Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness

A month after it's release, I finally got to see Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. To be honest, I thought it was okay. This phase of Marvel movies and TV shows has been haphazard at best. I don't want to hear how the pandemic changed things. There are important people that can figure this out. I am glad that Marvel is at least trying to reach into their toy chest and see what works. Right now, they are coasting on the goodwill they have built up over the last decade. 

Admittedly, it's hard to see where this movie and all their other recent shows fit into the larger tapestry. Unlike the other movies (Black Widow, Eternals, Shang-Chi) though, this movie at least feels like it will have some larger implications for the MCU.

I think this movie and the last couple of shows (re: Wandavision) have been negatively affected by our expectations for cameos or easter eggs that are going to change the Marvel Universe. We KNOW Disney bought Fox movie properties, so we are expecting the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to make their appearance any day now. If we're being honest, Marvel has done about all they can without mentioning these properties, but that well is running dry. These characters will give a boost for the next ten years. They are arguably the two most important franchises at Marvel. I don't want to give away spoilers, but there were some cameos from certain characters that made me super giddy. I rode high on those cameo fumes the rest of the movie.

Sorry, I digress. This movie. I think part of your enjoyment of this movie comes down to whether you like Sam Raimi as a director or not. There is big budget Sam Raimi that did the Toby Maguire Spider-Man movies. Then there is Sam Raimi, cult favorite darling that brought us the Evil Dead movies and series. In this movie he tries to toe the line with both. What we get are some of the best and worst of Raimi. There are a lot of his signature shots (you know, the ground level zooming in of some mysterious force), the cameos (Bruce Campbell!) and the horror touches. This movie feels very much like a horror movie and in that respect, he is the right choice. You can almost tell though, that Marvel was like, "Cool, Cool. Love the movie. A few notes. We need you to add these things in here because we need it to connect to other movies and set up others. Fit it in where you want, we don't care. Just hit these marks."

At times, the story is moving along and then you get those weird Marvel touches that derail things a bit. For example, the inclusion of the Illuminati. Look, I love the cameos that come out of it, but it feels weird in this movie. It's one big easter egg that Marvel wanted to put in here to remind us this movie will connect to other stuff instead of letting it stand on it's own. Dr. Strange is strong enough at this point to carry his own movie without a bunch of cameos to buttress it up.

There are a lot of great shots and a lot of great Dr. Strange hero moments, which reminded me a lot of Spider-Man 2, which is a good thing. I also like that this movie keeps stressing that there is a cost to all this magic Dr. Strange is using which got exceedingly dark. I don't want to give anything away, but the last fourth of this movie is REAL dark. There is a scene where Dr. Strange is conjuring and controlling some evil spirits and a friend watching with me goes, "That is fuckin' metal." I am paraphrasing, but yeah, it is pretty fuckin' metal. And a cool visual. The special effects are fantastic in this movie.

The actors are great as always. Love Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange. Love Bendict Wong as...well, Wong. Elizabeth Olsen continues a good streak with Wanda. The ageless Rachel McAdams is even used in a better way this time. The afore mentioned cameos are cool as hell to me. There are two particular cameos that excited the hell out of me.

I think my biggest problem with this movie is the fact that the Scarlet Witch is the big bad. I only say this because after what we saw in Wandavision, we thought she was going to turn good or she had gotten her shit together. This movie showed that, no, she doesn't. But how long was the gap between that show and this movie because her motivations are weird, given what happened in Wandavision. Just a few lines saying that she found the Darkhold, been reading it for years and that corrupted her would make more sense. Instead, she morphed into a mustache twirling villain. Also, she is straight up murdering people in this movie, so it seems like there is no redeeming her at this point. I think it's a missed opportunity for Marvel. I feel like they took a weird path to get her to the comic book Scarlet Witch, give her the costume, acknowledge that she has magic powers and not "abilities" just to take her off the board. 

Before, I talked about the good and bad of Sam Raimi. There is a scene with musical notes in this movie that I was like, "Hah. That's kinda funny." Then it kept going and my inner old man jumped out and was like, "Ok, this is DUMB. MOVE ON." It was a moment where I started to turn on the movie a little bit.

Finally, my only other major gripe. I don't like that Dr. Strange is the one to go into the Multi-verse. It didn't feel right that Spider-Man also brazenly did it. These don't feel right. Other realms with magic? Sure. That's a better fit. Here it feels like Marvel has an end point, but don't know how to get there and they are just throwing everything out there and hoping it works. Bringing in America Chavez helps with this and I'm glad she is introduced here. She's great. It's just that Marvel is making some weird choices out here in these streets.

