Film Review: Dr Strange

Genre:

Action, Adventure, Fantasy 

Cert: 12A

Director: Scott Derrickson

Screen writer: Jon Spaihts  (written by) and Scott Derrickson (written by) &
 C. Robert Cargill (written by) Steve Ditko (comic book) (uncredited)

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch , Chiwetel Ejiofor , Rachel McAdams , Benedict Wong , Mads Mikkelsen , Tilda Swinton , Michael Stuhlbarg , Benjamin Bratt , Scott Adkins , Zara Phythian , Katrina Durden , Alaa Safi , Topo Wresniwiro , Umit Ulgen , Linda Louise Duan 

Running time: 1h 55min

Parents advised to read before viewing film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.

Sex & Nudity: N/A

Violence & Gore: There is a lot of violence in this film, including impalement, after effects of falls, accidents and crushing.

A person slams to the pavement through a glass awning from an extreme height and the impact is shown.

There are multiple surgery scenes where the wounds are shown being sewn or entered with surgical instruments.

There is a kind of gruesome scene of a man being slammed around by the head by a magical cloak.

There is a decapitation but the head removal is shown in a shadow reflection.

The car accident has slow motion shots of Steven's hands getting crushed.

The post accident shots of Steven are both bloody and kind of gruesome with all of the stabilizing metal work coming out of his hands and his face is disfigured and scarred.

There is a scene where a Steven is attacked by three thugs who beat him to the ground and kick him repeatedly.

There is a shot of a dead man impaled on a large metal rod.

There is a shot of a person being crushed by a building

Profanity:  Language in the film is mild.

There is a use of the word 'asshole' when a character refers to himself.
Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: N/A

Frightening/Intense Scenes:  OFFICIAL MPAA RATING: Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action throughout, and an intense crash sequence.

The film is a bit darker and violent than most of the MCU films.

Story: Marvel's "Doctor Strange" follows the story of the talented neurosurgeon Doctor Stephen Strange who, after a tragic car accident, must put ego aside and learn the secrets of a hidden world of mysticism and alternate dimensions.

Based in New York City's Greenwich Village, Doctor Strange must act as an intermediary between the real world and what lies beyond, utilising a vast array of metaphysical abilities and artifacts to protect the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Likes : I didn't know much about Dr. Strange so entering this film with fresh open eyes, I gave my best review on what saw.  

Doctor Strange is a modern American superhero film in Marvel Comics Universe, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the fourteenth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

The film is directed by Scott Derrickson, who wrote the screenplay with C. Robert Cargill from a story by the duo and Jon Spaihts, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor,Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg, Benjamin Bratt, Scott Adkins, Mads Mikkelsen, and Tilda Swinton.

Various incarnations of a Doctor Strange film have been in development since the mid-1980s until Paramount Pictures acquired the film rights in April 2005 on behalf of Marvel Studios. Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer were brought on board in June 2010 to write a screenplay.

First things first... Yes, this is good but not great and there are many things within this film that hold it back. The trouble is I've seen reviews saying this film is show originality which is not the case since this character has been used in films before..

Cast choice for this film were actually spot on despite the whole controversial subject of the Tibetan character being played by a non Tibetan  which Tilda Swinton does play very well and comes off brilliant on screen.

The Controversial side i.e : The subject of Tibetans being subject to torture and oppression for years by the Chinese government despite the PR campaign from Marvel stated a different reason for the country not showing up in the film in their country.

As for the rest of the cast Benedict Cumberbatch is brilliant as always fantastic actor that I actually think suit’s the role with his acting ability , Coming off as a sarcastic , arrogant ass who loses everything only to discover he has a destiny to be something greater than he was before which  Cumberbatch’s performance shows his was the best casting choice for this role.

Academy award winner, Chiwetel Ejiofor is kind of a strange character which has been Portrayed as the side protagonist and the right hand of the ancient one , but although he playing this role , those that know the lore of this character knows this character is a super villain in the Dr strange storyline.

