DOCTOR STRANGE AND THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS
***
Director: Sam Raimi
Screenwriter: Michael Waldron, based on the Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
Principal cast:
Benedict Cumberbatch
Elisabeth Olsen
Xochitl Gomez
Benedict Wong
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Rachel McAdams
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 126 mins.
Australian release date: 5 May 2022.
The Multiverse is everywhere! Of course it is – it’s the Multiverse, dummy! Why, in the least 12 months alone we’ve had Spider-Man: No Way Home, Everything Everywhere All at Once and now, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. All of these titles rely on the ability to mash up multiple versions of their protagonists, so you can see why the concept appeals to moviemakers - basically, you can throw any idea into a film, no matter how outrageous or implausible, and make it acceptable because it can be justified by saying that it happened somewhere, sometime in a parallel universe. It’s amazing that Hollywood didn’t come up with the theory sooner. Or maybe it did, just not in this universe (FYI, most of the action takes place in a continuity known as Earth-616)?
At the outset of this latest offering from the Marvel Comic Universe (MCU), Master of the Mystic Arts Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is attending the marriage of his great love Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdam), only it’s not him she’s marrying. As he stares mournfully at the city, he sees a teenage girl being attacked by an otherworldly, one-eyed, octopus-like creature. He endeavours to save her but things aren’t going well for him until his old mate and fellow magician Wong (Benedict Wong) turns up. The girl introduces herself as America Chavez (played by 16-year-old Xochitl Gomez) and she has the unique ability to travel across the Multiverse, only she can’t control her power - it only happens when she’s terrified. Needless to say, someone else want to harness America’s awesome power for their own ends and that someone is none other than Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), a past member of the Avengers. Thus, the scene is set for a battle for the life of the girl and the battlefield is… anywhere and everywhere. There are multitudinous Multiverses and they all have slightly different versions of the protagonists.
One upon a time, you could dip in and out of the MCU and still have a pretty good time. These days, however, unless you are steeped in the goings-on of the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and copious superheroes and villains (and have a very good memory), it’s getting hard to keep up. The arrival of the Multiverse has allowed filmmakers to get even more creative and so characters from all these diverse sub-groups can now co-habit, as it were, like when Doctor Strange and all three incarnations of Spider-Man turned up in Spider-Man: No Way Home. So, in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness all sorts of characters from earlier MCU movies arrive but I won’t reveal them here.
To direct the film, producer Kevin Feige approached veteran horror director Sam Raimi, who hasn’t been part of the MCU since his Spider-Man trilogy in the 2000s, the ones starring Toby Maguire as Spidey. “When Kevin announced that he wanted to bring a little bit of a horror element to Doctor Strange, that was interesting to me,” explains Raimi. “Horror and suspense have always been fun aspects of moviemaking to me. One of the reasons I’m interested in Doctor Strange as a character is because he’s a magician. Growing up, I was a magician for kids’ parties and weddings. I really enjoyed creating illusions. A superhero who is an illusionist and a magician is of particular interest.” So, yes, there are some horror conventions on display in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in addition to a whole lot of very trippy computer-generated special effects. Raimi’s film is certainly a feast for the eyes; what’s lacking, though, is some food for thought - once you’ve digested the concept of the Multiverse, that is.
Screenwriter: Michael Waldron, based on the Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
Principal cast:
Benedict Cumberbatch
Elisabeth Olsen
Xochitl Gomez
Benedict Wong
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Rachel McAdams
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 126 mins.
Australian release date: 5 May 2022.
The Multiverse is everywhere! Of course it is – it’s the Multiverse, dummy! Why, in the least 12 months alone we’ve had Spider-Man: No Way Home, Everything Everywhere All at Once and now, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. All of these titles rely on the ability to mash up multiple versions of their protagonists, so you can see why the concept appeals to moviemakers - basically, you can throw any idea into a film, no matter how outrageous or implausible, and make it acceptable because it can be justified by saying that it happened somewhere, sometime in a parallel universe. It’s amazing that Hollywood didn’t come up with the theory sooner. Or maybe it did, just not in this universe (FYI, most of the action takes place in a continuity known as Earth-616)?
At the outset of this latest offering from the Marvel Comic Universe (MCU), Master of the Mystic Arts Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is attending the marriage of his great love Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdam), only it’s not him she’s marrying. As he stares mournfully at the city, he sees a teenage girl being attacked by an otherworldly, one-eyed, octopus-like creature. He endeavours to save her but things aren’t going well for him until his old mate and fellow magician Wong (Benedict Wong) turns up. The girl introduces herself as America Chavez (played by 16-year-old Xochitl Gomez) and she has the unique ability to travel across the Multiverse, only she can’t control her power - it only happens when she’s terrified. Needless to say, someone else want to harness America’s awesome power for their own ends and that someone is none other than Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), a past member of the Avengers. Thus, the scene is set for a battle for the life of the girl and the battlefield is… anywhere and everywhere. There are multitudinous Multiverses and they all have slightly different versions of the protagonists.
One upon a time, you could dip in and out of the MCU and still have a pretty good time. These days, however, unless you are steeped in the goings-on of the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and copious superheroes and villains (and have a very good memory), it’s getting hard to keep up. The arrival of the Multiverse has allowed filmmakers to get even more creative and so characters from all these diverse sub-groups can now co-habit, as it were, like when Doctor Strange and all three incarnations of Spider-Man turned up in Spider-Man: No Way Home. So, in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness all sorts of characters from earlier MCU movies arrive but I won’t reveal them here.
To direct the film, producer Kevin Feige approached veteran horror director Sam Raimi, who hasn’t been part of the MCU since his Spider-Man trilogy in the 2000s, the ones starring Toby Maguire as Spidey. “When Kevin announced that he wanted to bring a little bit of a horror element to Doctor Strange, that was interesting to me,” explains Raimi. “Horror and suspense have always been fun aspects of moviemaking to me. One of the reasons I’m interested in Doctor Strange as a character is because he’s a magician. Growing up, I was a magician for kids’ parties and weddings. I really enjoyed creating illusions. A superhero who is an illusionist and a magician is of particular interest.” So, yes, there are some horror conventions on display in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in addition to a whole lot of very trippy computer-generated special effects. Raimi’s film is certainly a feast for the eyes; what’s lacking, though, is some food for thought - once you’ve digested the concept of the Multiverse, that is.