe out there where they are still
alive, and she wants America’s power to traverse parallel dimensions for
herself so she can more easily pull it off. With Wanda in hot pursuit, Strange
and America go on a dimension-hopping adventure to stay one step ahead of her
and keep America’s power out of her hands.
While this
is Doctor Strange’s movie, and Benedict Cumberbatch is in full form, the real
centerpiece of the cast is Wanda Maximoff. Elizabeth Olsen had already
demonstrated on WandaVision just what a talent she was and why the MCU
was so lucky to have her, and she continues here playing Wanda as a villain,
one whose loss and single-minded focus on correcting that loss have left her
open to a corruption that stands as a warning for Strange. Olsen holds nothing
back, her Wanda here feeling like the closest thing the MCU has to Carrie
White, a monster with sympathetic motivations that the film never forgets is
still, absolutely, a monster. A battle midway into the film where she takes on
an alternate universe’s version of the Avengers is up there with any of
Homelander’s scenes from The Boys in the annals of reasons why it would
be absolutely terrifying to see a superhero break bad. From the reveal that
she’s the film’s villain to a tragic denouement laced with irony, Wanda here
makes for one of the best villains in the MCU.
Raimi,
meanwhile, brings his usual bag of tricks to the table, making a film that is
still instantly recognizable as part of the MCU but otherwise elevating it with
his trademark touches. I whispered to one of the people I saw this with that
“that’s how you know this is a Sam Raimi movie” the moment I saw Strange defeat
a giant monster menacing New York in an early scene by ripping out its gigantic
eye. Raimi blends his superhero side with his horror side here, with scenes
homaging everything from The Ring to Carrie to his own classics,
Wanda racking up a serious body count of genuinely brutal kills that only
dodged an R rating because they didn’t show the blood and guts, one of them
done as a literal, old-fashioned jump scare, her ability to body-hop into
alternate universe versions of herself framed in a manner not unlike demonic
possession (complete with the famous POV cam that Raimi uses for the demons in
his more straightforward horror flicks), and the third act having Strange
himself get in on the action in order to fight her in a battle that, without
spoiling anything, felt like watching two horror movie monsters duke it out.
Throughout, it felt like Raimi was treading right up to the red line that Kevin
Feige drew for him here, never crossing it but always testing just how close he
could get, and the result was a film that was often seriously creepy and at
times even outright scary, especially whenever Wanda graced the screen.
Beyond the
garnish and the performances, a lot of this movie is about what you’d expect
from Marvel. It has a brisk runtime of about two hours and never overstays its
welcome. Despite the title, it doesn’t really go all-in on the multiverse
conceit, with most of the film taking place in just one alternate universe
that’s used mainly to showcase a slew of crowd-pleasing cameos. (Let’s just say,
it seems that Marvel’s very excited to have the film rights to certain
characters back.) I liked Xochitl Gomez’s performance as America Chavez and
feel that she and her character have a bright future in the MCU, but America
was mostly a living MacGuffin here, more of a plot device in Strange and
Wanda’s fight than anything. The best way to describe the feel of this film is
that it’s a monster-of-the-week episode in the long-running series that is the
MCU, a neat, self-contained story where the hero battles and defeats a villain
and then moves, and while there’s definitely a place for that in modern
superhero movies where it seems like every film has to be “epic”, a film where
the villain is one of the MCU’s most powerful superheroes is one where I think
the stakes could’ve stood to be a bit higher.
The Bottom Line
It’s a solid follow-up to WandaVision,
a very fun movie in its own right that puts a few neat twists on the usual
formula, and a welcome return to superhero movies for Raimi. Either way, I
really liked it and would happily recommend it.
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