Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Released in theaters on March 6, 2022

Released on Disney+ on June 22, 2022

Runtime: 2 Hours 6 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Join Dr. Strange in his second movie (he has been in multiple others at this point, but this is the second with his name in the title) as he rescues a girl who can create portals to alternative worlds/dimensions in the multiverse. Sorcerer Supreme Wong, Wanda Maximoff, and Christine Palmer all return for this adventure.

The story builds on ideas from Wanda Vision (series on Disney+), Loki (series on Disney+), Marvel’s What If… (series on Disney+) and Spider-man: No Way Home. Can you enjoy the movie without watching any of these? Sure, but they give you a little extra background into the multiverse, past events that get referenced, and old and new character’s backgrounds. I would say Wanda Vision’s story effects this movie the most. I would watch it before watching this or you might be a bit lost on what Wanda is talking about.

Themes:

Themes in the movie includes sorcery, witchcraft, happiness, multiverses, alternate dimensions, demons, dark vs. light, helping others, friendship, betrayal for the greater good, teamwork, choices, loss, letting go, responsibility, and relationships.

Language:

I felt like this MCU outing had a little less cursing in it than other MCU films. I guess it depends on the writer and director. I did hear the “s” word once early on, but then it seemed like the word “crap” replaced it. I believe the a-word for butt and the d-word (with God in front) were both used. He also mouths the b-word, but you don’t hear it said.

Stuff to be aware of:

One of the characters has two mothers. You see them and they are referred to as her two mothers. It is insinuated that they are married/in a relationship. From my understanding, this character has two mothers in the comic as well.

Sam Raimi (the director) got his start in horror movies. He has a unique horror movie style, which is both scary and gross. This is the closest a MCU movie has been to a horror film. Expect jump scares, scary monsters, zombies, ghosts, lots of death, disturbing images, an eye getting plucked out, etc. There are several times characters die on screen in pretty gruesome ways (impaled, burned alive and turned into ash, crushed, chopped in half, broken neck, and some magical far out and weird deaths). Some characters get possessed. There is blood and some characters walk around with blood on them. This movie earns it’s PG-13 rating for sure. It is far darker than most MCU movies.

Overall:

I tried my best to avoid spoilers for this movie. I didn’t even watch the last trailer that was released, but I guess I have read enough comics and understood enough about where the shows and movies were going that nothing really surprised me. It was good and it was fun, but not my favorite. I enjoyed Spider-man: No Way Home more. If you are expecting this to be a Spider-Man: No Way home sequel - you are wrong. In fact if you watch Spidey before this you may come in with questions that are not answered in this movie. In fact, some of the magic from Spidey seems to work different in Multiverse of Madness. Where is Ned, when you need him?

Also, one character’s purpose/drive in the movie only partially made sense to me. I can’t get too much into it without spoiling things (I’ll post my question at the bottom if you want to see it). I also found myself wondering why some characters didn’t show up in the movie. However, if you are looking for cool cameos there are plenty.

Don’t expect every question to get answered and expect to leave the theater with more questions. There are lots of neat Easter Eggs for the MCU and a fun Raimi one. (spoiler alert) This isn’t the first time Bruce Campbell has had to fight his own hand.

I liked it but didn’t love it. I may be experiencing some super hero burnout.

My question - if you know the characters you may can figure out who I’m talking about without seeing the movie, but I won’t use names. One character wants to be with two members of her family, but never really searches for other members of her family.