JUST WHAT DOCTOR ORDERED
Cumberbatch shines in Marvel movie
There’s only one word to describe, in this dismal year for movies, a superhero story that exceeds our expectations: Strange.
Doctor Strange is the final superhero movie of 2016, and the latest in the increasingly crowded Marvel-verse. And it includes a mind-blowing scene of its title character on a trip through the cosmos that makes the “star gate” sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey look like a walk in the park.
It also features humour, something missing in Batman v Superman (unless you hold that the film itself was a joke), and only half-baked into Captain America: Civil War. Granted, the Wi-Fi-password punchline was given away in the trailers, and the Beyonce joke isn’t really that funny, but give the filmmakers credit for trying.
Then there’s the name. As Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is happy to point out to anyone who’ll listen, he is an actual doctor. I’m pretty sure Doctor Who never went to university, and don’t get me started on Dr. Doom, who seems to have picked up his PhD in an alternate dimension. Anyway, Strange is a neurosurgeon working in New York, and cherry-picking the best/worst patients to show off his mad medical skills.
He’s aided by ex-girlfriend Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), who has already played a time-traveler’s love interest (About Time), fiancée (Midnight in Paris) and wife. If these two reconcile, she can add spacetime-traveler’s partner to her CV.
Strange’s medical career is cut short when a distracteddriving accident leaves him too shaky to perform in the operating chamber. He hightails it to Kathmandu, where he hopes to connect with The Ancient One and become her pupil. Instead, she gives him an astral-kicking. Tilda Swinton is FAB in the role: fantastic, androgynous and bald.
She eventually, reluctantly, agrees to instruct him, on one condition. Like all protagonists embarking on an origin story, he is told to “forget everything you think you know.” This fortunately doesn’t include acting skills — Cumberbatch is convincing as the smart guy who goes from frightened to excited at the prospect of new realms of knowledge, hitherto hidden. Nor does he forget the ability to speak in a credible East-Coast American accent.
Strange’s metaphysical education features more “of’s” than a witch’s recipe folder. There’s the Book of The Invisible Sun (which I think was written by Sting), the Eye of Agamotto, the Staff of the Living Tribunal and the Book of Cagliostro, to which hair and makeup adds the Goatee of Cumberbatch.
Oh, and there’s the Cloak of Levitation. Though given its optimistic, friendly nature, I’ve decided to refer to it as the Cape of Good Hope. It seems to have a mind of its own.
Finally, there are Sling Rings (What? Not “Rings of Sling”?), which let the wearer teleport through time and space. We see the mystics’ class of ’16 each taking one from a kind of cardboard display box. Given their usefulness, I’d have endorsed Strange grabbing two.
Strange originally came to the Ancient One with the singular hope of getting himself back in surgical shape. But he soon becomes aware of — let’s call him the Guy of Badness — also known as Kaecilius and played by Mads Mikkelsen with a great leer and a sneer. And because there’s always a bigger baddie, meet Dormammu, one of those swirly, computer-generated types along the lines of Thanos from Guardians of the Galaxy, or Snoke from Star Wars.
Director and co-writer Scott Derrickson and writers Jon Spaihts (Prometheus) and C. Robert Cargill create a fully realized, three-dimensional world (in 3D in some cinemas), with allies that include Wong (Benedict Wong: It’s a two-Benedict movie!) and Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), whom you’ll want to watch at the end of the closing credits to find out more about his motivation.
And for once a Marvel movie manages to explain away the lack of other superheroes in its plot — The Avengers don’t work on the astral plane, plain and simple. It’s not brain surgery, just as Guardians of the Galaxy isn’t rocket science. It’s just good writing.
Doctor Strange is bookended by some pretty fantastic battles. The opening looks like what would happen if a potions class at Hogwarts were attacked and overrun by anarchists. As for the climax — all I can say is that I’ve seen some great archery tricks, but I’ve never seen time’s arrow fly both ways at once. Strange, but good!