Doctor Strange - Great Graphics, Forced Heroism

The first scene opens and immediately the movie forces Dr. Strange’s genius upon you. You can’t escape it, except if you know the first thing about medicine you’d know that every so called challenging case he takes up are no-brainers. His overconfidence in his abilities, his blatant disregard for his colleagues including the woman he apparently harbors feelings for and his desperate attempt to come off as witty is a cringeworthy experience.

In fact, if you have watched House MD, you’d be convinced that Benedict Cumberbatch has made a desperate but failed attempt at channeling Hugh Laurie. Laurie too is British with a fake American accent in his show; the difference being Laurie’s accent happens to be quite convincing. While we are on the subject, Dr. House is legitimately wittier and Laurie is an actor whose acting skills are versatile, contrary to Cumberbatch who always plays the same old “high functioning sociopath” in every movie and is a repetitive actor with nothing new to offer.

As the movie goes on, we see Dr. Strange losing his dexterity which is a tragic event for anyone, even more so for a surgeon, but again I was unable to empathize with the character portrayed on screen. Why should I care about an egotistical jerk who is not even funny. This is a fault in the script which should have spent a little more time developing the character and feelings of Dr. Strange, and a little less time on the over lengthy CGI scenes.

The CGI was undoubtedly stunning; the 3D effects were outstanding and had great depth with an almost lifelike quality to them. The scenes of Nepal portrayed were astute and flattering. The kaleidoscopic rotation of the NYC landscape was as enchanting as it was captivating. Sadly enough, the visual aspect of the movie was its best part. Wait, I take that back. The best part was Chris Hemsworth as Thor in the cameo, providing us a hint to what’s happening in the upcoming Marvel movies.

That brings me to my next point, Dr. Strange as a superhero is not someone you would root for, or in my case, fantasize about dating. His cloak, in fact, is much more appealing than the hero himself. This makes me reiterate my previous statement, the script should have focused on character development because empathy is what makes Marvel superheroes endearing. Thor’s banishment and subsequent penance, Hulk’s fear of hurting people, Wolverine’s agony filled unending life and Iron Man in his entirety – these are some traits that made us love the previous superheroes. Dr. Strange has no such traits in his arsenal.

If you ease your eyes and look, you would see that in his cloak and superhero suit combination Dr. Strange looks like Iron Man from several angles, even the facial hair is exactly the same.

The thing I loved about the movie was that it ventured into the metaphysical universe and focused on spirituality and the wonderful human psyche which has always been a personal fascination of mine.

The character of The Ancient One played by Tilda Swinton is nearly flawless, right up to the point where she is stabbed and killed off in a sequence that seems unnecessary. It is true that unless the mentor is dead or incapacitated the mentee cannot realize his true powers, but unlike most Marvel movies, this trope seems excessively forced here. We didn’t even get the time to marvel at The Ancient One’s staggering power and agility.

Another thing that makes Marvel movies, well marvelous, is the presence of a slick villain whom you love to hate and hate to love. Loki, Ivan Venko, you name it. Dr Strange lacked in this department too. Dormammu, while powerful, was not slick enough and his Zealots appeared like the minions they were, right from the start. I suppose that might change in the sequel when Mordu becomes the villain that we would love to hate.

The dialogs are pretty good, especially the sass that oozes out of the side characters, in particular, Mordu with his Wi-Fi password, Wong with his stoic face (#restingbitchfacegoals) and every other dialog of The Ancient One.

It is a onetime watch especially if you are following the Avengers-Infinity Stone plotline and for the stunning visual effects.

·         PLOT – 4/10

·         COSTUME – 7/10

·         ACTING – 5/10

·         DIALOG – 7/10

·         SCREENPLAY – 9/10

·          OVERALL RATING – 6.4/10

What changes would you have made to the movie?

What was your favorite part? Tell us in comments below.