Marvel still in good health
Marvel take their biggest cinematic punt since Guardians of the Galaxy with the introduction of another character who is far from a household name.
Even as a childhood comic book aficionado myself, I was unfamiliar with the cosmic sorcerer – but from the trippy opening sequence that sees London streets turned inside out, I was hooked.
It also doesn’t hurt that Marvel once again nail their key casting decisions by luring Londoner Benedict Cumberbatch to play the titular neurosurgeon-turned-mystical hero.
While we’re firmly in superhero origin territory, we don’t spend too long with the playboy surgeon Stephen Strange before a car accident that horrifically damages his hands sends him to Nepal on a healing mission that opens his eyes to a hidden world of magic and alternate dimensions.
Cumberbatch handles the transitions from cocky medical superstar to angry and dismissive patient and eventual powerwielding Sorcerer Supreme with all of the charisma and gravitas we’ve come to expect from the Sherlock star.
There’s quite a lot of expositional dialogue in Jon Spaihts, Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill’s script – especially in The Matrix-style Nepal training scenes – which may sweep over the heads of the uninitiated.
But Doctor Strange is also one of Marvel’s most action-heavy movies – particularly for a character’s origin story – and it’s action immersed in some of the most innovative visuals seen in a blockbuster for a while.
Comparisons were made with Inception when the trailer’s folding cityscapes were unveiled and while Christopher Nolan’s hit scifi is clearly an influence, the effects on display here are their own retina-scorching beast.
There are gravity-defying inter-dimensional face-offs, astral bodies butting heads in a hospital and ingenious use or mirrors – and the Cloak of Levitation is a fun character in itself.
Derrickson also directs and many raised eyebrows when the Sinister and Exorcism of Emily Rose helmer was chosen to bring Doctor Strange to the big screen.
But his horror background serves him well with some nightmarish imagery (hands within hands) and psychedelic stylings that separate the aptly named Strange from its Marvel brethren – it’s just a pity a late ‘big evil’ looks like it better belongs in the ill-fated Green Lantern.
Derrickson’s co-written script maturely handles Stephen’s fractured relationship with Rachel McAdams’ nurse and is full of laugh-outloud moments, not least our hero’s banter with Benedict Wong’s master Wong.
Mads Mikkelsen shows restraint as menacing villain Kaecilius, but the character lacks back story.
Not Marvel at its finest, then, but the studio refuses to rest on its laurels with the brilliantly bizarre Doctor Strange a trippy adventure unlike anything they’ve done before.