Full Of Sound And Fury

 Yet, In The End, Signifying Nothing

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) – Master magician Stephen Strange fights a threat that reaches into different realities of the multiverse. He recruits the Scarlet Witch into that fight, a decision that may result in his own death and the destruction of everything he knows.

Directed by Sam Raimi

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olson, Xochitl Sanchez, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong
 

Why I Liked It – Doctor Strange’s magic gives the opportunity for lots of stunning visuals.
 

I need to be honest upfront. If you take a combined rating between pre-1980 comic books and the MCU movies, Doctor Strange is my third favorite Marvel character. Iron Man is a comfortable #1 since I enjoyed the character in both media. Captain America is second (comics are good, love the movies), and Strange is third (comics are fine, movies are good). As much as I loved the Fantastic Four books, the movies suck. Thor has always bored me. Spidey is great in the books but the movies are all over the place. You get the idea. The Doctor Strange comics were amazing in the psychedelic artwork that you got. Benedict Cumberbatch is perfect as the magician in the movies.
 

And yet…
 

The movie made me think of Shakespeare, “Macbeth” to be specific. The title character there describes life as “…full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (Act V, Scene V). There’s a lot going on, but it never seems to lead anywhere. When I think of the MCU movies, it reminds me of the first Thor movie. Both feel like they are setting up what is coming next, but do it at the expense of the story in front of the audience at the moment.
 

There are so many questions left hanging. A young woman shows up with the amazing, unprecedented ability to move between iterations of the multiverse almost at will. They figure the “almost” part out by the end of the movie, but nothing else about America Chavez. We know her parents were killed in an incident connected to her power. She shows up wearing a Captain America flag and star logo, which no one comments on, and gets no interest beyond “Oh, you can do THAT? Cool”. She has a power that neither Strange nor the Scarlet Witch can match, but that doesn’t elicit much reaction at all.
 

Meanwhile, Stephen Strange shows up at the wedding of his ex, Christine Palmer, and plays the moony teenager. I expected him to begin weeping or begging for her to take him back. Meanwhile, outside the reception, an enormous (and honestly, rather cheesy looking CGA) monster is chasing America through downtown. Which results in an over the top moment at the end. And Christine? Forgotten once again.
My biggest complaint with comic book universe movies, and most science fiction movies these days, is that instead of the special effects supporting the plot, the plot is there to give the special effects a place to play. It would VASTLY improve most of the movies by cutting the CGA budget by 25-30%. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness would be a candidate for such bloat reduction surgery. One of the things that attracted a lot of fans to Marvel Comics was that there was a subtlety there that we didn’t find in other places. That bit of subtlety gets swamped by endless CGA monsters and fight scenes.
 

I’ve mentioned before that my taste for comic book movies has faded. I gave up on Spiderman a couple Spidey’s back, the last two Avengers movies are sitting on my shelf waiting to be watched, Batman has jumped the shark a couple times, Superman has become tedious, the Justice League, yawn. Guardians of the Galaxy feels like it’s done. Deadpool needs something beyond being a potty mouth to pull me back in. Even Iron Man gets a shrug from me. For some of them, there is still some room to grow. But it needs to grow more plot and less bang-zoom effects. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”
kept me watching till the end, but with less and less interest.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is streaming on Disney+
 

Rating – *** Worth A Look