That was my geek moment for TWS.

classic case of overxposure

Yeah I think that's a big part of it.
Since I don't watch everything that comes out, when it comes out I just haven't seen him much outside of Sherlock and ST:ID- both of which he was not only competent in but charismatic. I also know several women of various age ranges who think he's hot as hell.

Personally, I think he's a great choice for the character as I know him (from silver and bronze age material). Strange was an a-hole, arrogant doctor before he got religion and Cumberbatch can definitely put across that. He can also wrap his mouth around a lot of archaic spell-casting dialogue if they (hopefully) incorporate that.

Solid choice.

Ugh, not happy with the choice. Strange was always one of my favorites. It may have been asked and discussed before but my only problem with connecting this with the established Marvel movie universe is the fact that Dr. Strange uses magic. Real magic. I don't want them changing things around to try and explain his magic as some sort of advanced alien science.

Why would they need to?
The only problem I have with incorporating magic in this universe is that it not become a deus ex machina crutch. Firm rules need to be established and not violated.

Otherwise...let's get freaky deaky with the MCU. GotG should have shown they can do a whole lot more here than just militaristic weaponized BS

They changed the Norse gods into advanced aliens.

Yeah, but that was because there was a fear that the booboisie couldn't reconcile that big a difference between Iron Man and another character.
And it was ultimately only tweaked. From a human/historical perspective the Norse Gods are still gods...it's just that -behind the scenes- we now know what they were worshiping was a technologically advanced entity.
The two aren't incompatible.

But I think the audience is sufficiently primed now to pull out some real off-the-wall supernatural stuff.

And if this is heading towards Infinity Gauntlet, Strange can play the role Mephisto did in that story, just the way Stark's creation of Ultron is the most organic way to go in the MCU.

Yeah, there's the whole "ancient alien" theory that the gods worshiped by old civilizations maybe were aliens. So gods and aliens aren't mutually exclusive. The Thor movies even make mention that the Asgardians live for thousands of years, so they would have been around during our Viking Age. The Thor worshiped as a god by the Vikings is the same Thor fighting side-by-side with Iron Man and Captain America.

I understand all that, I just think the explanation stole some of the magic from the story. I don't want to see Dr. Strange explained away in a similar way.

Doctor Strange has a high midichlorian count.

I would be disappointed in that too- but I don't think they need to at this point.
It was more of an initial hurdle thing when the concept of shared universe was this bizarre new thing.

Out of all the upcoming MCU projects, Dr Strange is by far the one I'm most looking forward to as I expect and hope it will be the most unique and different in tone as well as content.
The only thing that can really steal it's thunder is the Constantine TV show which -though I don't really know the character or property- seems like it treads the same netherworld/supernatural warrior ground.

Dr. Strange was always one of my favorites as a kid, as I said. I would love a stand alone movie, something directed by Guillermo Del Toro. The choice of Cumberbatch leads me to think it will be much more mainstream and Dr. Strange will be manipulating energy utilizing "advanced science". I hope I'm wrong.

Commence Cumberbitching

I have a feeling that some of the premise groundwork to Strange's unique universe and powers will be laid with Scarlet Witch and her powers.
But I expect Strange will be a lot more consistent with the source material than people will be expecting.
He represents a special and unique element that this movie universe could make good use of in certain circumstances. That's why I think they will hew fairly close to the source here.

I heavily doubt they're going to not make Strange mystical. That is what he is. To the core of his powers. The Norse gods they could cheat on. Strange you can't do that on.

I'd be surprised if Marvel tried to explain Dr. Strange in some sort of realistic way opposed to just straight up mystic arts. I think they've been smart enough to not cheapen their own characters, and feel like they will do their characters justice.

As for Cumberbatch, he's a decent actor but I've always thought he looked kind of odd and could do without him being the "it" guy lately when I don't think he's anything particularly special. That said, while i'm not a fan I imagine he'll be fine in the role.

Would be kind of neat if Hiddleston and Cumberbatch met up in the MCU. They were in Warhorse together.

It's refreshing to see people bitching about comic book casting for a reason other than the actor being the "wrong race."

Don't forget about "bulking up".

Pretty much this.

If not Phoenix I would've preferred McGregor.

Considering that Thor's hammer functions as a magical thing in the MCU already (only one who is worthy, etc.) I don't see why they wouldn't go with magic in Dr. Strange too.

I'm fine with Cumberbatch. He's a great actor and will do a great job in the role.

Wrong. Mjolnir isn't magic. It's "advanced science." Thor even says so in the movie when he tells Jane that what humans see as magic is just really advanced science. The Asgardians aren't magical. Their science is just much more advanced than ours.

It would be kind of like if we went back in time to the 1800s and showed someone a smartphone. They would think the smartphone was magic (and probably burn us at the stake for witchcraft).

If they got bogged down in explaining how ALL the science worked ("This hammer is a sonic blah blah blah")...then it would have been a huge let down.
Instead, it's just a dismissive way of saying "it's technical and you wouldn't really understand" to audience surrogate Portman. Which I thought was fine.
The Hammer is not some high tech looking sci-fi thing that is only in the kinda-sorta shape of a hammer...it IS a hammer. Asgard isn't some Matrix-y melange of now cliched bio-industrial designs. It's all gleaming olde world shaped spires and parapets.

The dialogue may say one thing. The visuals have the final word and they look more in line with the source conception of that world, and it's affects, than not.

It's called anachronism when two things from two different time periods exist together. It's used often in movies, TV, video games, books, etc.

So the anachronism in the Thor movies is medieval stuff like swords and shields and Thor's warhammer, but then there is advanced scientific stuff like flying ships and portals between realms.

This was the quote that I could find on IMDB. I don't really see the big deal, the MCU has certainly had more abstract powers and items, whether it be the Asgardian stuff or the infinity stones. Just because Thor believes they're "one and the same" doesn't mean they're any less mystical and would for Strange without any further explanation.