Year of Release: 2022
Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stuhlbarg, Hayley Atwell, Anson Mount, Lashana Lynch, John Krasinski, Patrick Stewart, Sheila Atim, Bruce Campbell, Charlize Theron
Genre: Action, Adventure
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
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Synopsis and Review:
Director Sam Raimi is back, after a considerable hiatus from directing features and focusing on his producing endeavors across multiple shows. After the somewhat disappointing "Oz the Great and Powerful", the director is back and once more working with Marvel after his successful experience in bringing the original "Spider Man" character to the big screen. This new adventure of Dr. Stranger takes place after the events from "Spider Man: No Way Home", where the characters became acquainted with the fact that there are multiple realities occurring simultaneously. Stephen is attending Christine's wedding, when he witnesses a teenage girl being attacked by a monstrous creature. Upon defeating it, he goes in search of answers, and seeks out the help of his friend, the avenger Wanda Maximoff. Much to his horror, he soon realizes Wanda is behind the attacks against the young girl, since she wants to capture her ability to move between realities. Wanda wants to be reunited with the children she conceived using her magic, but who live in parallel realities, and she will stop at nothing to achieve it. Influenced by a dark spell book, Wanda goes out on a rampage, with Stephen and America (the young girl she's pursuing), trying to escape her and possibly find a solution for the situation.
What has always been interesting about Sam Raimi's films, is how unlikely his heroes and central characters are. They're typically everyday individuals, who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances, where they challenged at every moment, and have to fight to overcome all sorts of obstacles, even within themselves. That's something that happened in the "Evil Dead" series, but also "Darkman" and even "Drag Me to Hell". This new adventure of Dr. Strange is slightly different, however some of the doubt and self questioning that Raimi's heroes possess, does present itself here as well. However and unlike most of his films, this one has a few too many formulaic aspects to go through, particularly during the first chapters where the exposition occurs, where the motivations for the narrative are expanded upon, and finally how the characters start interacting with each other (and their motivations are also fully exposed). Raimi's universe and point of view really do start popping up towards the third chapter, where some dark aspects of the narrative come to life, where the darkness of some characters are also clearly unleashed, which is not something very usual in a Marvel feature. However for all its visual flourishes (and they're many and they're truly wonderful), the characters still feel fairly unidimensional, even across multiple universes, and some of the cameos that pepper the film are borderline kitsch. It's a film where there seems to be a constant friction between Sam Raimi and his vision, versus Marvel and their formula. While the formula continues to be bland and somewhat repetitive, Sam Raimi manages to bring something different and engaging to the feature, even if it is briefly. The cast tries their best to bring these characters to life, but the big highlight goes to the production team, including the cinematography from John Mathieson, costume design from Graham Churchyard and score from Danny Elfman. Entertaining but not memorable.
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