Welcome to the first week of films where Hollywood breaks out the big guns to entice us to the theater so as to make that elusive December 31st deline for potential Academy Award nominations. It all starts with the much awaited Marvel's "Dr. Strange". Since films based on comic books and amazing visual effects are such a crowd pleaser, what better film to kick off this period of time than with this film?
This follows the story of the talented neurosurgeon Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) who, after a tragic car accident, must put ego aside and learn the secrets of a hidden world of mysticism and alternate dimensions headed up by The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) and assistants, Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Wong (Benedict Wong). Based in New York City's Greenwich Village, Dr. Strange must act as an intermediary between the real world and what lies beyond, utilizing a vast array of metaphysical abilities.
Dr. Strange lost all, but his ability of his hands in the accident, and with him being an extremely gifted surgeon, he wanted the use of his hands again. Although he tried every doctor and procedure known to man and nothing worked, he came across a man, Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt) that told him about this 'Ancient One' he could seek in Nepal to help him. So his connection with these people in Nepal was to help him, through spirituality, to regain the neurological strength back in his hands. But he found out that he had so much more to learn than he ever realized.
Others to round out the cast are Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, a fellow doctor of Dr. Strange, Mads Mikkelsen as Kaecilius, Michael Stuhlbarg as Dr. Nicodemus West, Scott Adkins as Lucian/Strong Zealot, Zara Phythian as Brunette Zealot and Alaa Safi as Tall Zealot.
Interestingly, this was directed by a filmmaker that predominantly works in the horror genre, Scott Derrickson ("The Exorcism of Emily Rose" '05, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" '08, "Sinister" '12, "Deliver Us from Evil" '14). Certainly, pacing, staging and getting actors to emit the right emotions can be done with any genre, but one would think that a director would've been chosen that had a more varied resume, not that he didn't do an effective job.
It was written by Jon Spaihts, Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill based on the Marvel comic book by Steve Ditko. Again, Derrickson's resume is mostly horror and Cargill basically came along for the ride on Derrickson's coattails. However, Spaihts has "Passengers" being released soon and "The Mummy" is in post production for a 2017 release. This writer is a busy guy and probably why this script was as tight and cohesive as it was. Both Cumberbatch and Swinton shined in their roles. Even if the mysticism premise of this film isn't your preference, the visual effects predominantly designed by ILM (Industrial, Light & Magic) will knock your socks off. They were absolutely breathtaking--some of the best I've seen by ILM, and they're good. ILM could very likely be looking at an Oscar nod for best visual effects come that time.
I'm not really into the mysticism of this storyline, but certainly it does grip the audience of how it is conveyed so as to keep your attention for the almost two hour time slot it runs and all in a convincingly 3D format as well. Although there are a couple of very small slow areas, it has humor, adventure and fantasy which is why we go to the movies in the first place.
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: PG-13 115mins.
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