Now that I've seemed to have worked out some issues, summing all this up, this movie feels like a mess. Too much is jammed in here. If it was a chase movie where the Scarlet Witch is after America Chavez and Dr. Strange is trying to protect her, that'd be great. The movie basically that at it's core. They just made it too complicated with all the multi-verse stuff. In trying to please a fanboy like me with cool cameos, you alienate the normies that you need to get on board with this. These movies are at a point where they are asking too much of the non-comic book reading audience. You can't skip movies now and come back and know what is going on. By connecting everything, Marvel hurt the one off nature that these movies should be. Same with the shows. I feel for my friends that are less connected to this stuff and have to jump through all these hoops to get any level of appreciation for these films. It's way too complicated.

I want to give this movie a high recommendation, but I can't. I also can't promise that anyone that is not at least a huge fan of Marvel can truly enjoy all the little things this movie hangs it's hat on. There are a lot of references that are cool to me, but are not explained very well to the movie goer. There is an arrogance to Marvel movies and shows where they are like, "We know you watched all the stuff, so we don't have to explain anything" that is starting to bother me.

I hate that this movie pushed me over the edge a little here. It's not a terrible movie. I have called it "fun" when telling people what I think. "Fun" does not equal "Good". It means it has some popcorn moments that are cool once, but probably won't hold up to subsequent views. It is a good film to watch in the movies because the visuals are pretty spectacular. That first time is the best time.

On to the next two shows and movies, Marvel. You know I'm your ride or die.

Moon Knight - Season One

Even though I finished this show weeks ago, I haven't gotten around until writing about it until now. At first, it was to search my feelings. Did I like the show? Am I only liking it because it's a Marvel product and I'm such a fanboy? Then it turned into, "Man, I don't want to talk about this, I don't remember anything."

However, I have an obligation as "that guy that loves comics" that you know, so here we are. Ultimately, this show is kind of a mess. Before I go further (and I will probably say this a lot), Oscar Isaac is fantastic. He and he alone is the reason to even give this show a chance.

I'll spare you my thoughts on what I know about Moon Knight. Like most of the audience, barely enough. He has always had a cool look, but in the Marvel Universe, there is a glut of characters all based out of New York, fighting crime. Not all of them are winners. Marvel has spent a lot of time trying to get a guy over that has a cool look, but not much else. They have even leaned into his multiple personalities as a way to freshen up his character. The fact that he has multiple volumes of a series, but never a sustained run in the past twenty years should tell you everything.

When it was announced they were making a show, it was one of those moments where I was like, "Cool! I don't care for him THAT much, but glad he's getting a shot." Disney is clearly digging deeper into that Marvel toybox to see what sticks. I can applaud that.

I will say that I appreciated that this show takes place in London and then Egypt, fully moving the character out of New York. All these shows are dead set on using new locales and I love that. It at least makes the shows feel fresh. I even love that they got an Egyptian director to add Egyptian representation to the entire show. That was obvious in watching it and I'm a big fan of that component. It makes it feel more diverse and different.

Unfortunately, here is where most of my praise will end. I wrestled with this and I don't think this show is particularly good. It's not bad, per se. It's just boring. Outside of Oscar Isaac playing essentially dual roles and infusing each character with a lot of differences, there's not much else going on. The show tries to be smarter than it needs to be with a lot of misdirection. It tells you, but doesn't show you. For example, the bulk of the show bounces between Moon Knight's multiple personalities. It cuts away when action is about to happen and then cuts back to the aftermath. As a storytelling device, it is cool AT FIRST. The fact they keep doing it and don't reveal to us what happens in between the spaces by the end of the series is annoying. We are told many times that the Marc Spector personality is a bad ass, but we rarely see it represented so we can believe it. The rest of the events are fine, but not particularly exciting.

So the show gets away with not showing us a lot of action. There's some cool hand to hand moments spread throughout, but it's not enough to make this show a joy to watch. I shouldn't have to wait 5 episodes to see a cool fight. I also want to add, the pacing on this show is really weird. Additionally, there are some real TV quality special effects here. I know Marvel puts some money behind these shows and probably why they are only six episodes each, but they didn't stick the landing on this one. There's a lot of digital stunt work with Moon Knight. Most of the time it didn't look like an actual human doing anything, which is unfortunate. It takes you out of the action.

I'm also being on the record of saying I like smaller stories that don't have world ending implications. This story grows in scope to have Egyptian gods fighting each other and I didn't like that at all. I got major "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" vibes at the end. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. I'll use one word. Animalities. Anyway, in a Cinematic Universe where we see large villains fighting the Avengers, it is weird to see one guy protecting the world like this. Moon Knight has a lane and it needs to stay in it. Small stories for a small character.

I also had trouble imagining where Moon Knight even fits into Marvel's larger tapestry. You know they can't resist bringing everyone together, so where will this guy even fit in thematically. I don't know. We deserve more Oscar Isaac and I love what he brings to the show. I just think this project failed him in a way.

Out of all the Marvel Disney Plus offerings we've gotten (and there has been a lot), this was by far my least favorite. Would I watch another season? Of course, because I'm a fan boy. They leave enough of a mystery at the end, but I don't think that means it will be great. This show is and always will be powered by the brilliance of Oscar Isaac.