Doctor Strange (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Magic)

[Kelvin]

American soap General Hospital featured a pretty remarkable bit of product placement this week: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJtnJwQPSWg

Apparently the show is on ABC, which is owned by Disney.

[Glebe]

American soap General Hospital featured a pretty remarkable bit of product placement this week: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJtnJwQPSWg

Apparently the show is on ABC, which is owned by Disney.

Fuck, that's a bit blatant, innit?

Here's the end credits theme... cod-mystical bollocks!

[Glebe]

Jimmy Kimmel Hires Dr Strange.

B-roll footage #1.

B-roll footage #2.

[weekender]

B-roll footage #1.

I have literally only just realised how they do that bit in films where people appear to dodge bullets by lying down backwards on invisible tables.

I feel quite, quite stupid.

[Bazooka]

I do not like Cumberbatch as an actor at all because he has no range, can I still enjoy this?

[Obel]

I'm sure for 60% of the movie he'll be fully CGI anyway so it'll probably be fine.

[Glebe]

Doctor Strange 2: Director Confirms Early Plans.

"What made The Dark Knight so great was that the origin story of Batman had been well-told, and then it was time to bring in a villain where you really got to go deep. And not just the Joker, also Two-Face. It was a more visceral experience, I'd love to be able to do that for Doctor Strange."

Yeah, well you've already done Batman Begins with him all bedraggled with a beard and finding monks in the Far East and being trained by them. Plus there's the Inception folding buildings... Christopher Nolan must be well flattered.

[Paaaaul]

I watched this. It's OK.

I was worried when I checked out the director's history before I went to the cinema. He's made some of the most appalling horror films of the last 15 years including probably the worst of the generally terrible Hellraiser sequels. Thankfully, it's a competently made film, though not particularly distinctive despite some amazing visual effects.

Cummerbund is probably the weak link. He's not a very good actor, is he? Mickelson(sp?) 's character is also a bit undercooked and bland. And a couple of bits near the end feel clunkily crow-barred in.

But it's OK.

[Butchers Blind]

Watched this last night and found it enjoyable popcorn entertainment.  The CGI use of cities folding in on themselves was fun but, yeah you were reminded of Inception.  Cumberbatch was a bit hit and miss especially his american accent - would it have mattered if he kept his own?  The humour where it was felt laboured in places and some of the cast - Rachel McAdams, Michael Stuhlbarg - were underused but on whole it was an interesting deviation from the current Marvel output

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even though the infinity stone and Thor at the end were shoehorned in

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.

[olliebean]

If he was a British surgeon, though, presumably he'd be Mister Strange.

[Blue Jam]

I usually fucking loathe superhero shite but this looks like enjoyable nonsense and I like Benadryl Crumblebitch[nb]Though not sex-wise, not since I began working for a boss who looks a bit like him and has ruined him for me[/nb]. Will I like this?

After hearing the news about Cumberbaby #2 being on the way I'll be keeping an eye on this absolutely insane blog:

https://hunterhypereport.wordpress.com/

[Paaaaul]

I usually fucking loathe superhero shite but this looks like enjoyable nonsense and I like Benadryl Crumblebitch[nb]Though not sex-wise, not since I began working for a boss who looks a bit like him and has ruined him for me[/nb]. Will I like this?

After hearing the news about Cumberbaby #2 being on the way I'll be keeping an eye on this absolutely insane blog:

https://hunterhypereport.wordpress.com/

This is entirely a superhero film in the same vein as the other Marvel films, but with a slightly different paint job,. It's at the the bottom end of the Marvel superhero film canon. Bumberpatch plays the same person he plays in everything, but with a different haircut, and doing a bad attempt at a Robert Downey voice.
If you haven't enjoyed any of the rest of these Marvel films,I would probably give this a miss.

[weekender]

Watched this last night and found it enjoyable popcorn entertainment.

That's my general approach to Marvel films.  I don't go in expecting them to change the world, but they're usually enjoyable enough to pass a couple of hours, and have enough humour/self-deprecation/action to stand out as decent.  If I had to choose a couple that stood above the 70% parapet, I'd choose 'Captain America: Civil War' and 'Avengers: Assemble'.

The DC Comics films though, they just seem joyless.  I don't know why.

[Butchers Blind]

The DC Comics films though, they just seem joyless.  I don't know why.

Watched Suicide Squad the other week and that was indeed a joyless and muddled experience.  Highlights how some trailers can mislead an audience.

[weekender]

I saw this today.

The criticisms levelled so far - Cumberbatch's accent, the usual Marvel clichés - are fairly accurate.

That being said, I think this one is different enough that even if you don't usually like superhero films, this has a strong enough plot (albeit based on total enjoyable magic nonsense, of course), decent enough acting and enough special effects to keep you enthralled.

