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Movie Review: 'Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness' is an Awful Movie

Marvel was going to make a bad movie eventually but I never imagined that Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness would be this bad.

By Sean PatrickPublished 2 years ago 5 min read
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Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness is by far the worst movie in the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe. Multiverse of Madness gets off on the wrong foot from the opening scene and gets worse and worse with every turn of the plot and obvious failure of logic. Haphazardly assembled by director Sam Raimi, Multiverse of Madness piles bad special effects on top of bad storytelling while good performances suffocate under the weight of those failures.

Right off the bat, the direction and editing of Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness is completely on fire, not in a good way. The edits and camerawork bounce around in a dizzying fashion that may be intentional but comes off as amateurish in execution. There is little rhyme or reason for the fast cuts and jarring camera moves and they come off as clumsy and haphazard rather than intentionally disorienting.

In this opening scene we meet America Chavez (Xochtil Gomez), a young woman whose power to leap from universe to universe in the multiverse, will drive the plot. America and an alternate universe version of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) are on the run from a monster in a bizarre and broken universe. They need to get to a magical book that could save them both. They fail to get the book and instead, a desperate and fearful America opens a portal that lands her in the Marvel Universe we’ve become familiar with in the MCU.

Unfortunately, during the trip to our universe, alt-universe Doctor Strange is killed and America is forced to go on the run from another monster on her own. This monster however, gets the attention of our universe’s Doctor Strange while he is attending the wedding of his former lover, Christine (Rachel McAdams). Abandoning the wedding, Doctor Strange intervenes to rescue America and, after stopping the giant monster, Strange discovers America’s story. Someone or something is chasing her from Universe to Universe intent on taking her Universe jumping power.

The big bad that is trying to kill America is soon discovered to be an evil and incredibly powerful Witch and Doctor Strange and his fellow magic users will need some help to fight a Witch this powerful. Naturally, Doctor Strange turns to the most powerful Witch and Avenger that he knows, Wanda Maximoff, last seen mourning the loss of her fantasy life in Westfield, New Jersey. Wanda is sought by Doctor Strange to help protect America and stop a major threat to the multiverse. Wanda however, has a secret that will throw all of these plans and the fate of the Multiverse into peril.

That’s all I can do before getting into spoiler territory. Since I know most of you will still want to see this movie despite my recommendation to skip it, I will not spoil it for you. That said, Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness is an epic of bad choices. Characters are forced to make choices that are not organic to them. Rather, the big bad especially has to make decisions that are downright idiotic just so the plot of this movie can happen. The bad guy of the movie is compromised multiple times simply because no one involved in this movie took care to make sure they had a motivation that made sense.

The big bad of Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness has a pair of big chances to simply end the movie and they don’t do it and the movie does nothing to justify why. Instead, we are left to believe that the bad guy is simply at the mercy of an idiot plot. On top of that, the choice of a big bad guy for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness is such a gigantic misstep that some fans will be outraged. This particular character is done dirty in Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness.

I’m trying to avoid spoilers here but this risks telling you too much so be forewarned. The moral of the story of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is that if you just believe in yourself, there is nothing you can’t accomplish. Yes, a major, big budget, comic book blockbuster can be boiled down to your average motivational meme posted on your Aunt’s Facebook. If you think I am kidding, go and see for yourself. I don’t recommend it, but if you don’t want to take my word for how desperately trite and misguided Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is then you should go and experience the disappointment for yourself.

I am someone who has been remarkably supportive of the Marvel Cinematic Universe all the way back to Iron Man. I am someone who has tolerated leaps in logic and plot holes you could throw a Hulk through. I have forgiven many cinematic sins because I enjoyed these characters and their universe. But Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness stretched my goodwill to the breaking point. The movie is just so all over the place, the story is nonsense, the CGI is somehow the worst in the history of the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the cameos and post-credit scenes are undoubtedly the worst.

I won’t say who appears in the cameo roles in Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness, even as many have already been spoiled, but those who are in the movie are treated like jokes. They are introduced in a bafflingly awful scene and what happens with these characters will leave most audiences dumbfounded. As for the mid-credits scene, apparently this requires some kind of comic book homework that I have not done because though I recognized the big name star making a Marvel debut, I have no idea who this character is.

The post-credits scene is not worth sticking around for. It’s basically a more than 40 year old inside joke between the director and a friend and if you haven’t seen what they are referring to, you will simply be confused. Another awful hallmark of Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness is the amount of homework you need to do to follow its plot and this post-credit joke. If you haven’t seen the first Doctor Strange, the Wandavision television series, Sam Raimi’s early movies, or if you haven’t read several Doctor Strange comics, you may be at a loss at some of what happens in Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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