fumanstan

Given how Mordo and others stressed how bad it was to fuck with time like that, I imagine we'll see some sort of consequences that limit Strange doing so regularly.

Deftones

I saw it Friday. The visuals were phenomenal. Not among the top tier of movies from Marvel, but it was entertaining enough.

Nick Danger

We liked it. Good humor, and very well acted. The tessellated cities were fun, but they happened too often. We argued afterward about the relationship between Strange and his girlfriend, and that should have been spelled out. Was it a casual fling that didn't work out, or was it the kind of relationship that gives an engraved $34,000 watch?

I got bored by the battle scene in Hong Kong. These movies always climax with a fight scene, and I don't care about them.

Dr Strange was listening to Pink Floyd while he was driving his Porsche. I thought the song was Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, but it was actually Interstellar Overdrive. That's much more appropriate for his character's future.

joe_b

I'm in the minority here, but the entire movie left me cold for some reason. The actors are all talented, but I found their characters dull. No spark between any of them. Also a terribly weak villain.

Wish I had stuck to my instinct based on the trailer and just waited for the blu-ray. The astral plane sequence was trippy and looked great on the big screen in 3D, but I think critics have gone overboard with their praise of the visuals. They were well done, but not some groundbreaking achievement.

Probably my least favorite MCU flick so far (tied with Age of Ultron). Benedict Cumberbatch felt like a strong choice for Stephen Strange, but came off sort of dry and boring in the role. His best chemistry was with the CGI cape.

Abob Teff

And you can't make Benedict cum without a batch of eggs. Ehh ... Let's just move on and pretend this conversation never happened.

I viewed it as Mordo's defection being the consequence from his action. I wouldn't even say "Mordo turning evil" because I don't feel that is what happened. Which leads me in to my first criticism ...

Missed opportunities. Dr. Strange has a unique opportunity to explore the shades of "good vs. evil" in its characters' motivations. Insted it eschews that to go for the standard simplistic view of good guys vs. bad guys. Was Kacilius evil? Was he seduced by Dormammu? Or was he really doing what he thoughts was right? We see Mordo disenfranchised when he learns about the nature of the Ancient One. He isn't evil, but he believes the faction he was with has betrayed him. Dr. Strange himself is not inherently good either, as his motivations are primarily selfish. The film misses a wonderful opportunity to give us something Marvel has not yet done ... Which brings us to criticism #2 ...

Formulaic. Granted, I have avoided most pre-film information (including trailers) but I was expecting something different. I had heard murmurings of this being a pseudo-horror film (in style, not plot) and was intrigued by that. Remember when characters were launched in different "styles" that played to their themes? Now we are committed to cookie-cutter origins with one-note bad guys.

That said, I enjoyed it for what it was. The 3D was amazing, but I found the sound to be very flat in the theater I attended. Chiwetel Ejiofor was great in his second appearance as The Agent from Serenity. The special effects were an MC Escher erection lasting less than four hours. Cumberbatch was great (though I kept thinking of Hugh Laurie). I found Rachel McAdams drawing me out of the film, but I'm not sure why.

I'd recommend it, I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure about the folks ranking it in their top Marvel movies. Then again, I liked Thor (first one) and The Incredible Hulk.

fumanstan

I thought it was neat that the climax wasn't really a fight scene even though the characters were prepared for one, but turned out to be that whole bargaining thing repeated over and over again.

james2025a

Went to see it yesterday in IMAX and I enjoyed it. Not the best Marvel movie so far, but a very solid start for the character. In my mind this character along with the GotG have the most overall potential for greats films from any of their properties so far. Just limitless where you can take them and what they can do.

Yeah the villain was a little weak, but I would say that was more due to limited screen time in this one. I was pleasantly surprised that Dormamau was in it and could certainly see him being back as a follow up big baddie after Thanos has his turn. The whole multiverse thing was very nice, and would love to see more of this. I get the feeling that the Hulk is gonna end up maybe at the Crossroads as he once did in the comics.

Looking forward to seeing more from Strange.

Nick Danger

Okay, I'll agree with that. It was the real climax, and the point was Dr Strange out-thought the monster.

B5Erik

I'd put it somewhere in the middle, and I LOVE The Incredible Hulk and the first Thor movie.

