5/6/2022 – PG-13 – 2h 06m – Marvel Studios

Alan: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Michelle: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Doctor Strange meets America Chavez, a young woman with the natural ability to move between parallel universes. She is being chased by the MCU’s Scarlet Witch who wants to steal her powers so that she can be reunited with a version of her children whom she lost in the Disney+ series WandaVision.

Alan: I love Marvel and their movies always get leeway from me. Writing that synopsis above made me realize, once again, how much of a soap opera the MCU is. I enjoyed this movie more because I had watched WandaVision and Loki. I have an emotional investment in the history of Wanda’s children and in the Marvel multiverse. This movie paid off that investment well.

Michelle: I enjoy the Marvel universe movies and TV series overall. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a good addition. 

Alan: The superheroes that Dr. Strange meets in the multiverse were totally added just to please Marvel fans. I loved it.

Michelle: I like that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness wasn’t afraid to go dark and took elements from horror movies.

Alan: There were several times I thought Stephen Strange could have found a better solution. I thought that about a few of the other characters as well. But their actions made sense if you believed they were making mistakes out of arrogance and overconfidence. That is the same thing that led Stephen to create problems in Spider-Man: No Way Home. I hope they find better motivation in future movies.

Michelle: Steven Strange is always frustrating because his arrogance and cockiness lead him to make spur of the moment decisions that cause trouble. Then he spends a lot of time trying to correct his mistakes. He got his super powers because his overconfidence got him in a crash that ruined his surgical career.

Alan: This wasn’t the best MCU movie, but it was still pretty great. The movie has a lot of trademark shots by Sam Raimi. I enjoy his other movies and it is always fun to see stylistic callbacks. The shots of different universes were fun. The fight scenes had unexpected elements and were also fun. I wonder how easy it is to connect to the story if you haven’t been watching the rest of the soap opera. Overall, it was successfully executed. Five stars.

Michelle: Overall, the movie was entertaining and had some fun surprises including jump scares. Five stars.