Originally created as a comic book character by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee in the ‘60s, superhero “Dr. Strange” took the theaters last week on Nov. 4. With Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, an established neurosurgeon, we find him in his prime at the beginning of the movie. His narcissism and sarcasm dominate his personality and eventually arrogance ruins his career.
After a car accident that leaves him crippled, he undergoes seven different surgeries until deciding to venture off in search of a new treatment for his injuries. Heading east he meets ‘The Ancient One’, Tilda Swinton, who shows him untapped powers within his own mind. Going initially to find a way to heal, Strange eventually ends up in the middle of this battle between good and evil. Go figure.
The movie was mainly based around the concept of time but they didn’t dive too deep into explaining how or why they were doing what they were doing. The movie carried this feeling of magic in which anything goes, and it just felt like a short cut in developing the plot. Unlike “Inception” or “Interstellar,” “Dr. Strange” was less focused on elaborating with the plot or creating insightful themes and relied almost purely on psychedelic special effects.
The comic was produced in the same era that hallucinogens were being experimented with, experiments such as “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.” It’s no surprise this movie has a trippy feel to it, but I was hoping for a little more than just some cool images.
Overall, I was fairly disappointed with the movie; I was hoping for more development of characters, plot and themes. The psychedelic feel the movie was pretty neat but at some points it was just over the top. This movie seems to almost be promoting the use of hallucinogenic drugs considering how much they relied on trippy special effects during the film.
Also, the Doctor is a sorcerer who uses magic to help find serenity within himself and save the world… what kind of superhero is this? Did they just make Harry Potter a Marvel character?
This, to me, seems like a failing effort to just keep producing Marvel movies because they are running out of ideas or comic book characters.
