GAMERTIMES

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE MOVIE, WE SUGGEST YOU TO NOT READ THIS REVIEW. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!

After the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, many fans have been wondering if this DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS will be able to top the hype No Way Home had through Madness. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. That Madness can’t be seen. The story is not bad but I think when the term “Madness” is used, there should be some crazy stuff happening, but other than that the overall story is good. It has its own Sam Raimi-style horror moments and much more. But I will explain all that as we get started with this review.

So, the movie starts with America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez)  and Defender Strange in the “Bridge Gap” running away from a monster who is after Chavez’s powers and both are searching for the “Book of Vishanti.” Defender Strange gets killed by the monster and Chavez accidentally opens a portal that sends her and the corpse of Defender Strange into our main MCU Timeline. Then America Chavez is again chased by a one-eyed monster called “Gargantos” which our Strange kills and rescues Chavez with the help of Sorceror Supreme Wong. Chavez then explains why these monsters are after her because she has the power to travel the multiverse and a minute later shows our Strange the dead corpse of Defender Strange to prove that the fight he saw in his dream was real and then buries his body.

Our Strange recognizes the runes those monsters had on them are done by witches and guess what he happens to know a witch who is also an Avenger, Wanda Maximoff, and so he goes to her for help. After Wanda fails to lie properly to our Strange, she warns him that if he doesn’t hand over Chavez to her, and this is what she quotes, “then it won’t be Wanda who comes after her, it’ll be the Scarlet Witch!” Wanda or I should say, Scarlet Witch attacks Kamar Taj despite the efforts by all the sorcerors to let her enter Kamar Taj.

There are brutal deaths of the sorcerors and intense fighting between Wanda and the sorcerors at Kamar Taj. Wanda starts to absorb Chavez’s powers as Chavez again accidentally opens the portal only this time our Strange saves Chavez by putting his own body between the absorbing process and taking Chavez and himself through the portal. We then go through various universes for 2 or 3 seconds like the Animated universe, Ice Universe, Dinosaur Time Universe, Paint Universe, and many more.

Our Strange and Chavez lands in universe 838 and in order to get back to their universe, both start to search for Strange of this universe 838. But soon we learn that only one Chavez exists in the entire Multiverse and this universe Strange 838 died fighting Thanos and a statue is made in honor of him. Mordo mixes “The Sand of Nishanti” in the drinks of our Strange and Chavez and then both of them wake up trapped in a polycarbonate fishbowl as wonderfully explained by this universe 838, Christine. Meanwhile, Wanda and Wong arrive at Mount Wundagore, a temple dedicated to the Scarlet Witch which has all the spells inscribed on the walls, after Wanda loses her copy of Darkhold when one of the sorcerors destroys it while trying to save Wong from feeling its effects.

In the first hour of the movie, you will find it amazing, horrific, and somewhat confusing. In my opinion, the start of the movie was technically wrong. I mean it wasn’t wrong but it lacked a few minute scenes like what the Defender Strange and Chavez were doing before getting attacked by those monsters. Because we know, where there will be a threat to the Multiverse, all universes Strange will do anything to get relief from that threat.

Many would expect that we get to explore the multiverse instead of meeting other universes’ variants. We only get to visit one universe until we meet Sorceror Supreme Mordo and he takes us to “The Illuminati.” I like how Marvel really centered this movie between Doctor Strange and Wanda because literally, they both are just the highlights of the movie.

I find the first hour to be amazing because of the performance by Elizabeth Olsen. It literally felt like she was carrying the movie on her back because of her excellent performance. Her performance in the Wandavision was already at a peak but then this just goes to a whole new level. I like how Sam Raimi wanted to get more natural shots in the movie than heavily depending on CGI and the result is, it’s good. There are horror moments in the movie but they don’t feel like horror because horror basically means you jumped out of the chair because you got the ultimate scare. That lacked.

