'Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness' review: Strange stays supreme

The Doctor Strange sequel is a movie that has everything we wanted but also not what we expected at the same time. – Photos: Walt Disney Company Malaysia

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness

Director: Sam Raimi

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Rachel McAdams.

Welcome to the Multiverse. We’ve been here before. Ever since Avengers: Endgame brought the 14-year-long, 22-movie Infinity Saga to a close, Marvel has been teasing and building the idea of the Multiverse as its ‘Next Big Thing”.

Through the red herrings in Spider-Man: Far From Home to the Loki and What If... Disney+ series, they’ve drip fed us tantalising morsels before we finally got some real Multiversal action with Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Since then, the hype for more Multiverse has only heightened the anticipation for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (henceforth to be known as MOM).

“This is it,” I thought, as I headed into the cinema. “This is when we get the full MCU Multiversal experience."

Imagine my surprise when we got a movie that was everything we wanted but also not what we expected at the same time.

Even superheroes have trouble deciding when it's time to decide where to eat.

Story-wise, it would be best to know as little as possible before going in. MOM is set after No Way Home, in which Doctor Strange (played impeccably by Benedict Cumberbatch) opened the doors to the Multiverse with his spell to make everyone forget Peter Parker is Spider-Man (events that only warrant a throwaway mention here).

Front and centre of MOM is new character America Chavez (a spunky MCU debut for Xochitl Gomez), who has the power to open ‘star portals’ into other universes. This power, however, paints a target on her back as an unknown evil force seeks to control it. With Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong) protecting America, Strange seeks out former Avenger Wanda Maximoff (a terrific Elizabeth Olsen) for some mystical help.

That, to be honest, is as much as you should know for now. The best part about MOM is going in blind, without knowing anything (which is your cue to stop reading now).

That's some, er, strange-looking interior deco, Strange.

Still here? Ok.

How much you enjoy this depends on how hyped you were about it in the first place, and how much you were expecting to see.

It is to Marvel Studio and its head honcho Kevin Fiege’s credit that they played their cards so close to the chest with MOM, teasing us with just enough juicy Easter eggs in the trailers and poster to let the hype machine fuel itself and for the Marvel fandom to drive itself into a frenzy, while offering next to nothing about the story itself.

As a result, there were still plenty of surprises and wow moments in the movie, even if you had watched every single one of the trailers and featurettes, and read every leaked news story or tweet about it.

Wanda's meditation sessions could be quite uplifting.

In a sense, getting Sam Raimi to direct this was an inspired choice. He is essentially already a Multiversal director when it comes to Marvel, having done the three Spider-Man movies that helped kickstart the craze for more superhero content, three years before Iron Man officially launched the MCU.

A self-professed comic boo kgeek who has played in the Marvel superhero sandbox before (albeit in a different Multiverse), Raimi knows exactly how to make a movie that is true to its comic book roots, while remaining unburdened by the heavy MCU baggage that many directors tend to struggle with.

MOM is very unmistakably a Sam Raimi movie – his flair for horror, the thematic touches, and even the required Bruce Campbell cameo. But peel back all the fan-servicing cameos and the Raimi-ness of it all, and what you get is a story about two very powerful characters, perhaps the most powerful in terms of power set alone, fighting for supremacy, but finding their human soul instead.

America Chavez iooks set to be the MCU's next star, and not just because she can open star portals.

MOM is a movie that emphasises the ‘Strange’ in the title more than the ‘Multiverse’, and more than lives up to the legacy and background of the character. This, I would argue, is pretty much the perfect Doctor Strange movie.

To truly enjoy it, you have to expect a Doctor Strange movie, not an Avengers movie or even a Multiverse-building one. It's full of the wonderfully trippy and mind-bending moments that we got in the first Doctor Strange movie, and expands the mystical, supernatural part of the MCU, while allowing Raimi to add some elements of horror in it at the same time.

Nothing is worst than finally deciding where to eat then discovering that the restaurant is closed.

It does take us on a ride through the Multiverse at the same time, but it doesn't really kick the doors down, more like nudge it wide enough to dip a foot into it. There are still many unresolved questions here, not just in the fate of Strange, but also the entire MCU.

And that is what Fiege pulls off brilliantly with MOM - like the best magicians/sorcerors, he never really reveals all his MCU tricks. There are teases of what is to come in the MCU (not least the mention of some very powerful and iconic characters), but we’ll probably have to wait a little longer for those parts of the MCU cog to be slotted in.

If you want more Multiversal action, you’ll probably have to wait until 2023's Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania for Kang to make his official debut. For now, just sit back and enjoy the magical madness that is Doctor Strange.