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Doctor Strange, The Bleeding Cool Review – Complete With Man-On-Cloak Action

Published Mon, 24 Oct 2016 17:57:19 -0500

Last updated Sat, 29 Oct 2016 17:44:29 -0500

So Marvel Studios has done superhero films. The technological and the biological ones. The soldiers. The gods. The space adventurers. And now… the magician. Doctor Strange, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1963, in the same spurt of energy that also brought them Spider-Man. Who fast became a mystical superhero, joined superhero teams and currently continues to operate out of New York's West Village. And being played by a Brit in the new Marvel Studios movie. To be fair everyone – Doctor Strange, The Ancient One, Mordo, Wong, is being played by a Brit.

So, in that manner, I chose to walk from Waterloo to Leicester Square to see Doctor Strange the other day. It was a pleasant early evening and, after crossing the Thames, I enjoyed walking along Northumberland Avenue to Trafalgar Square looking up, the buildings, the windows, the sculpture of it all. Most pleasant.

An hour later I would be watching those very same buildings kaleidoscope out, roll up, split asunder, drop down and basically turn into technical Lego.

Not everyone will have the same experience. But those in London, New York and Hong Kong might. Those are the three locations of the Sanctum Sanctorums – sadly not in Paris or Munich. But it does emphasis the international locales of Doctor Strange running around the world like a James Bond movie.

That is also not the only similarity, the fast cars, the flash watches, the sharp suits, the women… okay, the woman… okay, um. Let's stop there.

Doctor Strange is the most sexless action movie I think I've ever seen. For all the calls for Marvel to have an LGBTQ lead, I didn't think that "asexual" would be first one out to bat. And, okay, that's not quite correct, but it's as good as. Sorry Rachel McAdams, but the closest physical relationship to anyone that Doctor Strange actually has in the movie is to his cloak. I'm not joking, there will be fanfic, slashfic written about Strange and the Cloak Of Levitation, as it appears in the movie as a twin to Disney's Aladdin's flying carpet, por to Spawn's cape, with paragraphs destined to be devoted to the cloak arching its back, the corners of the cloth sliding across Stephen's skin, following the scars along his fingers until… until…

And back again. Oh and there is so much focus on his fingers that I feel there's another subset of fandom that could be devoted to nothing bit.

So, yes, there's a lot of Bond to play with, though many will also draw more parallels between Hugh Laurie's House and Benedict's Sherlock here – and will point out how they are all the same character anyway. Here, Benedict Cumberbatch makes that flesh, he takes all that smugness but pairs it with an audience empathy that means you can't hate him. You join him on his journey, understanding his frustrations rather than hating him for them. And the film, by constantly making him the butt of jokes also keeps him from becoming too aloof. Especially as when that pride is generated, it always goeth before a very nasty fall. James Bond never got distracted by any Marvel Universe-referencing car technology.

So we have smuggest man in the world, fuelled on success, on risk, on not even taking jewelry off in surgery, brought low, losing everything he has, and trying to pull himself up by his bootstraps, finding that in order to succeed, he must acknowledge everything he believes to be false and submit himself even further below. With magical negroes, mystic warriors, and a lot of hitting on doors guiding his journey, opening doors both physical, mental and mystical.

Actually, here we get an interesting point. It has been observed that the Chinese will now allow any movies to play that involve the supernatural. And Doctor Strange had already bent over backwards to remove any Tibetan heritage from the movie that came from the comic. Well, it also manages to frame the existence of magic in non-supernatural terms, stating that it is all a matter of perspective. It's not quite up there with midichlorians explaining the Force but some won't like it. And it makes the magic more of a procedural process rather than something stemming from creativity and inspiration. However it does mean that Doctor Strange could, unbelievably sail straight through the Chinese censors. Until they get the bit about time travel and then the movie might as well give up. Because they hate that even more, and this is the specific kind of time travel they hate – the kind that might undo the Chinese Revolution.

Sorry, I know I keep getting distracted. But it's that kind of film, it throws all manner of discordant things at you, it's the audience's job to try and fight their way through. Those who saw very strong influences of the effects in Inception in the trailer will see them all over the place in the movie, though amped up to the nth degree with a fight scene that is so impressive in its choreography as physics melt around them, that it justified the experience of seeing it on the IMAX screen that I did.

