Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

dir: Sam Raimi

2022

Errm, this is not the best recent film I’ve seen dealing with the idea that there are an infinite number of other universes in parallel to our own.

This isn’t an entirely bad film. It’s okay. Some parts are even enjoyable. Some parts work really well. Others, not so well.

If you find either Benedict Cumberbatch or the Doctor Strange character insufferable, then you might just suffer through this a lot. If you love either of them, or you like otters, then you might enjoy sections of this flick. If you have liked Sam Raimi movies over the decades, and can watch him cribbing from his own film history to deliver a kind of scrap book / lifetime achievement award to himself, then maybe there might be some sly meta level to enjoy the flick on.

As the latest entry in the Marvel universe, it’s kind of a dead end, or at least something that seems like it’s opening up a wild, new vista, but it ends up slamming the door on itself because, I dunno, it would be too much work otherwise?

The central lynchpin of this flick, which is kinda baffling, is that out of nowhere, after however many films, Dr Strange wishes he had a girlfriend again, being Christine (Rachel McAdams).

It turns out that not only can’t Strange be with her in this universe, but, when he finds out there are lots of other ones, he finds out that he can’t be with her in those universes either.

That’s got to suck. Even if it’s an infinite number of universes, in none of them can he be happy with Christine, or, put differently, there is no universe in which Christine can put up with his bullshit for too long.

Also coming to terms with infinite possibilities still leaving someone unsatisfied, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) has decided that killing people is way more satisfying that dealing with her various griefs. She grieves the death of her boyfriend who was a robot, being Vision, but, now stay with me if you never watched the Disney + series WandaVision, she also mourns the loss of her two magical sons, Billy and Tommy, who existed for a brief period of time when she took over a New Jersey town and turned it into a 60s 70s 80s tv sitcom hell on Earth.

If you were feeling uncharitable, you could say she was mourning two kids that never really existed, but if you told her that, she would probably kill you quite effortlessly, because she spends most of the film killing powerful people with little to no effort.

She is now so powerful she’s pretty much a threat to life even in other universes.

I just…yawn. Once we peaked with a villain who wanted to end half of all life in the universe, and now it’s like “well today’s villain is okay with destroying multiple universes!” it’s hard to give much of a damn. That goes beyond stakes that mean anything further than shrugging one’s shoulders and thinking “well okay that’s the premise, then.”

I think the attraction of multiverse stuff is when the writers conceive of universes where the fundamental laws of physics etc are all different, and they come up with radical stuff, like the one where everything is wet paint. It can also be when the differences are minute, but fundamental stuff remains the same, highlighting elements that remain true about someone regardless of which universe they’re in.

In practice it means they come up with a few radically different ones for a kind of visual or conceptual joke, but then they do nothing with it because maybe they fear it would be too alienating or confusing, or expensive.

Everything Everywhere All At Once conceived of a multitude of universes spawned from our choices (or choices we deliberately didn’t make), which personalised both the threat that exists to the main character and the people she cares about, but also the other places we briefly visit, no matter how different or silly, say something interesting or funny about her.

Here, in another universe, Doctor Strange has a ponytail. In another universe, he became so evil other heroes had to kill him. In another one he destroyed at least two universes, and is pretty glum about it but has a cool third eye.

In no universe does Christine love him, because apparently he is a jerk in all universes.

His tour guide through the multiverse is a teenager called America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) from some other universe who can traverse into new universes but seems to do it randomly. In the opening minutes of the flick she is pursued by a demon, she is protected by a Doctor Strange, but when it looks like she’s going to be caught, he thinks “fuck that” and decides he’s going to kill her himself.

That’s not very nice, you fucking jerk.

She randomly, along with a Strange corpse, ends up in New York, the one with the “main” Doctor Strange. We are told later on that this universe, the “main” one we have watched various bullshit adventures over about 25 films and heaps of series, is numbered. It has a number! 616.

America doesn’t know how she does what she does, she just does it, and she knows that whatever is pursuing her is doing so because it wants to find a universe that it is going to be happy in again. That evil thing is Wanda, so again for countless hours Wanda is trying to capture and kill America, and Strange is trying to finds ways to stop her from doing so.

Also, he keeps pining over Christines, wherever throughout the multiverse that they be found. America tells him that it never works out in any of the universes, but I reckon he just needs to keep looking. Infinite universes, infinite outcomes.

