• March 5, 2018
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REVIEW: Doctor Strange (Road to Infinity War)

Alright, let us continue The Papi Chulo RADIO Road to Infinity War (RTIW for short) review event with the fourteenth movie in the lineup, Doctor Strange.

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With the Avengers now split and everything changed once again. It’s nice to know that Doctor Strange is here to give us a break and give us his origin before moving forward with the new status quo. does this new movie deliver or is it dead on arrival

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Before we get into it, it should be said that there will be spoilers if you haven’t seen it yet (Although since it’s 2 years old, you should have seen it already).

The story starts with a flashback when we see Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen), with a group of his followers behead a librarian in order to steal pages from one of the mystic books that also contain dark magic in them. This leads to a trippy fight with Kaecilius running from The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton). We then cut to Steven Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), who is a brilliant doctor who also has a massive ego. After a successful surgery, he then talks to his friend Christine (Rachel McAdams), who is also a former lover of Strange because she talks to him about dating and other things when another doctor comes to them with an x-ray showing that someone has a bullet stuck in their brain. They rush to surgery and Strange is able to get the bullet out. Later we cut to Strange in his fancy apartment (Complete with Spinning Watch display/drawer) when he gets into his Lamborghini and drives off when he gets a call from one of the doctors and starts to give him cases he can work on. Being distracted, Strange gets into an accident causing him to end up in a river. He is later rushed to Surgery when he wakes up to discover that he has destroyed his hands.

While Strange is recovering, he tries to look for options to fix his hands when no doctor will take his case and nothing else will work. He learns of a mystical place that can heal all from a former patient, Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt). Strange uses every last resource he has in order to travel to Nepal in search of the palace known as Kamar-Taj. When he is cornered in an ally with some thugs, a mysterious man who has been following him saves him and takes Steve to wear he seeks. We later find out that this man was Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor). With Strange in the right place, he talks to the Ancient One asking her about what kind of medicine do they have and she tells him that it’s magic that Strange will never understand. Strange grows frustrated at all of this and the Ancient One finally gives Strange a taste of what power she possesses. When the magic trip is over, Steve wants to be taught by the Ancient One how to perform magic and she rejects him.

Steve is then kicked out and left on the doorstep when he begs to be let back in. Mordo talks to the Ancient One and they both agree to let Strange back in and teach him the ways of Magic.  We spend a good chunk of the movie on Steve’s training and at first, he can’t seem to get a grasp on it but then slowly but surely he starts to learn very quickly. Going through all the books, learning all the spells and surprising/harassing the new Librarian Wong (Benedict Wong). However, Strange is hungry for more, he sneaks into the library and gets the Eye of Agamoto. This is an artefact that allows the wearer to manipulate time but it’s really an Infinity Stone. While using the Eye, he is also looking through the forbidden text and restores the lost pages to see what Kaecilius took. Mordo and Wong discover what Strange is doing, they scold him for it and tell him that the power is too much to handle.

With Steven doing more training, one session is cut short because Kaecilius attacks and Steve is then transported to the New York branch of their safe houses. A battle ensues in the safe house and we finally get to learn more about Kaecilius. He then tells Strange that the Ancient One draws her power from the Dark Dimension just like him. While distracted by this new knowledge, Strange is stabbed by one of Kaecilius’s goons and teleports himself to the same hospital that he used to work at. Christine then has to save his life while Strange fights in Astral form with one of the goons who is also in his Astral form. Once Strange is healed, he goes back to the safe house and meets with Mordo and the Ancient One. This is when Strange tells Mordo about the info he just got and both of them start to question everything about the Ancient One. Before they could finish their conversation, Kaecilius comes for Round 2 and this time they take the battle all across New York. Using their powers, they bend, mould and reshape the world around them. This leads the Ancient One to step in and fight her former student and his goons head-on when she is then stabbed. Strange rushes her to the hospital and hopes to save her but she dies right before they both go into their Astral forms and have a nice heart to heart.

This all leads to one final battle in Kong Kong where Kaecilius seems to have the upper hand and destroys the last safe house in order for the dark dimension to consume everything. Strange is able to stop this by using the Eye and reverses time so that the destruction can be stopped. While time is being reversed, everyone gets into a fight. Just before Strange can restore everything, he is stopped and then he gets the idea of going into the Dark Dimension to fight the greatest evil of them all, Dormammu. Dormammu is the one who rules the Dark Dimension and Strange is able to stop him by putting him in a time loop. Once Strange is able to get him to bargain with him, he escapes and Kaecilius and his goons are sucked into the Dark Dimension with him. The day is saved and Strange becomes to new Sorcerer Supreme.

The acting in this movie was great. Almost everyone did a great job and you can tell that the cast had fun making this movie. This is one of the more weird MCU movies but everyone did their part to make it enjoyable for us to watch. However, Rachel McAdams didn’t do a great job and she comes off as one-note and forgettable.

The CGI is hands down the best part of the movie. Once you get to the scene where the Ancient One has Strange go on a mind-bending trip, it is truly something out of this world. Even when they are bending the world around them it is a visual treat to see. This is some of the best effects I have seen from a Marvel movie ever and it will surely stick with you when you watch this movie.

The Verdict:

If you are looking for something different from the MCU and Marvel, you have come to the right place. Doctor Strange is a fun, entertaining and very trippy movie that anyone can enjoy. However, the movie does suffer from the MCU villain problem because once again the villain is killed off. Also, not everyone gets enough time to be fully fleshed out. If you can look past these flaws, then a great time awaits you.

8/10

Next up, once again we take a trip into space with our favourite band of idiots, Guardians of the Galaxy 2.