Spoilers Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness grade and discussion thread

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I meant to post this yesterday but completely forgot.

The world premiere was yesterday and soon the rest of us will get to watch this madness!

I haven't decided if I'll risk a later afternoon on Friday showing or wait until a calm early Saturday showing. Either way, I can't wait!

 

I just saw it, really spectacular!

I was also reminded that I hate cinemas. The fat girl in the seat next to me managed to munch her popcorn so loudly that it took me completely out of the movie several times. And she constantly commented everything to her boyfriend ... whaaat, why is Wong the Sourcerer Supreme? Didn't you pay attention to No Way Home? Probably didn't hear the line because of your munching noise?

 

Saw it a few hours ago and well....

1: Lower your expectations. The trailers basically spoiled all the cameos.

2: If you have kids and want to take them I would think twice about it. The movie is full on Rami. Gory, scary.

I have mixed feelings about the film. The plot feels messy.
They showed some trailer before the film. Something called Avatar? Bunch of blue people running around. Looked boring as hell.

 

Hmmm. After seen some of the mixed reviews I might wait the 45 days and watch it on Disney+ instead of seeing it in theaters.

 

I don't think you are missing anything amazing here if you do that. I got my moneys worth but I did notice people shifting in their seats.

 

I found it enjoyable. The spoilers did spoil some of the cameos.

 

On the poster Dr. Strange looks like he is a part of a metal band.

 

I got a little nervous about the mixed/poor reviews the last couple of days but having seen it, I have to say they're almost entirely off base.

Is it the greatest thing Marvel's ever done? No. But it's pretty high up there. A massive improvement over Dr. Strange - which I didn't even particularly dislike though it is kind of the definition of middle of the pack Marvel - and, imo, at least a bit better than No Way Home, which was certainly very good, too. There are maybe five or six that I would say are definitively better than this one. No more than that.

The film looks gorgeous. The action is great. It's easily the most magical movie in the MCU and really (finally) delivers on the promises people made about the first DS film being so visually mind-bending. The central character arc for Dr. Strange is one of the best in the MCU and incredibly well done. America Chavez is a great addition to the franchise, fun all the way through the film and while I've seen some people argue she's too shallow/cliched, it's not exactly like the original introduction of Falcon or War Machine or, well, almost any secondary character in the mcu was any deeper than this. She is still a secondary character in this movie.

Wanda is the part of the film that's going to cause the most controversy for obvious reasons. I'm not necessarily wild on the direction her character is sent in because of this film, but I do think it makes sense enough as a followup to WandaVision (and in the context of the specific rules of MCU magic wrt the effect a certain item has on people in general). I also have to say Elizabeth Olsen absolutely killed it. So while I wonder about the future of the character and may be significantly less thrilled about this movie in the future if the character's future really doesn't turn out satisfactorily, right now I think this is a damn good story even I would've preferred a different one.

As for all the 'not multiverse enough' reviews, that's horseshit that tells you more about people's ridiculously unrealistic expectations than about the film. Its as 'multiversal' or moreso than Into the Spider-verse. The only thing it really isn't is a giant cameo engine for all the famous actors from previous movies and shows or an endless whirlwind through dozens of alternate universes. Which is obviously a good thing, because it still has an actual story to tell that involves specific characters and specific places that are important. The multiverse stuff is very specifically there to serve those characters and that story, not the other way around.

I do that at literally every movie. Theater seats just aren't that comfortable.

 

Well I loved it but can also understand the mainstream reviews. This is the most full-on comic-book comic-book movie they've released, with a helping of Sam Rami horror-comedy on top. It also moves like a rocket packing in lots of action but not much drama. The one big disappointement was America who was dragged along in other characters wake with little to do until the end of the movie. She'll be great in Young Avengers though.

It's a shame all the cameos were spoiled, half of them by the official trailers, but they did manage to keep the fact that this was Secret Wars Part Zero a surprise.

 

The BBFC are being very clear about this, but I love the positive spin they're playing on it. It sounds like this film might turn about to be a gateway film to introduce a lot of kids to horror (and that's a good thing!)

Anyway probably won't see this until next week now so gonna duck out of this thread

 

I don't think any kid would be scared of this movie. There are episodes of South Park running all around the clock on TV that are a lot more scary and gory and for all the kids to see. In Germany, at least ... I have no idea where you are from.

 

It's not 'The Batman' or 'Moon Knight'; for the most part it's fantasy violence and gore. Here in Ireland it's 12A which means children under 12 need to be accompanied by an adult and I'd say that was the right decision.

 

12A sounds right to me.

I'm also from Europe and in my hometown it's quite common for parents to bring very young kids into see these movies, I'm talking from the age of 5 upwards. The parents have no interest in the film, it's just a day out for the kids. Compared to South Park, which I don't think kids that young are watching, this is visually more realistic. I'm not trying to be over protective but it's good to be aware that this is darker than the trailers show.

 

Different cultures have different standards.

 

The Illuminati were beyond useless in this. I’m glad Tom Cruise wasn’t in it now.
Was cool seeing it contain two Enterprise captains though.
It was also on a smaller scale than I thought. I was expecting the group to have members from multiple universes but it was just theirs.
You can tell it’s a Raimi movie. That Dream Walker Wanda scene was very Evil Dead; with the bloody face and limping. Obviously the creep factor was toned down.

I can confirm that this Avatar sequel is real. They showed a trailer for it before the movie.

 

Some assorted Illuminati thoughts:

I think all of the actors were shot separately and stuck together in post-production. They never interact directly with anyone (except for Mordo).

They did the ripple effect from the animated series when Xavier uses his powers (and used a bit of the theme music)!

Hayley Atwell definitely needed another go at that line as it should have been a big moment but come off very flat.

I'd love to have been in the room when Anson Mount's agent called him with the news. It must have sounded like a joke at first.

Will they just ask John Krasinski to direct Fantastic Four is it too big a proposition from someone to do both jobs on?

 

I have a issue calling their universe 616. That's the comic universe. I thought it had a designation anyway. Earth-199999

 

Initially, I had the same reaction. But I considered, this was the number the Illuminati's people on Earth 838 gave it, while the main-universe of the comics got theirs originally from the Captain Britain Corps, so it might just be a case of two different organisations (which, to our knowledge, aren't even aware of each other) assigning the same number to different universes. It makes one wonder, though, why the Illuminati didn't assign their own universe the number 1, why 838? One would presume such a numbering system to be applied to the order in which they've become aware of the universes, so it would have made more sense for them calling their own univers '1'.

It might also be the case similar to how DC's current comic multiverse (which is not the same as previous multiverses) and movie/TV multiverse are seperate multiversal clusters in the larger Omniverse. I mean, the comics' Earth-1 and the Arrowverse's Earth-1 are not the same.

 

A+

One of my top 3 favorite Marvel movies ever, rivaling both The Avengers and the first Doctor Strange as my all time favorite.

Waited 25-30 years for this version of Professor X. He did NOT disappoint!

Also, I'm SO pleased that the focus was primarily Doctor Strange. I was worried he might be overshadowed in his own movie, but he most definitely wasn't. Also, CLEA!!! OMG, and she is perfectly cast! Can't wait for the third film! Calling it now: Doctor Strange in the Dark Dimension!

 

“The Bride of Doctor Strange” ?