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?
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 questions 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.
This movie was okay, but could have been so much better. There are also a lot of dumb decisions made by characters. Why would you tell a powerful villain what the most powerful hero on your team can do?
My questions - Why is Wanda only looking for her children and not Vision or her brother. Why doesn’t Wanda or Doctor Strange find her children in a multiverse where they do not have their mother and let Wanda raise them? Why doesn’t Wanda conjure up some new children, she created them to begin with? Lots of questions could have been answered in a few short scenes or lines of dialogue. This movie had me asking too many questions about why characters did what they did. Also, don’t introduce awesome new characters just to tease us and kill them, that is mean.
Click on the photo to the left to see this collection of movies on amazon.com