The following review contains spoilers not only for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and WandaVision
Proceed With Caution
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness In Review
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is in its name alone already a misnomer. The multiverse is highly underused and the madness kind of non existent outside of Wanda herself. The greater narrative is crammed into the greater MCU taking away some of the beauty of the original Doctor Strange wherein Disney allowed the good Doctor to stand on his own two legs. The question which I've long asked is does the interconnectivity of the wider MCU make the individual films within them better or worse for it. Perhaps it's no wonder that on a personal level I often find myself enjoying the movies where Disney allows directors and in turn the characters within the film to thrive on their own without an overarching narrative as a central plot point. Sure, even in the original Guardians of the Galaxy, which still ranks highest among the MCU for me, there exists the looming Thanos but only within the end credits after the characters have been given time to shine individually.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness serves a purpose for the greater MCU in setting up the wider Multiverse, and in introducing America Chavez (herself the single most interesting aspect of the film) to the wider fan base. And one could argue that even America is there to serve the wider MCU purpose of introducing the Young Avengers as almost any Marvel property of late introduces the important leads of such a film.
Can Doctor Strange live within the MCU and still execute its vision, in that the wider audience seems to agree that the answer is no as the film currently sits at a 60 on Metacritic in both professional and public reviews, but they don't matter what do I think about the film and it's glaring flaws.
Let's talk about the primary flaw within the film to me, Wanda. Wanda in the comics is a flawed, highly conflicted and highly interesting anti hero that often flips between hero and villain. Within the MCU she's shown that same internal conflict especially within WandaVision which is to me the best portrayal of Wanda thus far. So perhaps it's not surprising that my biggest gripe is how quickly and unceremoniously Doctor Strange not only serves to tear down the character evolution Wanda showed in WandaVision but also how unceremoniously it changes Wanda's moral compass. The wide lessons that Wanda learns in WandaVision is that despite her grief not only over the loss of Vision but at the end also the loss of her children she can neither force her happiness upon others nor can she control her family and force their love upon herself, and that in doing so often she creates a lingering hatred or regret within them. And yet within the opening of this film it is hastily thrown upon the audience that Wanda's sudden villainous turn is motivated by the identical motivation for her turn as an anti-villain in WandaVision. And indeed maybe you can say that her turn happened in WandaVision but I'd argue she's never really a villain just a flawed and very human character that can't wrestle with the grief at the loss of the most important aspect of her life but something that she comes to grips with fully by the end of the series first season one would be led to think. Except no apparently not. No, she is now driven solely by the same flawed desires present but worse still now she is fully willing to kill people and destroy a teenager solely so she can replace another her in another reality once again causing the same trauma upon her family for her own happiness and I think this itself is a symptom of the poor portrayal of Wanda in this film from the perspective of women. What this film teaches us about Wanda is that as a mother her sole reason to exist is her children, her happiness is inexplicably tied to them and so she is willing to go so far as to destroy the lives of others to be reunited with her defining purpose. And I think this is a poor portrayal of a woman who up until this point has been a strong defining female character in the MCU. And this portrayal of Wanda directly conflicts with the deep character development she had been defined by, from fearing her powers to embracing them and finally to great sacrifice the struggle to grasp with that sacrifice and finally the acceptance of her loss. Except no not really.
Because of this jarring betrayal of all things Wanda I quickly found that I feared for how this film would portray America Chavez. And her initial turn as helpless damsel in distress quickly set alarm bells ringing in my head. America is incapable of controlling her powers and is quickly attached to her protector and eventual mentor Doctor Strange. She is the single most important character in this film and I think her eventual character growth is a positive but even that growth only exists because of the existence of her protector. But I think the thing that is the absolute most fascinating part of this film is the juxtaposition between the characters of Wanda and America. America is fearful of her power but grows to accept and embrace it as the film concludes, a center point in the growth of Wanda. America is responsible for the defining tragedy of her character wherein the uncontrollable nature of her powers leads to the loss of her parents, and so too is Wanda responsible for the greatest defining tragedy of her character the loss of Vision although her loss is done more voluntarily. But where Wanda fails to grasp the pain of sacrifice America grows to accept it. However I think the film and its portrayal would largely become much stronger if Wanda replaced Doctor Strange as protector and mentor. A story where Wanda helps America grapple with the acceptance of her loss and her powers as she once grappled with her own would turn this movie from good to exceptional if properly portrayed and on a greater level would change the narrative of how this film portrays its women. And while America shows strength and growth as she stands up and fights for herself and eventually helps to save the day, she can only reach this point because Doctor Strange hits her with a cliche about how she's always been strong enough on her own or whatever.
Doctor Strange himself largely sticks to the convictions and indeed the development that the character has shown and it is true that he behaves exactly as one would expect himself to act. And so too do the other characters from the original Doctor Strange, Wong and Mordo both but even that seems flawed to me. I think a much more deep narrative that would have set up a much more interesting set of questions for the audience to grapple with could have been told by subverting the idea the audience has of Mordo by his sudden change to full blown hero. And indeed it was an interesting thing for me to grasp with and an enjoyable experience for the 0.2 seconds where we are led to believe that this version of Mordo is indeed a direct inverse of the Mordo that Strange knew and thus we the audience knew. And though there is a later conflict between Doctor Strange and his evil self one could say even that portrayal of the evil Doctor is not that far off from any other version of Doctor Strange in any of the multiverses we see him in. And that too is a misstep where they could have had a far more compelling case of character growth where our Strange subverts the expectations of the illuminati and indeed his Beau and does not succumb to the eventuality where he like all other Stranges dream walks exactly as predicted and this creates the single worst case of CGI I've ever seen in the MCU, Zombie Strange…God it's awful.
Despite all this I still found the film on a large scale enjoyable enough. It kept me engaged and gave me enough time to grasp with its deeper questions before thrusting itself back into its action. It is well paced and opens intriguing possibilities for the future, and despite my boredom with the predictability of its every great revelation (Mordo is always evil, Strange is always rash and America just needs to except herself with the help of a man of course) and my initial harsh reaction to the betrayal of Wanda's entire character it leads to enough open ended questions that I left the theatre feeling much more interested in the future of both Doctor Strange and the MCU. I wonder if the Wanda within this film is actually our Wanda? I think a future revelation that this Wanda was indeed an imposter would completely change my lingering negative feelings about this film and indeed this film would positively benefit from that revelation. Though the fact that would be necessary itself harms my feeling of this film as a standalone.
All told I think this film does enough within itself to be enjoyable but it never quite makes the leap. It's a serviceable movie worthy of at least one watch. And indeed probably only one watch.
Doctor Strange and the Betrayal of Wanda gets a 65 out of 100
