10 Things I Hate About Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness

Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness arrived in theaters following a delay due to COVID-19 and somehow, even with extra time to tweak it and fix mistakes, the movie arrived in theaters and is absolutely awful. I despised Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness. I hate the CGI, I hate what they do to one particular beloved character, and I hate that the overall theme of Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness could be boiled down to a motivational meme on a random Instagram account.

So, in order to purge myself from my very first fully negative Marvel movie review, I have decided to write a list of the things I hated about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Spoiler Alert, this article will be filled with spoilers, I am holding nothing back. You’ve been warned.

1. Why is there a music note fight in Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness?

A battle between Doctor Strange and an evil version of himself has been touted in the trailer and other marketing materials for Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness for several months now. Well, don’t get your hopes up. There is a fight, of sorts, but wow does it look silly and contribute next to nothing to the movie. For reasons that only Director Sam Raimi can explain, the battle of Strange vs Strange is fought with magical musical notes. There is no reason given for this, it just happens and you are left to watch it and wonder why this is happening.

My theory is that the filmmakers hired Danny Elfman and wanted to give him a showcase. Nevermind that this does not play into anything thematic or that it stops the movie dead in a key moment late in the movie, they just give an entire scene over to Danny Elfman coming up with a kooky musical piece to accompany music notes magically being flung between Doctor Strange’s as if they were flaming ninja throwing stars. Believe me, my description makes this sound WAY cooler than it actually is.

2. Wanda Dies and is Badly Mistreated as this Film’s Bad Guy

Wanda Maximoff, The Scarlet Witch, a beloved character in The Avengers and her TV series, Wandavision is turned into the bad guy for Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness and she dies. All that time and emotion that you’ve invested in Wanda as a character is out the window. Now, I get that this is now a Multiverse and that there are other, heroic versions of Wanda somewhere in that vast Multiverse, but there is something messed up about taking the character we’ve invested so much time in and turning her evil only to serve another character’s narrative in their movie. Wanda is treated as if she is second rate and, for me, Wanda Maximoff is not second rate.

That said, Elizabeth Olson delivers the best performance in Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness. Her talent damn near redeems some of the awful things about this movie. Sadly, Wanda is undermined at every turn by a plot that turns her into an idiot. She’s trying to get a hold of the new character, America Chavez, and steal America's power to move through the Multiverse. Stealing the power will kill America but Wanda is willing to kill if it means finding a universe where she can be with her two sons.

The plot requires Wanda to stupidly allow America to get away twice only so this idiot plot can move forward. Wanda has the power to destroy America and the opportunity to do it was when America arrived in her universe. Wanda instead sends a monster to capture America which gets Doctor Strange involved. Then, when Strange comes to ask for Wanda’s help, she ends up revealing that she’s the evil Witch out to kidnap and kill America. Why? Only so that the idiot plot can continue. A smart play would be to simply go along with Strange and then betray him when she gets the chance to be near the kid. But no, that ends the movie. So, Wanda is stuck being made a fool of repeatedly so this idiot plot can go on.

3. The Cameos in Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness are just awful.

Several fan favorite characters debut in alternate universe versions of themselves in this movie and they are treated even worse than poor Wanda. Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness introduces audiences to John Krasinski as Dr. Reed Richards and he looks very silly. His costume is bad and he dies in an utterly shameful fashion in a fight against Wanda. I was embarrassed for the character and for John Krasinski that this is how this character is introduced. Yes, it’s just an alternate universe version of Reed Richards but still, he looks very dumb in this movie.

The same fate befalls our beloved Captain Britain, alt-universe super-powered Peggy Carter, who makes her first human appearance in the MCU, as played by the wonderful Hayley Atwell. She also looks kind of silly as her costume appears a tad ill-fitting. But far worse than her costume cut is her death which is nearly as embarrassing as the fate of Reed Richards. Two other characters also get unfortunate and embarrassing endings in Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness but I am not familiar enough with those characters, I haven't done the extended homework needed, to identify them. Just know that they die horribly and embarrassingly.

It’s so bad, it’s as if Sam Raimi watched the opening of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and said ‘Hold my beer.’ I laughed at these characters and their dubious endings and I am sure that was not the intended reaction. Oh, I almost forgot, Charles Xavier, as played by Patrick Stewart appears here and dies in embarrassing fashion as well while riding around in what can only be described as a bright yellow bumper car, because we can’t have nice things. If these were intended to be funny ways to play in The Marvel Multiverse, making characters look like chumps, the joke doesn’t land.

4. Wigs

This is a very minor complaint but the wigs in this movie are awful. The hair in this movie in general is terrible but specifically, the hair and make up department owe poor Rachel McAdams an apology. Whether her alternate universe self is wearing a wig or they styled her real hair so badly that it looks like a wig, I don’t know, but it looks awful. The same can be said about each of the hairstyles that poor Benedict Cumberbatch endures in this movie, he looks like he’s in a high school play of Doctor Strange in some scenes. And poor Michael Stuhlbarg, not only is his scene just him being needlessly petty to Stephen Strange before disappearing completely, he’s saddled with this ratty blonde wig that could not possibly look good on any living soul.

