Multiverse of Madness packs a punch by giving the audience exhilarating action scenes that would surely entertain everyone watching. They've got plenty of creative juice deploying every trick of the mystical arts and witchcrafts in such a quirky way. Adding to this is the horror theme that amplify the mystic elements surrounding the world of Dr Strange. Sam Raimi directed Evil Dead and for those who are familiar with his work, you could really sense a vibe of his renowned horror film. And talking about horror, if you're a big fan of Evil Dead or IT: Chapter 1 & 2, you'll love this. They make use of bizarre visuals to mess with your brain and elevate the experience by utilizing jumpscares that may shock younger viewers.
Sam Raimi really did capture the art of modern cinematography and I love that there's a sway or wave of movements with how he or the ASC holds the camera to produce such enigmatic motions.
No one could have played Scarlet Witch as awesome as Olsen. Her transformation from a lovely mother figure to someone who's evil and depressed is really convincing, I even symphatize with her. Her nuances of emotions when she speaks really brings her character to life. Dr Strange, like his name, is well... Strange-r. His character has become more complete and wholesome compared to where he was when he first came to the MCU. But his character is somehow used in a way as a device to further tell the story of the multiverse instead of making him a real superhero character. I didn't feel much excitement seeing him this time.
Making her debut appearance in Marvel, America Chavez has an interesting backstory with a huge potential of being likeable by the audience but... they made a mistake by not introducing her earlier in the franchise, putting her character at stake as she's responsible for carrying the whole movie with Dr Strange & Scarlet Witch. The problem here lies on her story where it's too rushed and not appropriately established, resulting in a disengagement of the audience with her. Marvel should have prolonged this film to a 3-hour focusing on her or made a mini-series about her on Disney Plus or at least, an episode of Marvel's What If...?.
The biggest problem with Dr Strange 2 is it doesn't maximize its potential to utilize the 'multiverse' concept properly. This is supposed to be bigger than No Way Home. Heck, should have been the biggest of all, putting Infinity War and Endgame behind. But the result was moderately disappointing. They didn't fully put their heart and soul to making this film and understanding the demands. Yes, the film is good but by the end, you'll think, 'that's it?'
Here's the thing, the first Dr Strange caught me off guard because of how gigantic the visual scope was presented on the screen. It's a visual-gasm movie. However, with the success of the first film and with the gripping 'multiverse' concept as the focal point, audience's expectation is off the roof. Dr Strange In the Multiverse of Madness suffers from the extravagant title that fails to live up with its hype.
Is it Multiverse enough? Barely. You'd expect the film will jump into so many different universes. Well, expect less... very less 😂. The low-budget Everything Everywhere All at Once shows us even more universes than this. And when they did stuck in a universe, that universe wasn't interesting enough.
Is it Madness enough? Quite. There's a certain level of madness to it but deciding 'Multiverse of Madness' as its title is mind-boggling. It's just not and that's a fact. The title would be better off 'The Madness of the Witch'.
The film is messy enough with a lot of terms and subplots that are not clearly explained or provided a justification for existing. Particularly in the third act, everything happened quickly as they try to explain major things that led to what have happened throughout or navigate the things that are happening without putting much effort into its weightage of storytelling.
A lack of cameos was what killed me. It's THE multiverse? Why not use this opportunity to have dozens of cameos appear? It only takes 1 sec for a beloved character to appear and audience would have been happy. But they didn't make this happen. They felt it's better to show every cameo in TV Spots and trailers and put a stop at surprising fans with more.
For a multiverse film, I was underwhelmed with how the VFX looked like. I'm not sure the reason being the budget or the scope or the lack of experience or understanding of the direction given by the head VFX to the team, but it's mediocre for a mega film that is previously known for its success of its VFX. Truly, Everything Everywhere All at Once has better VFX with only a team of 5-7 people.
Even the transition mostly is downright awful, felt like it could've been better and more polished.
There's a certain tone of cheesiness that I felt this movie could have thrown it out and replaced it with something more solid or ominous as it brings in the horror genre for the first in MCU. There were times the tone reminded me of Garner's Elektra and Affleck's Daredevil that turned me off once in a while.
