Amph "You think you're the only superhero in the world?" - The Marvel Cinematic Universe

At least you got a better view than Ant-Man does. What is he doing back there, Rain Maning Hulk's hair count?

 

Continuing on the road to Infinity War, next up Doctor Strange.
Release Date: November 4, 2016 - Worldwide Box Office = $677,718,395



So, right off the bat, I'm going to provide the following disclosure. My fanboy baggage and expectations of Doctor Strange severely impacted my experience of the film, much like it did with Bryan Singer's first two X-Men films and Marc Webb's Amazing Spider-Man flicks.

I think the obvious place to start with the Doctor Strange film is the Hollywood historical practice of "Whitewashing" which has clearly happened and acknowledged by the creative team for the film as when they've commented on the casting of Tilda Swinton as the "Ancient One." What's ironic about this instance of "Whitewashing" (similar to Iron Man 3's decision to make "The Mandarin" to be played by a White actor), was to appeal to the Chinese market, whereas historically it was done to appeal to the White audience (i.e. David Carradine cast to play an Asian character in the TV show Kung Fu over Bruce Lee). Tilda Swinton noted in an interview on the one of the featurettes on the Doctor Strange Blu Ray that the character of the "Ancient One' was always Tibetan. However, with China being a vary large market for Hollywood (Doctor Strange earned $109 million in China), Disney/Marvel wasn't going to risk losing that cash as noted by C. Robert Cargill, one of the writers on the movie, in an interview on the podcast/YouTube show "Double Toasted" as cited in this Hollywood Reporter article:

In an interview with the Daily Beast, the director, Scott Derrickson knew the challenges regarding the characters of the "Ancient One" and Wong.

Later in the interview Derrickson says, [h]e and Marvel discussed casting an Asian actress in the role before making another major change to the character—in order to avoid playing into yet another Asian stereotype.

I really appreciate the creative's team admissions and honesty as it's so refreshing from the typical Hollywood standard excuse of "creative reasons we felt this would be best for the film character and the film." It notes that the Chinese market is a crucial part in the creative process and the overall impact of the film. However, while I appreciate those aspects of the creative team, I felt they left alot of creative opportunities to reimage the character of the Ancient One on the table. I mean, Derrickson and Co., figured out how to reimage the traditional character of the manservant, Wong and yet, they couldn't figure out how to recreate the Ancient One to be non-offensive or stereotypically racist. Moreover, they've admitted to erasing any Asian aspects to the character. Which in retrospect, under the light of the critical and Box Office successes of Disney's other ethic and culturally based films like Coco and Black Panther may have been a poor decision in terms of providing some actual Asian flavor to the MCU. Perhaps they could looked at how KungFu Panda 3 handled the Chinese aspects of their characters and apply accordingly as that film made $51 million in China. But I think Disney was very gun-shy in even attempting to tackle the racial sensitivities as the animated film, Mulan bombed in China as the audience there found the film to be culturally inaccurate and therefore offensive as noted by the following to articles.

from the Baltimore Sun: Disney magic fails `Mulan' in China

From the Huffington Post: How Is Disney’s Mulan Perceived in China?

I felt it important to note all of these things, as it played a huge part of the development, aspects, themes and final results of Doctor Strange.

So, with the addressing of "the elephant in the room" out of the way, I'll move onto the review of Doctor Strange, which was the first film to use the new Marvel Studios intro.


When Scott Derrickson was announced as director for Doctor Strange, I was very intrigued as his resume notes he directed a number of horror films and thought Doctor Strange will not only feature the dark mystic arts but also deliver it with the horror elements. I was even moreso excited about horror being part of the film when I came across this article from Cinema Blend, Doctor Strange May Contain Marvel's First Horror Scenes:

So, after reading that, my mind immediately thought of that scene in Keanu Reeve's Constantine where Constantine reveals a dark dimension of creatures through his use of the mystics arts. I would encourage check that scene from Constantine out in the video below as it goes into my mindset and expectations for Doctor Strange.



There's also this "scene" from Constantine, where Keanu encounters a creature from another world that incorporates the horror elements that I thought would be incorporated in Doctor Strange as noted in the Cinema Blend article above.

Anyway, the Doctor Strange opens up with a raid on the House of the Ancient where Kaecilius and his disciples steal pages from the Book of Cagliostro. However, Kaecilius don't exactly use wizard-like magic, but rather weaponized-like magic, which I found problematic and will elaborate on later.

