Doctor Strange
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Tilda Swinton
Directed by Scott Derrickson
Marvel Studios continues its winning streak with the eye-popping extravaganza Doctor Strange. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Dr. Stephen Strange, a brilliant but egotistical neurosurgeon. After a brutal car accident leaves his hands severely injured – with little hope of returning to the medical field – he embarks on a journey of introspection and healing to Nepal. What he gets instead is a mystical, mind-bending lesson in astral physics courtesy of a mysterious teacher known as the Ancient One (a bald Tilda Swinton).
Following a jaw-dropping opening action sequence that plays out like Inception on steroids, and boasts some of the best superhero CGI yet, the character introduction and early plot unfold as a hospital drama. It's a refreshing change that adds to the flick's assortment of quirky charms.
The script becomes laden with comic-book jargon; thankfully a versatile cast including Rachel McAdams, Mads Mikkelsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Benedict Wong are really selling it. Doctor Strange swings for the fences when it comes to examining hard sci-fi elements (astral projection, inter-dimensional portals) but maintains plenty of sly humour and features an astounding nod to a memorable scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
It also runs into familiar problems. The motivations for thinly developed villains seem once again to be universal destruction, and an origin story means a lot of exposition – which, admittedly, grows tedious by the end.
Still, Marvel is in top form here, conjuring a weird and sometimes wonderful spell on the audience while taking its cinematic universe in bold new directions.
