'Doctor Strange' a magical mix of humor, action and surrealistic visuals
Humorously quirky and visually spellbinding, “Doctor Strange” ranks as one of the best executed Marvel Comics movies, up there with “Iron Man,” “Spider-Man 2” and “The Avengers.”
If Christopher Nolan's ingenious science-fiction thriller “Inception” translated M.C. Escher's perspective puzzle prints into living dreams, then “Doctor Strange” reconfigures them into 3-D video-game-inspired LSD trips.
Buildings and streets twist, turn and fold into each other as characters scamper through a mind-bending, perspective-shifting, kaleidoscopically imploding universe immune to the laws of nature, gravity and science.
Not all the time, of course. Only after a rogue wizard named Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) steals a page from a holy text containing secret information on how to access something called the Dark Dimension.
In addition to reality-bending visuals, “Doctor Strange” employs risky time-travel tricks in outrageously clever ways that propel the story's climactic confrontation into a whole new realm of wow.
The screenplay - credited to writers Jon Spaihts, C. Robert Cargill and director Scott Derrickson - understands that “Doctor Strange” has more to offer than Marvel's standard “save the world” plots.
It delves into a deeper, complex chronicle of a lost, angry man searching for purpose in a world that has robbed him of his job, his status and, consequently, his identity.
Dr. Strange's quest for purpose inspires us as Benedict Cumberbatch's textured performance gives this abrasive, self-centered surgeon so many layers of humanity that we simply can't despise him.
Dr. Stephen Strange rules as New York's greatest surgeon, an egomaniac whose hubris and lack of empathy have been handsomely rewarded with every materialistic trinket possible.
One night while driving and texting (watch the closing credits for a disclaimer), Strange runs his Lamborghini off the road and down a cliff in the most frightening, visceral car crash I've ever witnessed.
The accident crushes his hands. And the skill that he has mistaken for his life.
Strange lashes out at everyone, including fellow doctor Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams, creating the most fully dimensional female character to populate a Marvel Comics movie so far).
After alienating her and everyone else, Strange tracks down a man named Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt), who reportedly had broken his back, but somehow magically healed himself. How?
Pangborn suggests that Strange head off to Kathmandu if he wants to know the secret to healing. He does.
He winds up in a quasi-monastery where he first meets a guardian named Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor, looking Jedi-ready in his sand-colored robe) and his master, the Ancient One (a bald Tilda Swinton, resembling a luminous alien accidentally beamed into this movie. The character was Asian in Stan Lee's comic book.)
She agrees to train the former surgeon in the fine arts of wizardry, if she could only break through his impenetrable wall of self-importance. Frustrated, the Ancient One finally tells Strange the secret to fulfillment and happiness: “It's not about you!”
Not exactly the Golden Rule, but that prompts the surgeon to evolve into a servant of the world on a breathless quest for enlightenment.
“Doctor Strange” unfolds on such a vast and magnificent visual canvas that I cannot imagine how this spectacular 3-D theatrical experience can possibly translate into other exhibition outlets.
One of Hollywood's favorite axioms dictates that superhero action movies must be bigger, broader, bolder and busier than their predecessors, which doesn't always equate to another alliterative adjective, “better.”
Here it does.
“Dr. Strange”
★ ★ ★ ½
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mads Mikkelsen
Directed by: Scott Derrickson
Other: A Walt Disney Pictures release. Rated PG-13 for violence. 130 minutes