MOVIE REVIEW: Doctor Strange Is Only Smoke And Mirrors
Benedict Cumberbatch is in top form as Doctor Strange but the film suffers from a generic story
Doctor Strange is an important film for Marvel and the genre of films that are based on comic-books. This is one of the few superhero films based on a little known character who has a strong following. The last time they did this, they had Ant-Man, which was a decent flick. But does this Marvel flick has what it takes to conquer the box-office? Here’s our complete review.
Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is one of the best neuro-surgeons in the world. This has made him egotistic, over-confident and basically a person you’d trust your life with but wouldn’t want to spend a moment with. His world comes crashing down when he loses the use of his hands in a car accident - some medical mumbo jumbo, never you mind.
The good doctor tries all kinds of medicines and surgery to get his hands back, but he finally has to look into alternate ways of infusing life in his hands. That takes him to Kathmandu in Nepal where he learns of a mystical, magical world that has sorcerers, alternate dimensions, out-of-body experiences - everything that anyone who has a career in medical science will find hard to believe. He is trained by a mysterious woman called The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) And as luck would have it, he is the saviour that this mystical world is waiting for. What happens next forms the rest of the film.
Doctor Strange is a difficult film to like. There are some fundamental problems in this film. To begin with, Doctor Strange is one of the most ironic characters in the entire Marvel Universe. A medical science genius who has to embrace magic to survive. What the film lacks is a script that puts across this point. Apart from one half-hearted scene and another equally half-baked conversation, we don’t see the arrogant Doctor Strange putting up a hard enough fight to stick to his notions of reality.
Instead, the film’s script pays greater attention to the dimension-shifting chase sequences that have the Doctor fight the singularly most one-dimensional villain we have seen in recent times. These chase sequences have the cool factor, but there’s nothing memorable about them that the audience will take with them after leaving the theater.
What also leaves us disappointed is a wafer-thin storyline that doesn’t even disguise itself as an intelligent and well thought of one. A teacher’s favorite disciple, Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelson) goes bad and someone new has to be trained to defeat the said disciple. Is there anyone who hasn’t seen at least one film that has this storyline?
But the one aspect that’s really troubling is how the film tries to handle both time-travel and inter-dimensional travel, all while cocking a snook at the world of medical science. The last time a film had time-travel as a major concept was in the original Superman film and it’s considered one of the worst storylines ever.
Doctor Strange is not a complete failure though. Benedict Cumberbatch is in top class as Doctor Strange and put him in a good, tight script with any other Marvel super-hero and we will have a film for the ages. The VFX is incredible and the dialogues did have us chuckle. Even the kids liked the colorful action sequences. But unfortunately, after the initial hypes goes down, Doctor Strange might end up as the most underwhelming MCU film.
Image Source: youtube/marvelentertainment
- Trending
_2026-3-5-11-42-54_small.jpg)
