Doctor Strange

Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange is the thirteenth movie installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Based on the comic books of the same name, the film follows the origin of Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), a talented and proud neurosurgeon whose hands become irreversibly injured in a traffic collision, so he travels to Asia where he meets the mysterious master of magic, the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), to heal himself, but instead gets enrolled in an order of magicians who protect the world from supernatural threats.

Cumberbatch portrays the egocentric character well. At first it may be a little strange to hear him put on an American accent but by the end you forget he’s doing it. Our leading lady is Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, Strange’s love interest. Something you might notice is that Stephen and Christine’s kind of banter is awfully similar to that of Tony and Pepper from Jon Favreau’s Iron Man movies. They even have the similar character designs; Christine has red hair and Stephen has black hair and Tony’s beard.

Among those in the order of magical fighters are Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), known as Baron Mordo in the comics, the serious librarian Wong (Benedict Wong), and Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One. Wong is pretty much there for a couple of running jokes in this movie. Mordo in this version is introduced as a companion, whom Ejiofor portrays through a sort of kindly charm and tough love, while also having his faith in the order be a big part of his character and his arc. Swinton plays the Ancient One quite dignified and secretive, but also awkwardly quirky at times, which seems quite typical of the mentor character at this point.

Good character writing is done for some characters better than others. Strange is portrayed as proud and confident, desperate in harsh situations – also thanks to Cumberbatch’s performance – but also an eager learner. The antagonist throughout most of the film is the renegade Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) and his band of ruthless ‘zealots’. Unfortunately this is not a complex character, having only a stock goal or motivation. For a moment Mikkelsen is allowed to give an emotional performance, but the character is written so one-dimensionally that in one line he seems genuinely sympathetic and the next he reverts right to scumbag; ‘dropping the pretense’ is an understatement.

This is as good a time as any to bring this up (here we go again): the Ancient One was rewritten from a Tibetan man to a Celtic woman, having Tilda Swinton cast in the role. While there seems to be no apparent bias against Tibetan people over at Marvel, the reason for this change is because eighteen percent (nearly one fifth) of Marvel’s movie income stems from China, and unfortunately there is a… particular uneasiness between China and Tibet. A shame… The film even has a minor character who looks just like the comic book version in his costume. The choice to rewrite the character’s race was to ensure the studio could still make a significant profit, but with the backlash it received – which they seem to have anticipated, essentially calling it a “no-win scenario” – perhaps there were other routes they could have taken. Would western audiences have reacted the way they would if the Ancient One were rewritten to be any other race but white or Asian? Or, why not cast an Asian actor but keep the character’s country of origin ambiguous? What if he had an accent that had changed over the centuries, like the immortals from Russell Mulcahy’s Highlander (1986)? Of course, hindsight is 20/20. (They also cast a British man of Nigerian ancestry to put on an accent and play a character that was originally a white Transylvanian, but no one seems to talk about that. Not that it necessarily matters; both actors perform well enough.)

The overall tone is quite accommodating for the MCU’s audience. The use of colour grading seems consistent to the other films, the action is creative, the drama and its intensity is set up and developed, and it keeps the audience’s interest with some humour now and then. But one of the first things that audiences have noticed, especially from the trailers, are the special effects. The images of the surroundings expanding and duplicating seems pretty state-of-the-art, like if the dream realm of Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010) were inside a kaleidoscope. Some things about the visuals seem a little odd though. One can joke about Strange’s similarities to Tony Stark but those comments are only reinforced when one sees how luxurious his apartment is (and how expensive it must be), and his car, and his drawer full of rotating wristwatches.

It was a bold move to give Doctor Strange a costume like that from the comics, and it paid off. Try doing that with Alan Scott’s costume from the 1940s; it survived up until the DC Comics reboot in 2011. It seems though that nearly everyone else has a different design, particularly the final boss Dormammu (also Benedict Cumberbatch, apparently). Creating a new character design is fine if they want something different from the robed armoured flaming head guy (not that it isn't a cool design), but what is it we’re looking at? This big dark shifting head (and the rest of him) who wants to absorb everything reminds one of Parallax from Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern (2011). He’s about as underdeveloped a villain too.

The plot seems fairly decent. It takes us through Doctor Strange’s arc from egocentricity to selfless dedication, although the screenplay has the emotional need spelt out for us rather than letting the protagonist learn for himself and making the audience think about it. It would be fair to say the narrative climax is quite clever. Since the lore of the stories has its fair share in it, exposition is not uncommon throughout the film, often explaining or namedropping story elements as briefly as possible. And then there are some unfortunate plot holes. For example, if Doctor Strange can manipulate time to affect specific objects, why doesn’t he use it to heal his or others’ wounds? And why does Kaecilius, at the beginning of the movie, only steal a couple of pages from the important mystical book and then leave it lying around instead of taking the whole thing? He could have put it in a satchel and slung it over his shoulder while he escaped with it.

Doctor Strange is definitely an entertaining addition to the franchise. Its action, visuals, protagonist, design and comedic elements make it well worth a watch. However, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have problems. Again, Stephen and his girlfriend seem somewhat similar to Tony and Pepper, which doesn’t necessarily hurt the movie but it does suggest that the filmmakers are resorting to recycling characters from the same fictional universe. The performances and characters are mostly acceptable but the villains have no complexity beyond one or two moments. Since we’re at movie thirteenth now, it may be time for audiences to demand the MCU create better-developed antagonists other than Loki. The writing is on the nose, and then there are the plot holes, which are debatable at best. The movie as a whole is a fantastic effort. It is somewhat messy around the edges, but it is an enjoyable experience, seems to be as faithful an adaptation as possible, and an extremely marvelous spectacle.