I'd put Doctor Strange above Thor 2, Iron Man 3, maybe Civil War (which is sliding for me - I like it, but have some serious issues with it), maybe rank it even with Ant Man and Guardians.

But, for my money, Marvel hasn't put out a dud yet. Thor 2 and Iron Man 3 came close, but have more good aspects than bad, so they just miss that dud status for me.

I just don't know how you introduce a character that isn't well known outside of the comic fan community without doing an origin story. They did what they had to with Doctor Strange (tell the origin story), and it worked really well, overall.

Abob Teff

B5Erik, we can agree!

I liked Iron Man 3 but felt it had some real slack in it.

I need to rewatch Thor 2. I only remember the Matrix Revolutions rehash and falling asleep. It's actually the only MCU I don't own.

I was not as enthralled with Civil War as most people. It wasn't quite as clever as portrayed but it was a great popcorn flick.

One of the criticisms of Marvel is their (so-far) inability to present quality villains. I think that bleeds over in to the wrote-pattern of hero origin stories ... A well-developed villain will organically provide a hero's evolution. Since we haven't had that, we get the same wash-rinse-repeat story mechanisms. I think Dr. Strange would have really benefitted from developing Kacilius (sp?) and exploring not just the boundaries between good and evil, but the grey areas in between. Civil War sort of attempted this, but they played it safe and explored the dispute between friends.

There isn't a single one that I wouldn't rewatch again ... well, after I resolve that Thor 2 issue.

kefrank

Saw this last night. I enjoyed it quite a bit - gave it 3.5 stars. I was actually surprised at how much my wife liked it, as she doesn't always go for some of the elements that were in this.

Some of the visuals were really fantastic, while others I found to be a little hokey or just "pretty cool-looking without any real purpose". I enjoyed a lot of the moments of humor in it. All the actors were excellent and propped up what seemed like a decent-but-not-outstanding story.

Having no familiarity with the comics whatsoever, I liked the final post-credits scene and look forward to the further development of that villain.

robin2099

Honestly I thought this was alright but I wasn't really a huge fan of it. This movie didn't feel like anything more than a knock off on Inception and The Matrix. I didn't dislike it, but it didn't blow me away either. Though to be fair I have never really liked the Dr. Strange character, so this movie was always going to be a tough sell for me. I also had a hard time following it as they talk so much about dimensions and other jargon that it becomes hard to keep track of.

Honestly the part that stuck out in my mind most was when I was watching and kept thinking how much one of the henchmen looked like Scott Adkins before finding out it was Scott Adkins. Talk about a major waste of him. I'd give this either 2.5/5 or 3/5 honestly I'm not sure.

RichC2

This was a very honest review.

asianxcore

Visuals were fantastic and the film was entertaining.

The humor felt really forced at times and felt awkward. Also am I not supposed to really care about Stephen Strange as a character because I didn't.

Nick Danger

I like the origin stories. The Hero Discovered is my favorite part of the story. Thus the best movies are the first Matrix, the first Star Wars, and so on. Fairy tales always end when the ordinary fellow marries the princess, not continuing until after he becomes king.

rocket1312

Saw this last night. It was pretty much exactly what I would imagine a Marvel Studios version of Dr. Strange would be. As long as people continue to buy tickets, I would imagine Marvel can pretty much drop any character they'd like into their formula and at the very least the movie will be guaranteed to offer up 2 hours of reasonable entertainment.

There wasn't anything particularly noteworthy about the film, but I did love some of the special effects. The various other dimensions and astral-plane effects were neat, but what I liked best were the spells themselves. I thought it was incredibly effective the way they were able to visualize Strange's powers. Oh, and Interstellar Overdrive ftw! That was a fun surprise. Can't say I ever expected to hear that song within sniffing distance of a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster.

I will also add that the MCU humor is starting to grate on me a bit. It's not that the jokes are necessarily unfunny in and of themselves, but it would be nice for one of these movies to offer up some genuine drama and emotion without the need to constantly diffuse it with a quippy one-liner. At least now Marvel has a goateed, super-genius a-hole to take Iron Man's spot if Downey ever gets tired of playing the part (or if Disney gets tired of paying him.)

