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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - May 2022

Captain Kelsten

By Captain Kelsten,
in Film, TV & Radio

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Pelekophoros

Pelekophoros

Posted
Posted

Just reading back people trying to figure out...

 

Spoiler

What happened between WV and this movie to make her do what she did, and I'm surprised most of the discussion completely missed the conversation in the middle of the movie that explains it.

 

It's a terrible example of tell don't show, but the Other Other Strange, who the Illuminate kill, followed the identical journey. 

 

Wanda's entire off screen character arc is explained in that scene. And then it's revisited again on Destruction World with Third Eye Strange.

 

The entire film, and every major characters arc, is about bumbling around the multiverse and it fucking them up somehow. Strange, Third Eye Strange, Dead Strange and Wanda all used the book, and turned/are turning rotten as a result.

 

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Pelekophoros

Pelekophoros

Posted
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56 minutes ago, Alex W. said:
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I think people caught on the "there's a gizmo that gives characters the motivations the writers need them to have" thing.

 

 

Yeah I saw that, but I think the film goes into a bit more detail about it than its being given credit for.

 

On the flip side, my wife thought one character was abandoned at the end because the film didn't explicitly show them being ok, so #shrugs. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
Thor

Thor

Posted
Posted
34 minutes ago, MardiganX said:

Are other companies using that same window? So Paramount for example will have their movies out not long after cinema run? Or is that expecting too much from them?

Paramount apparently have a window of 45 days but don't always stick to that. I expect so long as Maverick has cinema legs they'll keep it in the theatres for a bit longer. 

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MardiganX

MardiganX

Posted
Posted
Just now, Thor said:

Paramount apparently have a window of 45 days but don't always stick to that. I expect so long as Maverick has cinema legs they'll keep it in the theatres for a bit longer. 


Which was my next question :)

 

To the Paramount thread…

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DeciderVT

DeciderVT

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Posted

Underwhelmed but still had fun.

 

Spoiler

Wanda is such a crap villain and it's not helped at all by Elizabeth Olsen being a charisma vacuum. I'd hoped that she'd be support in this and that they'd be fighting a version of Kang after Loki. Oh well! I suppose the payoff from that series will happen eventually but it seemed like more of a natural point to follow on from.

 

Wanda's motivation was also completely silly, especially after Wandavision. It's like the character learnt nothing from the outcome of the series and decided to double down on hurting (and killing) real people for the sake of fictional children.

 

Also- far too much flitting around, flinging bolts of coloured light at each other and not enough deeply weird, incomprehensible cosmic stuff. It was disappointing when Wandavision fell back on it too, it's mushy pre-vis comfort food.

 

I'm not buying Wanda killing a telepath as powerful as Xavier so easily either. That should've been an absolutely epic showdown on its own.

 

Plus points:

 

Xavier, Reed Richards and America Chavez were all good. Hope to see a lot more of them in future. And more Bruce Campbell, obviously.

 

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Bacon Horsemeat

Bacon Horsemeat

Posted
Posted
On 08/05/2022 at 19:41, PK said:

In fairness, while her character development is paper-thin, Christine also

 

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In contrast there's not a single male character I can think of that does anything smart, strong, or particularly useful apart from Strange himself, and even he needs the help of two women to achieve his goal. Three other Stranges die after being selfish dickheads, two of the Illumaniti men are smug, over-confident and last three minutes before being dispatched with Venture Brothers-style jokes and whatever happens to the third seems to have been cut out of the film after he falls down a not particularly deep hole. Xavier seems to have been in the film simply to have Patrick Stewart in the MCU before he's too old to act, and other than showing a bit of trust in Strange he doesn't really do anything especially helpful. They also treat the female Illuminati in a broadly similar way - they're both arrogant and overconfident, and they get dispatched in similarly ignominious ways to their male teammates.

 

Pizza Papa is a badman, obviously.

 

 

Wong

Spoiler

skewered one of Wanda's big monster slave thingys

Everyone forgets Wong  😰

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Chindie

Chindie

Posted
Posted

So just watched Dr Strange 2.

 

I'm not sure on it really.

 

It's a very Raimi film, and gets more so as it goes on. And that's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. Raimi has a very particular style and it isn't going to work for everyone with the mad camera work and crash zoom stuff. I don't think Raimi could take the reins in many MCU properties successfully, but Dr Strange is one that can probably take it. And it mostly does. 

It has that... 'my first horror movie' vibe crossed with some fantasy stuff, which Raimi can do in his sleep, and it works for Dr Strange. Fundamentally Strange stories are often **** weird. And so is this.

 

Not without problems though. It's... messy. The story and the concept are too big for a single film to satisfyingly address. It follows on from WandaVision, but Things Have Happened that we just have to go with (that were hinted at the end of the series, but in an incredibly open way). And the multiverse stuff is too big to deal with without it feeling wasted or underutilised. As a result we have a story that somewhat comes out of nowhere, it's big gimmick is a let down, and the film noticeably jumps from set piece to set piece.

 

On the plus side, the story has some weight (despite basically revolving around a Macguffin with shoes), the film has a lot of fun with the stuff it sets up, and there's some decent performances and imagery.

 

Spoiler

Dead Strange was great.

 

The Illuminati was fun and Elfman using the X-Men cartoon theme on Xavier's introduction was superb.

 

Very much liked the 'dead' Sanctum Sanctorum lobby with that great stairway to heaven imagery.

 

Solid film. Probably destined to vie with the likes of Iron Man 3 in the divisive stakes for the series.

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Benny

Benny

Posted
Posted
On 07/05/2022 at 15:49, teddymeow said:

 

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"It's over!!!!" 😂

 

 

Spoiler

I genuinely think that final scene was some sort of extremely subtle meta commentary on Marvel films in general. If you take it as a kind of subtle trolling then it basically re-contextualises everything you've just watched as being self aware that it's another dumb people punching each other until it's over Marvel movie.

 

I think Sam Raimi had the last laugh.

 

If it wasn't for that scene I'd have chalked this one up as another competent but flavorful entry in the Marvel stable, but those last few moments somehow send it all up as expertly at the last line in Lost Boys.

 

I genuinely hope it was intentional, as I really want to read it as more than just the throwaway gag that it appears to a casual audience... I know Raimi can be that meta.

 

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fly53r135

fly53r135

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, DeciderVT said:

Underwhelmed but still had fun.

 

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Wanda is such a crap villain 

 

Wanda's motivation was also completely silly,

 

 

Couldn't disagree more

Spoiler

Wander has the most interesting reason to be a villain in MCU.  She's has the power to have the life she wants but other will have to suffer because of it. Its a moral maze for her (not for us, obviously she should do it).

 

It a massive contrast to the classic villain troupe . Take the motivation of Thanos, he wants half the world to disappear just so he can live in a mud hut on the side of a mountain, there's just no point to any of it. 

 

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DeciderVT

DeciderVT

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, fly53r135 said:

 

Couldn't disagree more

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Wander has the most interesting reason to be a villain in MCU.  She's has the power to have the life she wants but other will have to suffer because of it. Its a moral maze for her (not for us, obviously she should do it).

 

It a massive contrast to the classic villain troupe . Take the motivation of Thanos, he wants half the world to disappear just so he can live in a mud hut on the side of a mountain, there's just no point to any of it. 

 

 

I stand by my original comment. Replying only to say that you have a very reductive interpretation of Thanos' motivations.

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drmick

drmick

Posted
Posted

I have noticed that the prevailing opinion of any MCU movie of people who catch it after release on streaming is negative in here.

 

So I'm curious to know the reasons why such posters choose not to watch it in the cinema.

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