Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Doctor Strange (2016, PG-13)

I knew the completist in me would come to this movie eventually, but I did make a point not to see it in theaters.  Unlike Iron Fist, Marvel’s other recent property that, in my opinion, lets down in terms of representation, Doctor Strange is quite entertaining.  However, watching it, I couldn’t help but think of how it could have been better if they’d shown the same care for representation as they had for the incredible visual effects, creative action sequences, and fine acting.

Dr. Stephen Strange is a brilliant but arrogant surgeon whose life is devastated by a terrible accident that leaves him with severe nerve damage in his hands.  When his desperate search for a solution finds no answers in Western medicine, he turns to the East, where he comes into the sphere of the Ancient One.  Her promise of healing through the mystical arts turns out to be far thornier than Stephen expected; as he delves further into his studies, he learns that the Ancient One and the masters who serve under her use their knowledge and abilities to guard the world against multidimensional threats.

We’ll start with this:  the magical stuff looks amazing.  Just mouth-wateringly fantastic.  The Inception-type matter-bending scenes are even cooler than they looked in the trailers, and I also really like the appearance of the conjured weapons the sorcerers make.  With this unique hook, it allows the film to do unexpected things with the typical Marvel-fight format (don’t get me wrong:  from a strictly visual standpoint, I still love the fights in most Marvel movies, because the fight choreography is so generally off the hook and sprinkled with gems, but narratively, it does get a bit wash-rinse-repeat.)

I wouldn’t say the story at large is quite as successful as the action scenes and magic.  There’s nothing particularly wrong with it on its own, but it feels very done-before.  There is, of course, the whole “white American travels to the Far East to become the greatest practitioner of the mystical arts/kung fu/insert Asian thing here” trope (side note – it’s even weirder here because, despite taking place in Nepal, all but one of the major characters who practice these arts aren’t Asian, almost entirely keeping the Asianness but dropping the Asian people.)  It’s a been-there-done-that storyline in general, and having Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, for me, makes it worse rather than better.  I can’t deny that she performs well, but whenever she was onscreen, I kept picturing assorted Asian actresses saying her lines and trying to figure out why Marvel thought giving those same lines to an Asian woman would automatically equal a Dragon Lady stereotype.  And beyond that, I just don’t quite see what makes the character of Stephen Strange all that different from Tony Stark.  As superheroes, their functions/skill sets are completely different, but as characters, they’re both geniuses in their field, famous, rich, self-impressed, and sarcastic, and they both think they know best and can be something of a tool.  This makes Stephen feel very much like a retread, and Robert Downey Jr. kept popping into my head at various moments.

That said, the acting across the board is quite good.  While Benedict Cumberbatch’s American accent hits my ears wrong at different points, he does well capturing Stephen’s hunger for answers and frustration at being denied them.  Rachel McAdams does what she can with limited screentime back in Stephen’s old life as Christine, and Mads Mikkelsen elevates Kaecillius, a pretty boilerplate villain role, into something a bit more.  I was looking forward to seeing Benedict Wong as Wong, but I was surprised by how minimal his part was and came away wishing we’d gotten a little more of him.  Cast MVP, though, is definitely Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo.  He’s terrific as a devoted disciple with a troubled past and an increasingly difficult time reconciling a complicated world with his unbending views.

Warnings

Comic book violence, language, and drinking.

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