Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Dr. Strange 2’ film instead, now that there is no worry about spoilers. Therefore, what about it?
…Not unlike most of the Phase 4 MCU TV series, ‘Dr.
Strange 2’ was a transitional tale, even moreso than ‘Black Widow-2021’ was. Both
of the movie’s main characters – Dr. Strange and Wanda Maximoff – emerged greatly
changed between the movie’s start and finish; the rest of the characters – well…
- America Chavez is a brand-new character in MCU, so
she does not need to change; her being in MCU is a change enough.
- Mordo got rebooted in a manner of speaking, since
the Mordo we saw in this movie was a Mordo from a different universe than the
one we saw in the first ‘Dr. Strange’ film, (2016), though the two versions of
the good baron were similar enough to each other.
- Christine Palmer changed from the titular character’s
main love interest into, well, not – she seems to be engaged to someone else
now, and with Clea appearing in the mid-credits scene, clearly, she and Stephen
are done with each other for now.
- And Wong… apparently, he is the sorcerer supreme in
the film; I am not sure if it is the main timeline or one of the secondary
though; regardless, Wong underwent some of his own changes, so yay for him!..
What next?
…The movie is wonderful in the way that ‘Morbius-2022’
was not: the script, the plot, the acting and the scenery all work, and the
fact that ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is firmly rooted in ‘the greater MCU’, helps as well.
This movie is a direct continuation of both ‘Dr. Strange 1’ film, and the WV TV
series; Wanda Maximoff finally reaps what she has sown on one hand, while Dr.
Strange continues to evolve as a hero and to make new friends. Pause.
Yes, the latter point is important enough for further
elaboration: in MCU especially, heroes tend to have friends, while villains do
not. Admittedly, the titular characters of such shows as ‘Loki’ and MK have
blurred the line some, but the distinction is still there, even as Loki and MK
become ‘proper’ heroes, (whether willing or reluctant or something else is
another issue altogether). As such, Wanda’s growing social isolation since the ‘Avengers:
Endgame’ film is a clear (one out of) sign that something is wrong with her,
(at least on the obvious level). By contrast, Dr. Strange has no such problems –
he’s got Wong, he got Christine, (more or less), by the end of his second film
he’s got America, he may have Peter Parker and his friends… well, the last one
is kind of squeaky, as at the end of ‘No Way Home’ Peter got his wish for total
anonymity, and now he has to figure out as to where to from here to get out of this
mess. Still, unlike Wanda, Peter does not appear to have turned to unholy
magics to bring back his aunt back from the dead, but, again, when it was touch
and go with the Green Goblin, Peter did have friends – and his counterparts
from another two realities – to keep him afloat. Wanda Maximoff, on the other
hand – not so much, unfortunately…
Getting back on track, another important point made by
‘Dr. Strange 2’ is that you cannot use the multiverse to replace what you have
lost; the infinite realm of possibilities also has an infinite number of ‘yous’
using/utilizing those possibilities…but Michelle Yeoh’s take on the multiverse
has already depicted this concept before this film did, so, what’s next?
America’s sexual orientation? Not unlike Disney/MCU’s
overall policy, this aspect of her character was underwhelming…though in RL,
Disney is already in trouble with U.S. Republican party regarding their take on
the U.S. sexual minorities, while overseas, in China, the ‘No Way Home’ film
was banned/censored because it used the Statue of Liberty, among other things.
That said, clearly Sony and Disney/MCU have their issues with each other still,
as Spider-Man also got firmly sidelined in the main Marvel MCU timeline; fair
enough, the rest of MCU is moving on.
…One important point relates to the element of horror
in the movie; while ‘Dr. Strange 2’ can be rather gory at times, (and we might
get to it later), someone – at ‘The Wrap’, I think – proclaimed that ‘Dr.
Strange’ isn’t supposed to entertain fans. I am sorry, but what is it supposed
to do? Give Cumberbatch, Olsen and co. justification for their career choices? ‘Dr.
Strange 2’ is a movie designed to entertain, rather than to educate and/or to
inform, for example.
This brings us to the Illuminati, or at least – to one
of their versions, which existed only for Wanda to kill them and to gain more
XP in the process… I mean, to show the audience as to how much she fallen since
the events in WV, and that is a lot. In WV, Wanda was bad enough, when she
mentally enslaved the entire town of Westview with her powers in her grief, but
now she is just killing people – and very powerful people, too. That said, the critiques
that the Illuminati served only as props to show-off the new dark Wanda are
quite justified, and the use of those characters in the ‘Dr. Strange 2’ movie
are justified – maybe some different approach to give Wanda more XP would have
been better…
However, ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is still a good movie, one
that aimed to properly depict the multiverse of MCU for the first time, (even ‘No
Way Home’ was more of a forerunner instead). The restraints of live-action
films (it’s slightly different with TV series, as AoS’ S7 showed), is such that
‘Dr. Strange 2’ focuses on alternate versions of Dr. Strange and Wanda Maximoff
only, but because ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is a good film, this take works, so yay!
…And for now, then, this is it. ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is a
good film, very enjoyable, (relatively aware of its’ limitations, and may not
always be as imaginative as you’d expect, but still the good outweighs the bad
here), and very fun to watch, so watch it! Otherwise, I will see you all soon!
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