Saturday, August 12, 2017

Doctor Strange (2016)

Stephen Strange is a gifted neurosurgeon whose hands are damaged in a car accident. In a desperate attempt he travels to Tibet in the hopes of finding something there to restore his damaged hands. Stephen arrives in Katmandu, meets the Ancient One, Mordo, and Wong, and starts training. He seems to learn the mystic arts extremely fast and soon joins the battle against the rogue Kaecilius who seeks to open a pathway between the Dark Dimension and Earth.

The special effects are quite beautiful. The movie, especially the final battle leaves something to be desired. There were parts that just made no sense and left me scratching my head. I understand that this is magic and not everything is going to make sense but still. There were battle scenes that were hard to follow because it was unclear what exactly was happening as the world tilted this way and that.

I'm not sure why they chose to have a Caucasian woman play the role of the Ancient One, instead of an Asian man, which is what the character was in the comic books. Tilda Swinton did a decent job but her performance wasn't so great that it made me forget the fact that the character wasn't supposed to be white.

Some of the movie felt like set up for stuff to come down the road. The turning of Mordo at the end of the movie, in the end credits scene didn't feel earned. He was obviously bothered by the reveal that the Ancient One had kept herself alive using energy from the Dark Dimension, but that doesn't fully explain why he would all of a sudden decide to switch sides. Yes, there was an explanation given but it just didn't feel earned.

The fight between Dr. Strange and Dormammu at the end of the movie was unsatisfying. I understand that Strange was able to manipulate time but how was he able to bring himself back after Dormammu killed him each time. That felt a bit too simple. Honestly, the fights with Kaecilius were more exciting than the one with Dormammu.

On the whole not a bad movie but it doesn't compare favorably in my book to most of the other Marvel films. It left me feeling let down even though there were somethings that I liked about it

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