They end up in universe 838, where there are statues of him, which must mean he’s dead. A group of people calling themselves the Illuminati(!) rule this universe with an iron fist, but no iron men.

They include Professor X (Sir Patrick Stewart), Captain Britain (Hayley Atwell) and leader of the Fantastic Four, Reed Richards (John Krasinski). There are more superhumans, but none of them matter, because Wanda turns up and kills everyone. It’s a joke, they’re treated like a jokey joke rather than fan service. Damn, Wanda.

She really just wants it more. The plot has some quite janky mechanics in order to get to the ending it wants to get to, but beyond requiring Strange to project his consciousness into a corpse, and therefore become a zombie Doctor Strange, the entire ending hinges on Doctor Strange saying to America “I believe in you, you’ve got this, you just need to believe in yourself”, and then instantly she’s able to use her ability at will and save the day and stop Wanda in her tracks?

Couldn’t you…why didn’t you… you could have just said that two hours ago! You’ve done nothing but chit-chat with other people from other universes along the way of realising that, yes, it’s important to believe in one’s self, but that also clearly wherever they were jumping to was awfully convenient for the plot. Of course she was doing what the plot required – she’s a walking plot device!

Of the performances, I actually really liked the actor playing America Chavez. I felt she put across far more personality that almost anyone else in the flick. People have hated on her for various reasons, though few of those reasons have to do with how poorly the plot serves showcasing her story or her character. Mostly is just sexist and racist crap masquerading as fandom / reviewer bullshit.

Everything is about Wanda / Scarlet Witch, and I thought we watched a whole series that explained why she was now a villain. Considering how happy she is to kill infinite numbers of people, I found the turn at the end to be baffling. But, I guess it’s not a bad performance. I generally like seeing her character, but now I understand if they retire her permanently. There’s nothing left to be said new about her unless they change tack completely.

I loathe the premise, though, got to say. A rational, powerful woman going super dumb / crazy because of a fantasy of two particular kids doesn’t resonate the way they think it does. I am mindful enough of tropes of women being kill crazy about protecting their kids, their actual kids, or of wanting revenge for the death of kids, but Marvel has a pretty terrible record thus far of using babies or the absence of babies as weird motivators for cataclysmic actions by female characters.

It’s weird and off-putting, and they already got plenty of mileage out of grief as a motivator after she lost someone who actually existed, being her boo Vision. Taking another bite of the cherry with her invented kids from her fantasy – that’s pretty tenuous. But the performance is fine, it’s just the writing that’s terrible.

Cumberbatch is as Cumberbatchy as ever. That flat American accent makes him sound bored and irritated a lot of the time, but it’s an okay performance. This flick says virtually nothing new or interesting about his character, but at least there is a small hope, considering the symbolic repair of the watch at the end, that he will move on from some of his overt jerkiness / fixation on the past, so he doesn’t end up like Wanda.

The not so secret MVP for me is Wong, played by Benedict Wong, who is the Sorcerer Surpreme, and a much better person overall than Strange. He’s not necessarily a better Avenger or whatever the hell Strange is, but he’s a knockabout legend who doesn’t fuck around and who doesn’t let his ego get in the way of anything. His almost petty sounding “it’s customary to bow?” is repeated until the payoff at the end, which was a sweet moment.

Rachel McAdams, who I’ve loved in most things I’ve ever seen her in, collects a paycheck here. She gets little to do as 616 Christine, a little bit more as 838 Christine, but not enough, not enough. She deserves a flick where, to quote her, she gets to hold the knife. I don’t think we’ll see any version of her again, which is probably a good thing.

Magic black books or magic white books don’t really mean much anymore, but I guess you need macguffins for characters to chase endlessly. You’ll be happy to know that lots of people died, entire universes were destroyed, and all the copies everywhere of the evil book were deleted. What a relief.

And America Chavez and Doc Strange get to live for another day, at least.

Mediocre is okay, some of the time.

6 times I really liked the giant beholder massive eye monster at the beginning, and I want him / her / them to get their own series out of 10

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“I'm sorry, Stephen. Your desecration of reality will not go unpunished.” – that’s how I feel every time they stuff up my order at a restaurant - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness