Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness

Another year, another set of Marvel movies and I am here for it. You had enough time to watch it, so I can’t be held accountable for spoilers in this review of Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness.

The story

The movie starts with Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) attending the wedding of Christine (Rachel McAdams). Christine is his former flame and colleague.

During the reception, pandemonium breaks out outside. Dr Strange quickly changes into his superhero outfit when he sees a one-eyed octopus monster chasing a girl, America Chavez.

Dr Strange and Wong (Benedict Wong) save her. After the incident, they get her to talk about the monster chasing her, and she tells them she has the power to travel across universes in the multiverse. However, she cannot control her powers yet. She was being chased by the monster because its master wants to steal her powers to rule over all realities.

Dr Strange must protect America (Xochitl Gomez) against the evil that wants to rule the multiverse.

Dr Strange goes to Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen)to ask her for help with this predicament. Then it comes out that they are not allies, but foes. Wanda wants America’s powers for herself.

Basically, the movie is about how Dr Strange has to keep America Chavez safe from Wanda Maximoff who wants to steal her powers of being able to travel through the multiverse.

Wanda is still so hung up over her imaginary kids, who we met in Wanda Vision. She will do anything to get them back, even if it means taking over the body of a different Wanda in the multiverse and being a mother through her. She wants to do this by using the dark hold (a magical book) to dreamwalk, aka take over another Wanda’s body in the multiverse.

The only way to defeat Wanda is to locate the Book of Vishanti, which is the opposite of the darkhold. To find it,

Dr Strange and America travel to other universes and their Dr Stranges for help. A bunch of other superheroes also pop up.

In the MCU timeline, it takes place after Spider-Man: No way home and WandaVision.

Subplots

There is a strong subplot of the complicated love story/unrequited love between Dr Strange and Christine. He obviously loves her, but apparently, it doesn’t work out between the two of them in any universe.

At the start of the movie, when he’s at Christine’s wedding, wonders what could have been. Would they have been together if he wasn’t in that car crash? Or rather, would they have been together if he hadn’t been such a big asshole?

I kind of wanted Dr Strange to have a happy ending because he admits he loves Christine. He loves her in every universe.

I have questions

Before I get to what I thought of the movie, I just have a few questions for the good people over at Marvel.

How does Wanda have kids in other universes? Are they Vision’s kids?

Did Wanda manifest her kids like she did in Westview? Are they her biological kids?

Did Vision have sperm? Does he even have a penis? I thought he was a robot.

Speaking of which, where is Vision in the other universes?

What do I think?

It’s a Marvel movie. I mean, what more do you want? It’s just a fun movie with a lot of action and references to other Marvel movies and series.

Some people have complained that there are too many references to other Marvel movies in Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness and Spider-Man: No way home. Honestly, I don’t mind it at all. I have seen all the movies and have watched all the series because Marvel has all my money and interest at this point.

I love that we get to see superheroes from other universes because I also loved What if…? (See the previous paragraph).

The movie was both quite dark and violent, and sometimes quite trippy. For instance, it was quite acid trip-like when there was a battle with music notes, when Dr Strange was a zombie, and the demons that attacked him. It was also very violent when Wanda murdered the Illuminati like it was nothing.

However, there was also a humorous undertone, with a few jokes here and there.

Then, there was very little character development in the main characters. It is very much a story-driven movie—nothing wrong with that. If I’m honest, I prefer story-driven movies and books. There was a bit of character development right at the end of the movie for Dr Strange, but again, not much. He just showed America that he’s not like the Dr Stranges from the other universes.

Now, let’s go to the aspects of the movie that I did not like.

First, it’s starting to feel like ‘the multiverse’ is just a big plot hole filler—like how ‘vibranium’ was in Black Panther. Everything is explained away by throwing the word ‘multiverse’ in there.

Second, I hate the ending of the movie. Dr Strange tells America to just believe in herself and suddenly she can control her powers. That’s just lazy writing.

Also, I hate that the girl’s name is America because I got confused between when they’re talking about America the person or America the country.

Then, slightly unrelated, I thought they would bring in Shang-Chi, seeing as Wong took them through a portal at the end of the Shang-Chi movie. I guess that was in a different universe.

Lastly

Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness is not as good as Spider-Man: No way home, but honestly, I don’t think there will be one that tops it for a while.

Well, we’ll see how Thor: Love and Thunder is.

Did you see Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness? What did you think of it?

Meh.

Michelle

P.S. If you’d like to contact me, feel free to comment below, send an email to thatmichelleperson@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter @M_ClutterBox.