What I found most interesting though was the visual effects - instead of focusing on the usual explosions etc, there's quite a bit here of what I would call more imaginative CGI - playing around with mental aspects, dimensions, that sort of thing.  It's hard for me to describe, as I am crap at describing things, but I genuinely would recommend watching this just to see the possibilities of what CGI can do nowadays.  Especially in 3D, I only saw the 2D version but wished I had gone to the 3D one - there's the usual 3D tropes, but it genuinely felt like there was enough to actually warrant the 3D investment here.  I might go back and see it again in 3D, actually.

A solid 7.5/10 pushed up to an 8/10 by the visuals.

Spoiler alert

I also don't think I'm giving too much away by saying that my favourite character was the cape.

[close]

[Jerzy Bondov]

I enjoyed this a lot. The plot is completely predictable - if any of it catches you off guard it's because you've not seen a film before - but the action scenes and the effects are great. The reality bending stuff is much more than an Inception rip-off, and the final fight is refreshingly different. Loved the

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fight while time is running backwards

[close]

and the way they beat the big baddie

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without just punching it or throwing a bomb at it

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. It's also quite light on the Marvel Universe continuity shite - I've come to like it but I know lots of people hate it. Good scenes in the credits as well.

I agree with Weekender about the visual effects - really clever, unique stuff. The

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chase through the folding city

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is absolutely stunning. The MCU has gone full comics now. Remember in X-Men when they were scoffing at the spandex? Seems like forever ago now. Fuck your realistic superhero movies, we've got bald Tilda Swinton in bright yellow robes putting a building on its side with magic powers.

[Sgt. Duckie]

I saw this yesterday. Not really sure why everybody keeps chirping on about the Strange accent. It was nothing hideous and he did a good job. Benedict Wong does steal most of Benedict C's scenes however.

The film itself is glorious nonsense and those effects alone make up for the origin-by-numbers superhero stuff. Running up buildings and sliding off upturned buildings sideways has never looked so much fun. Infinity stone fans wont be disappointed. Slightly miffed Mads and his band of zealots were not more villainous. Yes they looked nasty, but they never really tore Strange a new arsehole.

A solid addition to the MCU but not in its upper echelons. 7/10

[Dannyhood91]

I've got a free evening tonight. I might potter on down to my local Cinema hut and catch a showing.

I'm seeing I Daniel Blake on Thursday too. What a lucky boy I am.

[weekender]

The plot is completely predictable - if any of it catches you off guard it's because you've not seen a film before

I'd give you karma, but I've forgotten how.

[hewantstolurkatad]

How did errol from fifteen storeys high do?

All the "but this one is a bit different" reminds me of the hype around guardian's of the galaxy, so imma give this a miss

[samadriel]

It doesn't break the mould, but it's enjoyable.  It's not as good as Winter Soldier, but it's much better than, say, Ant Man.  Not that I hate Ant Man, even, but it is better.  Errol is pleasing (and hulking!  What happened there?), but he's not in it all that much, really.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Some friends and I went to see this last night, rather than stay in and deal with all the children operating their annual sweet-based protection racket (I bought an absurd amount of pick and mix at the cinema, just to spite the little bastards).

It reminded me quite a lot of the Green Lantern film. Beyond the obvious  magic rings and conjuring weapons out of thin air, everything with

Spoiler alert

Mordo

[close]

in particular felt extremely close to

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Sinestro

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. It had the same odd pace - it's all going along as normal and then suddenly the baddies turn up and we're basically in the final act of the film, at what feels like the halfway mark. Plus the

Spoiler alert

final baddie of both films is a big giant head in space (There was a touch of Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer to that, as well)

[close]

. Vaguely shockingly though, Green Lantern might actually have had a better main villain. Kaesillyarse was given some interesting shading, but overall was your typical underwritten MCU baddie, whereas Hector Hammond at least had a bit of a character arc  (although I haven't seen the film in five years, so I could be remembering it wrongly).

Unsurprisingly, the visuals are the best thing about the film

Spoiler alert

other than Wong bursting into laughter at the end

[close]

. Don't believe the hype about the 3D though, it's as pointless as it always is. One of the parallel dimensions looked a bit like the quantum universe from the end of Ant-Man, which opens up some interesting speculative avenues. Supposedly it was Marvel boss Ike Perlmutter that put the kibosh on the more outlandish stuff in previous MCU films but, now control of the studio has been wrested away from him, hopefully there will be a lot more of this kind of stuff in subsequent films.

Contrary to my early worries, Cucumber patch's yankee accent wasn't remotely distracting. What was distracting though was the score, which sounded like it was recycled from Giaccino's Star Trek theme.

[Talulah, really!]

