(Spoiler space)
It’s an origin story and a set-up for the next movie. There are some decently childish gags in it, but I wouldn’t take anyone under 12 to see it: there are some scenes that would be seriously disturbing for a young child. The film starts with a beheading, for instance.
The CGI was both amazing and boring. Amazing in what they did; boring in that they kept doing it.
Cumberbatch was perfect in the role, with just the right amount of arrogance all the way through.
I wasn’t thrilled. It didn’t quite work for me.
It didn’t feel like it had stakes. The sheer scale of the big space dude was beyond anything I could grasp, and Mads Mikkelsen wasn’t intimidating.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s accent was really distractingly bad.
The best character in the movie was Rachel McAdams, and she was under used.
I both didn’t like the whitewashing, and also understood that the cliché mystical Asian trope would have been just as problematic, so they were kind of trapped. The compromise wasn’t enough.
The VFX were nothing new, in fact the flashy sparking light effects that came from their hands is a default setting in many off-the-shelf apps.
Underwhelming.
My partner, who is not a comic book fan at all, liked the movie and had no problem following the story (there was a review in our paper stating it would be a difficult movie to enjoy for the uninitiated).
I thought it was okay. The VFX were good, but repetitive, as Quartz mentioned. It felt shorter than most superhero movies, which I thought was a plus. Cumberbatch was great, but the big bad looked silly and wasn’t built up as a proper threat. Still enjoyable.
Edit: Just realised that I missed the second end credits scene. I thought Strange’s meeting with Thor was it and we left, grrr…
It was right at the very very end, I waited but wasn’t sure if there was one (it’s a toss-up these days if they include one).
It was basically Chiwetel Ejiofor setting himself up as the enemy for the next episode.
Crap. I should have known there was a second one!
I liked it, but I was a bit of a fan of Dr Strange from back in my comic reading days. I wouldn’t put it in my top five favourite marvel flicks, but it is up there. Gaving said that my wife has never read a comic in her life, and she thought it was OK without being great.
I don’t normally care for 3d, so I just saw it at a normal session, but I now wonder if the morphing cityscapes and the spell effects may have made it worthwhile.
I thought the humour lightened things up nicely in general, although I recall one or two occasions where it felt a bit forced to me.
I have to admit to just the tiniest bit of fanboy disappointment that we didn’t get to see Stephen busting out the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak. Unless that metallic contraption was a call out?
GreedySmurf:
I don’t usually watch in 3D either, but this one I’m planning to.
Sitting waiting for second post credit scene now. Cumberbatch has his limitations as an actor and American accents are it, it was bad bad bad.
The CGI would have been impressive if I had not see Inception.
The story and screenplay was probably the most “adult” of all Marvel movies despite being basically a supernatural film.
Cumberbatches and McAdams have the best chemistry of all Marvel romantic interests
Probably the most stand alone film for a while.
BTW did anyone else hear Chiwetel Ejiofor kept on falling into a weird stereotypical Indian accent?
Saw it last night. I had planned to wait for the crowds to die down but saw the theater was only half full. I liked it, and would rank it up there with Ant-Man as a MCU film I enjoyed but not my favorite. I have the same small gripe with this that I did with the first Thor - the main character seems to have been gone days rather than years, returning transformed. It wouldn’t have taken much to indicate the passage of time (the old flying calendar pages would do it), and you don’t have someone doing a complete character change in three days (like Thor, who basically got drunk, fixed some breakfast, and was worthy again). I know they added the graying temples, but it still seemed like he wasn’t gone very long.
I’m not much of a Tilda Swinton fan, but she was great in this as the Ancient One.
I was disappointed that they used CGI so much. It was very pretty, but did nothing to move the story forward. The buildings folding scene at the very beginning was ridiculous because it felt gratuitous. I assume it was meant as a fighting strategy, like to catch/kill the bad guys. But I never felt like they were in jeopardy at all.
I admit it doesn’t do much good to escherize the cityscape when your opponents are just as adept at running around upside down and sideways, but it looked cool.
I thought it hit all its marks, without taking many risks.
It was clear to me he’d been training for some time, but also clear that he is a genius at sorcery and quickly absorbed and mastered things other students never could. That’s why he’s the Sorcerer Supreme.
Is it ever spelled out exactly how long the training is supposed to have been? A few months? A couple of years?
Well, the Ancient One asked him how long it took him to master his skills as a surgeon and his answer was “years of study.” So, I’m thinking maybe a couple years at least, plus he’s a quick learner.
The first case he turned down while he was driving the lambo was Roddy, which makes him look like much more of a bigger dick than anything else.
They mention Stephen Strange in Winter Soldier. Assuming the origin story is before when that movie came out, and the conclusion is present day, given time to establish notoriety inside SHIELD, that’s at least three years, and probably more like five or six.
If it makes you feel better, folks have done the math (and I believe the director has confirmed) and it couldn’t have been Rhody. It was likely one of the low-level lackeys who were testing out the not-Tony-Stark (Justin Hammer) Iron Man suits in Iron Man 2.
This occurs after Civil War.
I shall reiterate.
In Winter Soldier SHIELD (I think it’s Maria Hill) mentions Stephen Strange as being somebody of interest. The only reason they’d say that is if he’s already demonstrating powers, not just because he’s an arrogant surgeon. Therefore the Doctor Strange movie must cover that period in its timeline. That means it covers at least three, and more like five, years.
Okay, it’s not Maria Hill, it’s Sitwell the HYDRA agent who mentions Stephen Strange in Winter Soldier.
It still occurs after Civil War. There are various reason why Sitwell might have been aware of Strange before that.
Edit: The movie refers to Rhodey’s injury during Civil War immediately before Strange experiences a slight detour.