So what direction did the director take with this character or was he meant to be written in this way to set him up for a sequel villain for Dr strange 2 which at this moment is unclear.

 Mads Mikkelsen kind of plays the villain of this film playing Kaecilius which was a disciple of Baron Mordo . He often served as field agent or deliverer of messages for Mordo until he craved power became evil , Mads performance is some what good although i found his character a little weak as a villain for this film.  

Rachel McAdams is more of a cameo really for this film play a surgeon who i was kind of not sure what she is to doctor strange ?, a friend, lover ? it kind of confusing but she brilliant on screen as alway even if it was for short scene.

This isn't really your typical marvel film where you gets funny moments throughout the film, it can be a little dark at time but you still get the odd scene that is funny.

One or two scene that were funny especially hilarious out right funny moments were the scene with Scott Adkins character & the cap & the fight with Dr strange and Kaecilius , it was like something out of a slapstick comedy so you will laugh at these moments.

Visual of the film are good but some what copy's way to much from other films which does hold it back from being original , which will be explain in the dislikes. Apart from this yes the film has it’s qualities but to say this could top Christopher Nolan work as a director ? sadly no !!!!

As after watching what this film i've noticed quite a few flaws in the concept not that i'm disappointing just surprised that this film is only held up by it casting performances. (just opinion)

Like all marvel film’s there are Two end credit scenes , one post credit scene that i assume setup Thor Ragnarok which is coming in 2017, the other end scene set up the dr strange Sequel.  

Dislikes : Here the problem with this film that let’s it down from being a perfect film , One it copies way to much from inception with the build multiplication & reality bending , I can't help but feel this was lazy writing when they could've done this film in so many different ways.

Making a unique film with original visuals yes can be hard for some director so they take inspiration from other film’s but this tended to go way too much over use ,  instead of trying to make some new & fresh that hasn't been done before.

The director of this film tried to copy what Christopher Nolan has done before although some visual effect are great , it Sadly just comes off like it's ripping off Nolan work from director Scott Derrickson.

The Fight sequences as before with marvel civil war this close up camera work with action scenes with a shaky camera  is such a bad thing for film’s ,  special when you have a fast pace action fight scene when the camera is to close the action you can hardly see the fight.

This sadly is what happens with the fight scene in this film ,  it just comes off on screen like a blur which sadly ruins the scene concept.

Several plot holes are well scene that just don't make sense:

1. Portal opening : you can clear you see one of the actors open a portal in front of everyone in the streets this might be nicpicking but not one person is running in fear or reacting to this , this doesn't make the scene realistic when the surround area isn't reacting to the scene that is happening on screen.

2. How the hell did a human surgeon dr strange just learn ancient language just like that without training ?  This just  doesn't make sense as he only just read the book’s without no knowledge of the language , this should've been explain in the film which it isn't.

3. The car crash scene: Seriously !!!! let speak reality here , a car crash like he had would of killed the drive before it even stop rolling like it did let be honest here you know i’m right.  The character in question should of been dead by all rights.

This crash scene should've been handled better on screen to make it a bit more realistic on screen for the character to actual survive it & make it more believable.

4. The only thing hold this film up is the casting , let be honest without this casting in this film sadly i believe this film would have flop , only due to that fact it being unoriginal and bland from coping several film's like Captain america , Dark city, inception , dark knight.

5. The Humour side of the film is sometime really bad and off timing, sometime just wasn't funny like it was trying too hard. I know this film is meant to be dark but a little light humor break it up which sadly this film doesn't do so well in.

6. Weak villain - Kaecilius just came across as a weak Hench men no offense to mads actor performance it just felt like his character was a little weak on screen.

As for the Dimensional villain the main boss of the film i mean come on have these directors learn anything from green lantern failure which it’s almost as worst as the green lantern parallax villain

I just feel this film could've done a little better.     

Overall : Good film, great performance but sadly not the perfect like most are making out to be. its watchable at best

Rating: 5 out of 5 for entertainment / 7.1 out of 10 for concept