Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
12A cert, 126 min Dir Sam Raimi
‘You Doctor Stranges are all the same,” tuts Rachel Mcadams’s Christine Palmer, as Benedict Cumberbatch’s wizard embarks on yet another risky mission where the fate of the world is at stake. Christine, who is something of a multiverse buff, is referring to the various versions of Marvel’s goatee bearded hero that exist across various realities. But at this point, she might as well be referring to the Marvel films themselves, which have become largely indistinguishable dollops of digital gloop. If you enjoy watching randomly selected branded characters wisecrack, squabble and mope while pretending to fly around and shoot fireballs at virtual scenery, here’s another two hours of that.
The plot – in which Strange and a quartet of heroes from Marvel films, past and possibly future, try to protect a young girl capable of travelling the multiverse from Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) – is hectic and very firmly in the Marvel house style with just a sprinkling of director Sam Raimi’s signature flourishes. There is one genuinely thrilling sequence – a brawl with Wanda in what looks like the Great Court of the British Museum. It makes a change from having characters loudly explain the plot to each other on rooftops.