5. CGI

How is it possible that the Marvel Universe could take such a remarkable step backwards in CGI? Is this technology no longer being improved upon? The CGI in Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness is so bad. The CGI monsters early in the movie are rubbery and when characters interact with these monsters they turn into stretchy cartoon characters. There are 20 year old movies with first generation CGI that look more believable than what you see in parts of Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness.

6. The filmmakers don’t understand The Multiverse

Okay, that’s a bit of hyperbole on my part. Yes, they do understand The Multiverse when they want to. Other times in this terrible movie however, the filmmakers force these characters to look very dumb by having them not understand The Multiverse. For example, when Doctor Strange and America meet an alt-universe version of Karl Mordo, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Strange assumes that Mordo is his enemy because Mordo became an enemy at the end of the first Doctor Strange film. But this isn’t the same character. Why does he assume that another universe version of Mordo is his enemy? Well, he’s right, Mordo turns on him almost immediately because apparently the Multiverse is all the same and different at once.

Later in the movie, when we are setting up for the music fight, alt-universe bad guy Strange asks our Doctor Strange to prove who he is. Our Doctor Strange explains that they had a sister named Donna that they never talk about because she died in an accident they feel responsible for. Now, let’s put aside that this is just dropped on us out of nowhere, why does Strange assume that Donna died tragically in this universe as she did in his? Well, she did, conveniently enough, because, again, The Multiverse is only filled with infinite possibilities when it suits the screenwriting team.

7. Bury Your Gays

Yup, once again, a comic book movie engages in the awful, unwelcome, and cheap Bury Your Gays trope. When we are given a glimpse of America's backstory we find that she had two mom’s. Then, she had an incident with her universe jumping powers and killed her mom’s by sucking them into The Multiverse. Now, you can argue, and Steven Strange does try to argue this point in the movie, that they could be alive. However, at the end of the movie, as America is training in the temple with the rest of Doctor Strange and Wong’s students, she appears to be making no attempt to locate her moms.

We see her learn to use and control her powers, that’s the big plot point of the ending that we will cover next, so why doesn’t she look for her moms? Until I see them again, I am assuming they are dead and I am almost certain no future Marvel Multiverse movie will mention this plot ever again. The actor’s playing the two moms are not movie stars so there is no chance anyone will recognize them in a future movie. Thus, I can confidently say that this inclusion is yet another disingenuous nod to diversity that falls into the worst and most offensive trope of modern blockbuster movies.

8. The moral of the story of Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness is ‘Believe in Yourself’

I wish I were kidding about this but I am not. The final moral, the arc of America Chavez, concludes with a zombie Doctor Strange telling America that she needs to believe in herself to defeat Wanda. By believing in herself, America gains control over her powers that she’s struggled with throughout the movie and she’s able to defeat Wanda. It’s a scene so unbelievably awful that it peaks with Strange telling America ‘Now go kick that Witch’s Ass.’ Man, I was making this up.

9. The mid and post-credit scenes are the worst

Marvel has for years created excitement around their mid and post-credit scenes. Fans are encouraged to stay in their seats all the way to the final frames for hints toward the future of the Marvel Universe movies and a funny stinger that sends everyone home happy. The Mid-credits scene of Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness features Doctor Strange, now with a third eye for some reason, right in the middle of his forehead. Strange is walking the streets of New York when he’s approached by Charlize Theron in an ill-fitting costume and bad hair. She tells Strange that he has caused an ‘incursion’ and she needs him to follow her into the Multiverse to fix it. I’m told the character’s name is Clea but since I don’t read comic books, I have no idea who this character is or why I should care.

The post-credit scene is only for fans of The Evil Dead, director Sam Raimi’s brilliant low budget film debut from 1982. If you’ve never seen The Evil Dead then you won’t know why it is supposed to be funny that Bruce Campbell, star of The Evil Dead, is fighting with his own hand in the post-credits scene. It’s a reference to a fight in The Evil Dead that is beloved by fans like me but will be a baffling mystery to those who’ve never seen The Evil Dead.

10. Magic is just punching and shooting with CGI sparks

In the vast imagination of writers of comic books and movies, the makers of Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness could not find a way to stage action that doesn’t reduce magic to a different way of shooting people? As Wanda attacks the sacred temple guarded by Wong, Strange and their magical students, the students defend themselves with magic arrows and magic rockets. They are no match for Wanda however who throws smokey red blobs at them. Then there are fistfights. Sure, they have magic on their fists but these are still fistfights.

Could no one come up with a better way to fight with magic? Is our imagination so limited that we render Magic as another form of weapons of mass destruction? The first Doctor Strange movie was very clever with magic. That film culminated with Steven Strange being clever against that film’s big bad. This one boils down to ‘Go kick that Witch’s ass.’