I did have a couple of questions about how this fits into the MCU as a whole. Probably doesn't need spoilers, but better safe than sorry:

Solid Snake

1. It sounded more to me like Hammer's (IM2) work.

2. I think it's in current continuity ie like right now and after Strange's film. We still don't what Thor does in Thor 3 very much. So we'll get some backstory on what he's been up to for sure in Thor 3.

kefrank

I think The Winter Soldier did exactly that.

For me the humor element depends on the character that the movie is centered on. It worked for me in Dr. Strange, but it doesn't always.

rocket1312

Hmm. I haven't seen IM2 since theaters, so I suppose that could be. It just felt strange (pun intended!), because it came off like an obvious reference to War Machine, albeit one that didn't make much sense timeline-wise and got major details wrong (Marines vs. Air-Force).

That's what I assumed. It just seemed awkward because the Loki/Odin thing was the big twist from the end of Thor 2. For our next glimpse of that world (outside of whatever was going on in Age of Ultron) to be at a point in time where Thor has already figured at least some of what is going on, and is now dealing with the fall-out, feels like a bit of a rip-off. It also robs the ending of Thor 2 of some of its dramatic weight. I'm willing to give Marvel the benefit of the doubt until we see Ragnarok, but I'm wary.

Eh, for me, Winter Soldier is exactly the film where the humor started to get under my skin. A lot of that can be chalked up to my dislike of Johansson's Black Widow and my general belief that Cap, of all characters, shouldn't be a quip machine, but I still think Marvel goes a little too far with it sometimes. And as much as I enjoy Winter Soldier, I don't think the drama ever really amounts to much. The Cap/Bucky stuff should have been a goldmine in that regard, but despite being the title character in the film, Bucky and his story don't really amount to much in the overall scope of the film.

nando820

I think that's what bother me too, there was enough room to make it more interesting if they had made "the bad guy" more sympathetic. And the conflict within Mordo felt like it came a bit rushed at the end. His conflict with Strange should have been gradually increased

Say what u will but Iron Man 3 as far as plot and villain was on of the less formulatic Marvel movies

kefrank

Not trying to be too contrarian here, but can you give some examples of lines that made Captain America come off as a "quip machine" in The Winter Soldier? There's some humor in the movie but most of it doesn't come from Cap and I never found it to be out-of-place in the overall, relatively dramatic tone of the movie.

I can partially agree and partially disagree here. Overall, I think The Winter Soldier has the most effective dramatic tension of any of the MCU movies. That said, I agree that the dramatic tension doesn't really center around the dynamics between Bucky and Cap. Marvel seemed to want to save more of those dynamics for Civil War I guess.

rocket1312

"Quip machine" is probably overstating it. That's more a general term I apply to most of the heroes in these Marvel movies. He's obviously not busting out the one-liners at the same rate Iron Man is, but there's still more of it from him than I'd like. It's been a while since I've seen the movie, so I can't really cite too many specific examples. The one scene I will mention is the one when Black Widow kicks Sitwell off the roof and immediately she and Cap start bantering back and forth about his dating life. It's not so much a quip, but it is played for laughs and it feels completely out of character for Cap.

Winter Soldier might have the most effective dramatic tension of any of the MCU movies, but that doesn't mean much to me as I feel like the series overall is pretty lacking in the drama department.

musick

I like dramatic tension as much as the next dramatic tension lover but at the end of the day these are still just comic book movies and those lighthearted moments are as much a part of the fabric of comics as the drama is.

I think Marvel Studios does a great job to strike the right balance

rocket1312

As the most relevant comparison, I see the X-Men movies as a good example of how to strike a better balance. The movies themselves may be more inconsistent in quality than the MCU, but I think the drama and emotional stakes are much better realized. And I don't think I don't think any of the fun is sacrificed in the process. It's possible that it's just a case of great actors rising above the material (I don't think the MCU has any lead actors on the level of Mckellen, Stewart, Fassbender, etc.), but whatever the reason, the X-Men films feel a bit "meatier" to me and not so disposable.

Solid Snake

Films like X1, X2, and DoFP are dramatic films w/ fantastical elements in them to promote a story.

Singer directed those as dramatic films. They don't cater to an "action/adventure/whatever' style like other genre films.