I usually fucking loathe superhero shite but this looks like enjoyable nonsense and I like Benadryl Crumblebitch

Quite probably, it's basically Harry Potter & the Glam Rockers of Doom with enjoyable intervals of trippy visuals which nicely manage to reference the 60s/70s era of 2001 and Pertwee Doctor Who and the computer animation endless zooming in and out of fractals period as well as the Inception/Car advert cities folding in on themselves that are the current in thing.

Anyway, obviously the Harry Potter films were made with Hollywood money but are recognisably a 'British' cultural thing so is this then the biggest Hollywood blockbuster without any American stars in it playing frontline roles? Even the Nolan Bat Man films all had Morgan Freeman as well as Katie Holmes/Maggie Gyllenhaal/Aaron Eckhart/Anne Hathaway in reasonably prominent parts.

[brat-sampson]

It was fun. Visuals were definitely the highlight, standing strong over the writing, plot etc. Not that they were *bad* exactly, but the visuals really were something else. From the acid trip near the start to the fun twist on the final battle I thought it was pretty stunning. It settles nicely in the mid-tier of the Marvel canon.

[EFB]

Doctor Gregory Strange.

[Glebe]

Saw it last night, in 3D... though it was pretty good, with a few caveats. The exposition about the magic stuff is inevitably a bit corny, although some of the gubbins is at least explained quiet efficiently, and their are a few little twists and turns in the plot that surprised me. The trippy visuals are fantastic, especially in 3D, and while the aforementioned Inception influence is obvious (and there's a touch of The Matrix too), they really go to town and do some pretty fabulous stuff. Bumbersnatch takes to the role like a duck to water, although I felt Mikkelsen was short-changed; a bit like with Le Chiffre, he has a potentially interesting character that's kind of rendered a bit useless. I liked his

Spoiler alert

little philosophical speech with Doc Strange

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, though.

The inevitable 'witty one-liners' hit the spot more often than not, there's actually a very nice balance of humour and drama. It's very much an origin story... a common thing I have with a lot of stuff like this is that - maybe through heightened expectations - I often find  the 'big finale' is a bit of a let-down. The

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winding-time-backwards

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bit is impressively done, but I thought it was a little strange (pun intended) that a guy who's only been practicing his magic powers for a short time is able to

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face-off against a big, powerful being like the Dormammu guy (and yes I know he uses cunning and guile, but shouldn't Dormammu have been able to wipe him out before he even got a chance to do anything?)

[close]

Also, he

Spoiler alert

gleefully condemns Kaecilius and his cronies to eternal misery, causing Fat Benedict Wong to finally have a chuckle

[close]

. That's not right, lads.

One more thing... isn't it a bit remiss to

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leave your powerful eye-medal thing there for anyone to have a go on when Fat Benedict Wong is caught napping?

[close]

But yeah overall, it get's the thumbs-up.

Alright, one more thing... would you really want to be operated on by a doctor called Strange?

[SteveDave]

Alright, one more thing... would you really want to be operated on by a doctor called Strange?

No more than one called De'ath.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Also, he

Spoiler alert

gleefully condemns Kaecilius and his cronies to eternal misery, causing Fat Benedict Wong to finally have a chuckle

[close]

. That's not right, lads.

Well they got what they wanted.

It was interesting to see Strange's Hippocratic oath brought up,

Spoiler alert

albeit when he'd already killed a baddie

[close]

. It would have been nice if they'd made more of that, especially as most of the Avengers are seasoned warrior types with no compunction about violence and killing. Having him outwit his enemies, rather than out fight them, is more interesting anyway.

The inevitable 'witty one-liners' hit the spot more often than not

I thought they felt rather shoe horned in. I've not read any of the comics, but I reckon Strange would work better as a more serious sort. He already shares so many traits with Tony Stark, it would be good to differentiate them a bit.

[Glebe]

Why One Christian Film Critic Is Slamming Marvel's Doctor Strange.

[Doctor Strange is] a dangerous introduction to demonic occult deception. ... The Bible clearly warns against the kind of occult practices and sorcery the hero in this movie learns to do, in Deuteronomy 18:9-12 and Galatians 5:20. Also in the movie, the hero's New Age, occult guru teaches there may be no afterlife, that death is truly the end, and that this is a good thing.

Yikes!

Asian Actors in Comic Book Films Respond to 'Doctor Strange' Whitewashing Controversy.

Also, apologies if this has already been posted... a trailer for the 1978 Doctor Strange TV movie!

Oh, one more thing... following on from the Marvel Films have Boring Music thread, just wanted to say that the score for this is a bit of an improvement over the usual bland Marvel score, and has a bit of a character and a flavour of it's own!

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Why One Christian Film Critic Is Slamming Marvel's Doctor Strange.

Yikes!

The films have already depicted the Norse gods as real. In for a penny in for a pound.