Next, we are introduced the Dr. Stephen Strange in all his surgical glory, as he successfully answers musical trivia questions while in the middle of a surgical procedure. Afterwards, Strange is sought for a second opinion from Rachel McAdams' character regarding a man who received a bullet to the brain. This scene allows Benedict Cumberbatch to demonstrate the cockiness and superiority complex of Stephen Strange as he talks down to a fellow surgeon and degrades him by telling him how wrong his medical opinion was and then proceeds to rub his face in it as Strange tells him to watch him (Strange) save a life. This feeds into Strange's hubris, which is a essential element to Strange's origin story. So, I love how film develops and delivers this aspect in the opening minutes of the film. Cumberbatch's performance here reminded of the TV show House.

Not only does the film's introduction to Stephen Strange establish the character as a Class A arrogant jerk, but in the visuals demonstrate that his hands are what make him superior and god-like. There are also the running visuals of instruments of time, mostly through watches. This is important as time is an underlying theme of the film. In the operating room where Strange is performing the procedure to remove the bullet just below the brain of a man's head, there's the sound of ticking watch that distracts Strange, to where he tells his fellow doctor to cover his watch. I felt this was a type of symbollic foreshadowing to where Strange can stop and command the effects of time; here commanding the sound of time ticking.



And as a result of the abilities with his hands, Dr. Strange is afforded a great amount of wealth and luxuries, which movie does a magnificent job in conveying as we are taken into his lavish apartment and see his drawer of expensive watches.



Next we see Dr. Stephen Strange burst out of his luxury apartment building in his Bruce Wayne like Lamborghini. Notice how the camera take a moment to feature his hands.



It's during this car ride where Dr. Stephen Strange receives a call from his assistance regarding potential surgical cases for him to perform, one of them being a soldier with a spinal injury (which many nerds theorized to be Rhodey as this movie followed Civil War), but Strange pretty much passes on all of them because they weren't worth of his hands. And like a safety PSA on "don't drive and text/smartphone" Stephen Strange gets into an life altering car wreck




This is one of the best aspect of the film, using the camera to focus on the hands to tell a visual story as well as a symbolic one; that people often define the self worth by a single attribute and the foils of that mindset.


I love the way the film demonstrates the unraveling and descent into desperation of Strange.



We see Strange sent his wealth and exhaust his resources in efforts to find a "Western" medical solution to repairing his hands and regaining his self worth. To me, it was like the equivalent of "A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"



I felt this fall from wealth and stature created alot of empathy for the character, and give the film alot of praise for it.

And so, willing to try anything and pursue any glimmer of hope Strange travels to Kathmandu in search of a cure to heal his hands and make him whole again. I love where Strange walks the streets of Kathmandu as it adds flavor to the film. As such, I'm thankful the creative team didn't fight this as a stereotypical racial trope of "wisdom comes from exotic places of the Far East." Moreover, it depicts the physical challenges of Strange. He's no longer the refined and entitled surgeon, but rather an embodiment of a man that has very little wealth and hope. There's a deleted scene where Strange comes across a dog with a broken leg, but spends a moment to provide some medical aide. In a way, the dog is a reflection of himself.



In fact, the film notes his only possession of symbolized his wealth was a watch given to him, from Christine, which has the clever use of time in the inscription. Again, another use of foreshadowing, but in this case it's in reference to the point in time of Strange's personal growth and perspective.



At this point in time, Strange clutches onto it as a symbol of a life he lost as expressed and demonstrated when he's mugged in the streets of Kathmandu. It's at this point where Mordo rescue Strange and offers to take him to meet the Ancient One.

Once Strange meets the Ancient One, strange displays some of the preconceived ideas he (and members of the viewing audience may have) in mistaking the "Ancient One" to being the old Asian man, Master Hamir.




However, of course, we know the Ancient One is actually Tilda Swinton and the movie makes note that she's Celtic in the scene where Strange and the Ancient One discuss the reason why he traveled to far to meet her. At any rate, Strange is still desperate and eager to find a solution to his hands and entertains the thought that the Ancient One might have something to offer and ask about the man with the spinal injury and how she allowed him to walk again. She offers some spiritual remedies and old medical illustrations regarding the human anatomy and physiology, which Strange scoffs at, but Strange remains desperate he ask more about the spiritual healing. To which, the Ancient One tells Strange he's been looking at the world through a key hole and he spent his whole life trying to widen the view, but when when he's offered the possibility to widen the key hole he rejects it and and that's why he get a literal out of body experience. (Which was the first be selling footage of the film before it was released)



Still in disbelief, Strange attributes the experience to drugs that were most likely mixing in with the tea. In order to further proof herself, the Ancient One opens his [third] eye as she presses his thumb to his forehead.