Verdict: Somewhere in other universe, Dr Strange In the Multiverse of Madness might be the best MCU film ever made but in ours, it is a letdown for such a colossal film. Luckily, the witch casts a spell resulting in a film that is entertaining to watch.
Sam Raimi really did capture the art of modern cinematography and I love that there's a sway or wave of movements with how he or the ASC holds the camera to produce such enigmatic motions.
No one could have played Scarlet Witch as awesome as Olsen. Her transformation from a lovely mother figure to someone who's evil and depressed is really convincing, I even symphatize with her. Her nuances of emotions when she speaks really brings her character to life. Dr Strange, like his name, is well... Strange-r. His character has become more complete and wholesome compared to where he was when he first came to the MCU. But his character is somehow used in a way as a device to further tell the story of the multiverse instead of making him a real superhero character. I didn't feel much excitement seeing him this time.
Making her debut appearance in Marvel, America Chavez has an interesting backstory with a huge potential of being likeable by the audience but... they made a mistake by not introducing her earlier in the franchise, putting her character at stake as she's responsible for carrying the whole movie with Dr Strange & Scarlet Witch. The problem here lies on her story where it's too rushed and not appropriately established, resulting in a disengagement of the audience with her. Marvel should have prolonged this film to a 3-hour focusing on her or made a mini-series about her on Disney Plus or at least, an episode of Marvel's What If...?.
The biggest problem with Dr Strange 2 is it doesn't maximize its potential to utilize the 'multiverse' concept properly. This is supposed to be bigger than No Way Home. Heck, should have been the biggest of all, putting Infinity War and Endgame behind. But the result was moderately disappointing. They didn't fully put their heart and soul to making this film and understanding the demands. Yes, the film is good but by the end, you'll think, 'that's it?'
Here's the thing, the first Dr Strange caught me off guard because of how gigantic the visual scope was presented on the screen. It's a visual-gasm movie. However, with the success of the first film and with the gripping 'multiverse' concept as the focal point, audience's expectation is off the roof. Dr Strange In the Multiverse of Madness suffers from the extravagant title that fails to live up with its hype.
Is it Multiverse enough? Barely. You'd expect the film will jump into so many different universes. Well, expect less... very less 😂. The low-budget Everything Everywhere All at Once shows us even more universes than this. And when they did stuck in a universe, that universe wasn't interesting enough.
Is it Madness enough? Quite. There's a certain level of madness to it but deciding 'Multiverse of Madness' as its title is mind-boggling. It's just not and that's a fact. The title would be better off 'The Madness of the Witch'.
The film is messy enough with a lot of terms and subplots that are not clearly explained or provided a justification for existing. Particularly in the third act, everything happened quickly as they try to explain major things that led to what have happened throughout or navigate the things that are happening without putting much effort into its weightage of storytelling.
A lack of cameos was what killed me. It's THE multiverse? Why not use this opportunity to have dozens of cameos appear? It only takes 1 sec for a beloved character to appear and audience would have been happy. But they didn't make this happen. They felt it's better to show every cameo in TV Spots and trailers and put a stop at surprising fans with more.
For a multiverse film, I was underwhelmed with how the VFX looked like. I'm not sure the reason being the budget or the scope or the lack of experience or understanding of the direction given by the head VFX to the team, but it's mediocre for a mega film that is previously known for its success of its VFX. Truly, Everything Everywhere All at Once has better VFX with only a team of 5-7 people.
Even the transition mostly is downright awful, felt like it could've been better and more polished.
There's a certain tone of cheesiness that I felt this movie could have thrown it out and replaced it with something more solid or ominous as it brings in the horror genre for the first in MCU. There were times the tone reminded me of Garner's Elektra and Affleck's Daredevil that turned me off once in a while.
Verdict: Somewhere in other universe, Dr Strange In the Multiverse of Madness might be the best MCU film ever made but in ours, it is a letdown for such a colossal film. Luckily, the witch casts a spell resulting in a film that is entertaining to watch.