Genre: Action / Adventure
Running Length: 1:55
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen, Tilda Swinton, Scott Adkins, Benjamin Bratt
Director: Scott Derrickson
Screenplay: Jon Spaihts, Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill
I've read before film critics complaining that the recent Marvel movies are starting to feel the same. As for me, the fatigue has finally set in with DOCTOR STRANGE. Eventhough stylistically it looks different from the others, this film is still cut from the same cloth. Speaking of style, one thing I did enjoy are the trippy sequences and the Inception like building-bending fight scenes. But even so, it felt tiresome after a while.
As for the plot, it follows more or less the same formula as any superhero origin story. Cumberbatch plays Dr Stephen Strange, a brilliant but cocky neurosurgeon who lost the precision of his hands from a horrible car accident. No longer can he practice as a surgeon, he desperately seeks healing from a mystical sect in Nepal led by the Ancient One (Swinton).
Naturally, Strange ends up to be the "chosen" one in the sect and has to battle a band of mystical bad people (led by Mikkelsen) who are up to no good and is detroying New York and London...yet again. Thrown into the destruction this time is Hong Kong.
From the very little I know about this comic hero, Benedict Cumberbatch definitely looks the part but I'm not sure if he nailed the character. He definitely has presence and his comic timing is good. However, the film's comedy element is bordering on silliness especially the anti-climatic finale. I felt like I was watching a gag reel.
Marvel Studios is a well-oiled scalable moviemaking machine and they will continue to use the cookie-cutter approach to churn out its content. Doctor Strange is going to make heap loads of money in the box office anyway, so why fix it if it's not broken?
Rating: 5.5/10
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