It's here where the film give us the film glimpse in the other dimensions and universes. It's the first psychedelic trip of the film.

And it's from this point on where the film loses me with it's creative decisions as well as where my fanboy baggage really takes hold, as I noted when I started this post and alluded earlier in this thread.

Since I'm running really long, I'm going to just bullet point my issues as there's still so much I want to cover.

* I didn't mind the "Whitewashing" much, but it did bother pretty much all Asian aspects were erased away as noted in the articles above. Again, especially in the light of Coco and Black Panther where they embrace, highlight, share and celebrated the values of culture. Ancient One by Swinton still could have conveyed an Asian element and philosophy in the same manner as Yoda in Empire Strikes Back. The Asian element missing from Doctor Strange does make it vanilla.

* Hatred the invention of Sling Rings. It was pretty much a plot device to limit to prevent the sorcerers from opening portals on their own (i.e. trapping Kaecilius in the Mirror dimension.

* Hatred the fact there were more flying fists than magical spells. Especially since Strange is shown with shaky from nearly the beginning of the film, to the very end.

* I didn't feel the movie demonstrated that Strange was worthy of receiving the training and knowledge to become a sorcerer, especially in the light that he displayed many of the characteristics as Kaecilius. In fact, upon her dying moments, the Ancient One tells Strange she picked him over Mordo because he has a [moral] flexibility. Not really a calling card of virtue nor a depiction of honorable heroic qualities. I kind of ended up siding with Mordo in terms of principles and code of ethics.

* I didn't like that fact that the Ancient One drew power from the Dark Dimension through the forbidden spells (the very things she and her followers were sworn to fight) instead of the wisdom contained in something like the Book of Vishanti. This element made Kaecillius and Mordo's claims that the Ancient One a hypocrite valid and truthful.

* I was bummed out there weren't really any horror elements. No demons or even Mindless Ones, which could have served a Kaecillius' servants.

* Hated that Dormammu was mostly a big giant CGI head. I mean, it reminded me of the CPU from Tron and that moment where Green Lantern was battling Parallax. (some fanboy baggage).











* I didn't like the fact the Eye of Agamotto wasn't reserved only for the Sorcerer Supreme. The Eye of Agamotto symbolized as Sorcerer status and amplitude. The fact that Strange just picked it up and didn't earn it is bothersome and problematic as its loses the value of being worthy enough to wield its power. Incidentally, making the Eye of Agamotto was a last minute decision as noted in this article, Scott Derrickson Says Time Stone and Theme Was Added Organically:

* I didn't like the way magic was explain scientifically in the film, as it certainly demystifies the mystic. I mean, the Ancient One compared it to source code and the draw on power from other dimensions. In the following interview, Kevin Feige explains the meshing of science and magic in the MCU:

And as such, the film truly didn't bring "magic" into the MCU but scientific theories and ideas. Thus, Doctor Strange is actually more of a science fiction film that a magical one like Harry Potter. Furthermore, the final battle between and Dormammu ended with the scientific theories of temporal/time loops as described in this article. A big reason why I walked away from this movie unsatisfied.


Overall, I did enjoy the entertainment value of the film and the character interactions. Like the cape of levitation. It reminded me of the "magic" carpet in Aladdin.




Of course, I love the biggest selling point of the film, which is visuals. They are the amazing.





This was incredible.







I think feel the best parts of Doctor Strange are told through its visuals and is embodied in the gif below.




Doctor Strange didn't rank high on my personal MCU list of films because of my list bullet point of issues above, but I do appreciate certain aspects of it.

Therefore, even though I found certain ingredients of Doctor Strange a bit tasty, I did not find the film as a whole all that satisfying and "magically delicious."

 

@Sith_Sensei__Prime -- Margaret Cho tried to take Tilda Swinton down a bit with a public airing of emails; dunno if you remember that.

https://jezebel.com/tilda-swinton-sent-us-her-email-exchange-with-margaret-1790203875

 

As @Sith_Sensei_Prime already waxed about the story itself and the prickly casting, I'll discuss some of my thoughts as an Ancient reader (almost 30 years) of Doctor Strange. My two favorite archetypes are wizards and warriors so I like that Stephen is both.

The origin for Marvel’s Master of the Mystic Arts is excellent in some ways, but fair-to-midland in others.

Effects-wise, Stephen trip into the multiverse is one of the most perfect and wonky set pieces shot in the past few years. I also like the light mandalas acting as shields and weapons, and the use of the Eye of Agamotto.

