Doctor Strange

I was looking forward to this one for the visuals but a little worried about the Doctor’s alliterative exclamations. However, just as Thor doesn’t endlessly spout faux Nordic oaths and misplaced thees and thous in his movies, nor does the Doctor’s usual vocabulary show up here. Now it is an origin story, so I may have to worry about this later but I am hoping he doesn’t say ‘by the hoary hosts of Hoggoth,’ - at least not more than once.

Dr Strange really did seem a no-brainer for 3D even more than most blockbusters these days so I had paid the extra and got the glasses on.

I would say they may have tried too hard to give depth to the 3D, as while we were able to stare down long hallways and into huge spaces this was at the expense of objects and people in the foreground often being blurred. Either that or I need new 3D glasses or Cineworld are not showing the movie properly.

The movie struck me as well paced until the final section, which seemed to drag a little and could have done with a few cuts. At an hour and fifty five minutes it’s not especially long but I think might have beneficially lost five minutes of the last twenty.

The spell casting effects were not quite what I expected. All spells produce an orange sparkler-like effect whereas in the comics spells are more varied in shape and colour. Pity about this but I thought the overall feel was right. The Eye of Agamotto and the Cloak of Levitation were present and correct. The dark dimension was a good effort.

The ridiculous aspects of superheros such as Dr Strange and Thor need skill in scripting to overcome and I think this was achieved. Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance also helped to make the Dr a reasonably believable character.

Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Benedict Wong give excellent support. Tilda as the Ancient One adds a much needed female, or at least androgynous, presence. Dr Strange’s usual love interest Clea does not feature but I think it’s a wise decision to save her for later. Instead he is in the process of breaking up with Dr Christine Palmer who is named after a nurse character who appeared briefly in early 70s Marvel comics.

Wikipedia recounts some of director/writer Scott Derrickson’s consideration of racial stereotyping and the careful thought he gave to casting The Ancient One and writing Wong, who was originally just a cliched oriental servant. 

Inception has been mentioned as an influence and rightly, but I would like to point to ‘Dark City’ for the idea of moving and reforming buildings. I must see Dark City again sometime soon, I believe it’s an underrated piece of work.

Dr Strange is definitely a superior Marvel flick and I recommend seeing it. I’d definitely go to a sequel.