Friday, November 4, 2016

Theater Whore: Doctor Strange


Doctor Strange 9/10

There will be some spoilers. I can never claim to be a fan of Doctor Strange. Never bought the comic books but have watched an animated movie and knew his basic story. Some asshole doctor gets into a terrible car accident that ruins his hands and in desperation heads into the mountains to get cured and ends up learning magic instead. That's pretty much what happened in this but so much more. So much more! I didn't give this a 9 out of 10 because I was surprised by how much I loved this movie. I did because this is a cool ass movie and one of my favorites of this year and Marvel movies in general. By the way, I saw this in 3D at the Arclight in Hollywood and I would suggest watching this in 3D if you can. I'm not usually a fan of them but with a movie like this it worked great.


This starts off with a sorcerer named Kaecilius played by Mads Mikkelsen that break into a magical library to steal a page out of a book by using magical fire whips and cutting the librarians head off. This belongs to the Ancient One who is played by Tilda Swinton. They leave everything else and bone out. Meanwhile Dr. Stephen Strange played by Benedict Cumberbatch is showing off while doing neurosurgery. He is working in someone's head while doing music trivia at the same time. His boo thang Christine Palmer is played by Rachel McAdams.


He invites her to a dinner but she declines saying it is fun for only him. He hops into his car speeding like a lunatic in the rain when while answering his phone flies off the road and the crash is crazy as all fuck. That car flips, turns, you hear his hands get mangled, and he lands in the water. He wakes being taken to surgery and later wakes up crying when he sees his hands saying he could have done a better job. He does not handle rehab well and tries every procedure available and pushes Christine away. One day in rehab he is told of a patient that was able to walk again after being paralyzed. He tracks him down and finds out that he went far east to learn how to walk again. It sounds like bullshit but Strange is damn near broke and desperate.


He arrives looking for this magical place to get his hands fixed and gets his ass kicked before being saved by a guy named Mordo played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. He takes Strange to meet the Ancient One and Strange is pretty much doing everything possible to ensure that he is not well liked or received by these people. It isn't until she slaps the soul out of his body that he truly believes what he is told but by that point she's like “Nah. You remind me of someone I don't like. Get!”


I don't want to spoil too much more of this great movie. I will point out some things that surprised me. One is that I didn't see Cumberbatch after a while. Whe I watched Sherlock everything I saw him in afterward seemed like Sherlock playing someone else. With this after a few minutes all I saw was Strange. The music is also really good and memorable. That is a problem with a lot of Marvel movies, songs that are forgettable. Don't even get me started on the special effects. The look of them is not something I ever got used to. I would see one hing and go “Wow. That is amazing!” and then something else would blow my mind. Minutes later something else would. I was like “Who the fuck thought of this?!” Visually this is an incredible movie that thankfully has a really good story and directing to back it up.


I know a lot of people will skip talking about the great acting...like I did. I know this. The acting in this movie was really good and I loved every choice that was made, even the ones pissing people off because they are not informed about political issues around the world that would make having the Ancient One played to look like the original version because they want what they want. Two years I wrote a blog post asking Who Should Be Doctor Strange in which Cumberbatch was one of my three choices and I am glad he won out.


I am glad that this movie was made. I wasn't so sure about it before but it fits right into the Marvel cinematic universe. Make sure to stay through the credits for some extra scenes as well. Not bullshit ones either. Oh, and before I forget. His cape made me laugh harder than any comedy in the last three years. Yes. His cape.

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