We are then taken to “The Illuminati” as Ultron bots guide our Strange to them. We got to see John Krasinki (Reed Richards), Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel), Hayley Atwell (Captain Carter), Anson Mount (Black Bolt), and Patrick Stewart (Professor X). Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Professor X was so amazing to see though he is not from the X-men universe, it was still amazing to see him in the movie. A few minutes later we learn the truth of Strange Supreme and that he was killed by the Black Bolt as he started Dreamwalking using the Darkhold to stop Thanos and when that failed he used the “Book of Vishanti” to kill him and according to “The Illuminati” the bigger to the multiverse is not Scarlet Witch, it’s Doctor Strange of all the universes.

Well, they claim they can handle the Scarlet Witch only for all of them to get killed by her in less than 10 minutes except the Sorceror Supreme Mordo, LOL moment. Wanda Dreamwalked into universe 838 Wanda and attacked “The Illuminati.” The death of Black Bolt, Reed Richards, Captain Carter, and Captain Marvel was brutal. Meanwhile, Christine tries to help Chavez break out of that Fishbowl but then Chavez breaks free on her own. In between that, Professor X and Wanda battle out in a mind game and that’s when we see the real horrific moment when Scarlet Witch with her grown nails and teeth giving her that evil look snaps Professor X’s neck.

Our Strange reunites with America Chavez and Christine to find that way towards the “Book of Vishanti” and so we return again back to Bridge Gap. After finally reaching and holding the “Book of Vishanti” Wanda again interrupts and destroys the only “Book of Vishanti” and uses her magic to control Chavez and opens a portal and sends or I should say throws Christine and Our Strange into a universe where two universes got hit and destroyed both universes reality which is called “Incursion” and then sends Chavez to our MCU timeline at Mount Wundagore where she starts harnessing the powers of Chavez.

A musical battle between Sinister Strange and Our Doctor Strange. Sinister Strange who is corrupted by Darkhold ends up getting killed as Our Strange gets the hold of Darkhold. Sorceror Supreme Wong who was thrown by Wanda from Mount Wundagore starts to climb to make his way on top. Our Strange starts Dreamwalking into the body of dead Defender Strange and opens the portal to Mount Wundagore.

In the final act of the movie, Our Strange who is Dreamwalking into the dead Defender Strange gets attacked by the “Souls of the Damned” since he is violating the rule. Our Strange uses the spirits and makes a 2-meter-long cape that flies him to the temple. Wanda versus Strange begins as Our Strange uses the spirits to stop Wanda from using her magic and sends her towards Wong where he traps her in his magic as Wanda tries to break free and that’s when Wong says the same line that Defender Strange says at the beginning of the movie before getting killed, “It’s the only way!’ and then our Strange says, “This is the only way!”

Chavez thinks just like Defender Strange, Our Strange is here to harness her power only for our Strange to say no and encourage her to get back up on her feet and let’s kick that “WITCH’S ASS!”. Chavez punches Wanda which also opens a portal behind her and then Chavez tries to punch again but Wanda counters, but this time the portal behind her changes and leads towards her children and the variant Wanda she Dreamwalked into and realizes how she was once soft towards her boys but because of the Darkhold she got angry at the boys. She realizes how the Darkhold corrupts people and therefore destroys the dedicated temple to Scarlet Witch and also destroys the Darkhold in every universe. Strange then confesses to Christine that he loves her in every universe and will always protect her before Chavez opens a portal to a universe where our Strange is and they both get back to the main MCU timeline.

As the movie was nearing the end, it felt like the movie was in a rush. I guess to justify and satisfy the whole movie, at least 30-40 minutes more would have been needed to fully establish the story. But in the end, I did enjoy the movie. I feel like they wanted to show more but had not many ideas left to put in the movie. Elizabeth Olsen really gave a performance of a lifetime. She just killed it. Benedict Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez really gave everything to their respective character in performance for us to enjoy but I think Elizabeth Olsen is the MVP of the movie. No one can argue with me on that.

“Multiverse of Madness really had the potential to be the biggest Marvel movie of all time but fail to capitalize on that opportunity!”