But for all that, for me, it was the smaller moments that stayed with me. The jokes – and yes, this is a funny film. At least as much as Ant-Man was, and not something I was expecting. While the Inception-like battles manage to lose any idea of mortality and danger by being kaleidoscopic psychedelic delights, the film is determined to repeatedly bring things crashing to the ground (literally) and forcing Strange back into the surgeon reality that he thought he had given up to become a magical being. And that really works.

But for all that, the trip through the cosmos does have its Space Odyssey moments, including for a few seconds what appears to be the actual time vortex that the TARDIS travels through in the Doctor Who titles. And there is a scene towards the end where the 3D-IMAXness of it is used incredibly powerfully to make someone appear small, insignificant, a speck, rather than grand and cosmic. It manages this with far greater skill than Ant-Man did.

Since we are comparing films, Doctor Strange is probably the superhero film with the least recognisable sound track. Strange listens to music while a surgeon, and reveals himself as quite the geek. But the soundtrack list for the entire movie lists just four tracks, including "If You Like It Then You Shoulda Put A Ring On It" which we only ever hear muffled for a few seconds. This is a film without "Ooga Chucka", it creates its own soundtrack as it goes along. Maybe Beyonce belw the budget.

And yes, it is also worth pointing out that, for Marvel Studios, much is riding on the performance and reception of this film. It is the first one that Marvel Studios has made without any input from the comic book side of the company, as head of Film Kevin Feige successfully divorced the film side from the rest of the company, reporting directly to Disney and creating its own island. Which curiously seems to parallel the plot of the movie in some ways, the two worlds of Doctor Strange, the missing pages and the grab for power by Kaecilius. I'm sure different people will see Feige – or Isaac Perlmutter – in that role.

They do like the two worlds thing.

Especially when fingers are involved.

Everyone is there to guide or impede his journey – and they are only hurdles he needs to vault. We have an Ancient One, the absolute power who has to be corrupted. Mordo, the man who will be brought down by his expectations. Wong as the immovable barrier who must be nudged. Oh and Kaecilius whose eye makeup is lampshaded as definitely defining him as the Big Bad. But without him, Doctor Strange will never be the man, the Doctor he will be. So, yes, pretty formulaic, with the secret origin, the first battle and the learning of duty we have seen so many times now.

But for all that – Doctor Strange is okay. The details are entertaining, the spectacle is spectacular, and it's as morally cloudy as most Marvel films which at least gives you something to chew on when it comes to power and the corruption of it. And Strange, Mordo, The Ancient One and Wong make for an impressive and entertaining team – for as long as they last.

Overall, it's probably as good as Ant-Man. But it's Ant-Man with Benedict Cumberbatch in it. Which should please most folks.

A few Marvel Universe-based spoilers and speculation aside from the obvious.

So yes, we have Stan Lee's shortest but possibly sweetest cameo, reading The Doors Of Perception by Aldous Huxley, declaring that it is "hilarious".

The book details the the author's experiences when taking mescaline which isn't far off what happens on the streets of New York. While Doctor Strange was used as reference point for many people experimenting with drugs, this was utterly at odds with Stan Lee and especially co-creator Steve Ditko.

We are told about the multiverse. There is a reference to the staff of the Living Tribunal, the cosmic overseer of reality. The boots of Balder, the Asgardian warrior. There are also other figures that Doctor Strange is told in the car that he has the opportunity to heal – a 35 year-old Marine Colonel who broke his back in experimental armour – is that War Machine? Another one of those Justin Hammer volunteers? And an 22 year-old woman with schizophrenia with an an electronic implant in her brain struck by lightning – but this is Marvel, this could be so many people. Lodestone? Who knows.

Though we get a mention in the credits that "driving when distracted can be hazardous, drive responsibly." So that's us told.

But yes, it is revealed that the Eye Of Agomotto is formed around an Infinity Gem. Sorry, Infinity Stone. And from the events of this film, I would expect that it is the Time Stone….

The mid-credit sequence sees Doctor Strange meeting with Thor. Apparently, he and Loki are hunting for Odin – so I expect that Loki's ploy to hide as Odin has been revealed. And yes, Strange lampshades the fact that people should really stop trusting Loki.

The final credit sequence sees Mordo, now in self-exile from the rest of the sorcerers, tracking down people, including Pangbourne, from whom he can steal their magical power. And we are told the big problem is "too many sorcerers". So close to Scarlet Witch but not quite. So, the Big Bad for Doctor Strange 2 – or will the Infinity War find him first?

Oh and after seeing the film, with Derek Des Anges, we went to Old Compton Street in Soho for coffee and a quiche to talk about it all. The buildings (mostly) stayed where they were meant to be.