Movie Review: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

[Dave Gray]

NO SPOILERS FOR THIS FILM, BUT FULL SPOILERS FOR OTEHR MARVEL STUFF UP TO THIS POINT.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Premise: When a girl's uncontrollable power to jump between multiverses is chased by a demon trying to harness her ability, Dr. Strange seeks out an old ally to try and keep everything from collapsing on itself.

Rating: Bottom-tier Marvel.

There is a floor to how bad Marvel movies can be.  They have A list actors, the biggest budgets in the world, time for reshoots, a universe of other properties to draw from and reference, easter eggs, good effects, capable fight choreography, etc.  So, how bad can they really be?  They're always somewhat decent and you never are going to find something truly terrible.

Keep that in mind while I dunk on how bad this movie is for the following paragraphs.

There are some interesting cameos in this film, but that is its only value.  The actual Dr. Strange/Wanda multiverse story is dreadfully uninteresting.  It waffles back and forth between a CG cluster of a special effect fight sequence using magic and sorcery and then it stops to have characters dump exposition on you.

The tone is definitely different -- you will hear from others that its horror, but it's Raimey horror.  It's kinda cheesy, low-rent Evil Dead style horror.  That might work for you.  It didn't work for me and it didn't work for my audience.  Aside from one <gasp> moment that was truly surprising, all of the laugh lines and pauses for where you think people are going to cheer were dead silence.  It was actually uncomfortable and I could feel the weight of the room.

The real sin here isn't what's in the movie.  It's what's NOT in the movie.  This came out after Loki, where there's an alligator version of Loki.  It comes out after Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse, where Spiderman is a cartoon pig and also a noir detective who is black and white.    It comes after No Way Home, where actors from three generations of the character compare detailed notes about their differences in villains, powers, and worlds.  This comes after WHAT IF, where we got alternate versions of characters.  Howard the Duck was in Guardians of the Galaxy...they've done crazy.

This movie just doesn't go for it at all.

There is one specific scene where there are a few cameos -- those characters are not important to this film, don't really do anything interesting, and the true value isn't even for Dr. Strange 2, but for other, potential future movies.  But they're also super duper safe.  And there isn't a lot of it at all.  Most of the reveals are things that they spilled in the trailers or they've been covered before in other Marvel works recently.  And they're all so safe.

This movie COULD have:
Ben Affleck as Daredevil
Ben Affleck as BATMAN (DC has crossed over with Marvel a few times in comics)
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the OG costume
Danny Devito as comic accurate Wolverine, which every fan-cast mentions.
Ryan Reynolds as both versions of Deadpool, making fun of each other.
David Hasselhoff as the original Nick Fury.
Chris Evans as skinny Cap in the Mech Suit.
Chris Evans as Johnny Storm.
It doesn't have to all be jokes, either.  You can instantly introduce any character from anything -- their TV shows, their old movies, alternate casting, actors swapping roles -- it does really nothing interesting, especially when you consider how the bar was already raised with the 4 other multi-verse marvel stories.

You can do ANYTHING.  And this is just the safest, most tepid, uninteresting way of doing multiverse.

I know that there were issues and the release date of all this stuff got switched around, but this whole movie feels like two steps backwards; it introduces no new concepts or ideas.

All that said, it's still Marvel, and if you like Marvel movies, you will like this the same way you liked Thor 2 or Iron Man 2.  But make no mistake, once the hyperbole dies down, this movie will be in that category.

And I hate to be that guy, but Everything Everywhere All At Once is everything this movie is not.  Every place where Dr. Strange 2 gives you a moderately interesting concept, EEAAO cranks the idea to 11.  It's hard not to have seen that movie and look at this with anything but contempt.

[Fau Teixeira]

And I hate to be that guy, but Everything Everywhere All At Once is everything this movie is not.  Every place where Dr. Strange 2 gives you a moderately interesting concept, EEAAO cranks the idea to 11.  It's hard not to have seen that movie and look at this with anything but contempt.

You are very very much that guy tho. I appreciate your perspective

[Spider-Dan]

This might not be the worst MCU movie ever, but it's definitely the most disappointing.
The choices made are very confusing, both by the characters and by the screenwriters.
I rate this movie a D.

[Dave Gray]

I'm really surprised it took so long for someone to reply to this.  I assumed that with such a big movie, there'd be people talking about it.  There doesn't seem to be much conversation around it.

[Phishfan]

I'm really surprised it took so long for someone to reply to this.  I assumed that with such a big movie, there'd be people talking about it.  There doesn't seem to be much conversation around it.

Not getting good reviews and a lot of people like myself stream most of what we watch. This one would have probably gotten me to the theater but for the review