​

The way Stephen fends off Dormammu is great fun, and I like what happens to Kaecilius and his followers as Dormammu welcomes his new mindless ones home (that was a great nod to the designs of the original comic designs of Mindless Ones of the Dark Dimension).

Now that @Sith_Sensei__Prime posted that image of the mainframe head from Tron, I will probably not see Dormammu's big giant head and just that blasted mainframe. Thanks, dude.

When Disney first acquired Marvel was I super concerned that they would tone down a lot of characters and Disneyfy them. And yet the very obvious wink to Disney with Strange’s Cloak of Levitation is priceless. It’s a sentient, mystical thing that bonds with its wearer and feels very much like a Disney animated prop. I love that.

And Wong is the coolest librarian on the big screen in a long time, I am happy we will be seeing more of him.

And now, my grumbles: as superb as they are in so many roles, Tilda and Mads are given the short end of the mystical stick in this film. I just do not buy Tilda’s performance here (which is odd because she becomes every role she steps into). Similarly, the dark side student could have been a woman (perhaps Tilda as Kaecilius?) Mads Mikkelsen usually bats it out of the park, but I got the same vibe from him as I did Micky Rourke, he just wasn't given enough time as the character. In many scenes he felt like an afterthought. I wanted Mads to be a superb, dangerous, powerful baddie, but instead he is only on his way to mindless one territory and that makes me . I love his make up though...

​

The mystical fights were also a bit too short for me, both the physical martial arts and the mystic sides of things.

And now my Strange comic fan woman will purge a few things from my being:

One of the things I absolutely love about the Doctor Strange comic is the magic. The various made up systems are very inventive and fun. I just get giddy reading Stan Lee’s spells that all start with the same letter. It’s just so much fun and taps into the reader’s imagination. You believe in the magic that Stephen casts and it takes so much creativity to come up with a system that is not only unique but very entertaining. Yes, I know they made a tiny crack about this during the library scene.

Obviously, MCU Stephen can tap into the various energies of the multi-verse without the Time Stone, but I still want more than that.

As mentioned in Sith's review above, the scientific explanation of magic kills a good deal of the concept of Doctor Strange. For the same reasons why my Asgardian armored undies are in a twist over the Asgardians being aliens in the MCU, well, I still crank loudly over the forced scientific rationale for the magic.

I cannot imagine how frustrating that mandate may have been for Scott Derrickson who has studied theology and the occult (his duel major at college was Theology and Film Studies). Also, odd that Disney itself welcomes imaginary magic, I cannot understand why they would want to eradicate the mystical systems from Doctor Strange since they are 1) not offensive to any culture or wiccans etc., and 2) feel so darn Disney to begin with. This is one of the few quibbles I have with the MCU, that everything must have a logical, scientific explanation. It renders some of the MCU films too safe. It's no wonder I love the original Hellboy so much which went full tilt fake black magic with Rasputin and the survivors of the Thule Society...but I digress.

And, yet, there are parts of this movie that are among my most favorite of the MCU (the trippy moments, Stephen meddling with the Eye of Agamotto, the battle of wits against Dormammu, the fight over the Hong Kong Sanctum). I also wonder with Mordo's turning, will he aid Thanos in tracking down Stephen for the Time Stone?

As a long time fan of the good doctor, the litmus test was if Benedict Cumberbatch could prove to me he was Stephen. He most certainly did. For this alone, I can forgive some of my bigger grumbles about the movie. I hope Cumberbatch signed a rather large multi-film deal to play Stephen. I want him around for a long time.

All this aside, it's my wish that Scott Derrickson gets to direct another Strange film. I think he was painted into a corner by some of the casting, and making the Eye of Agamotto an Infinity Stone. I would love to see Derrickson incorporate his love of Dario Argento’s Suspiria into a Doctor Strange movie. And with Scott’s spitballing of Nightmare as the sequel villain, perhaps he could try to do just that.

 

I don't remember this at all because there was so much backlash towards the casting of Swinton. I mean, I remember political organizations figure heads, like Rob Chan, President of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) saying in this Variety article:

That last line from Chan cracks me up.

And the backlash against Swinton reminds of a recent attempt to Whitewash another Asian comic book character from Hellboy. In the upcoming remake of Hellboy, the British actor, Ed Skrein, that played the villain Ajax/Francis in the Deadpool movie, was cast to play Maj. Ben Daimio, an Asian character. Smartly and compassionately, Skrein stepped out of the role as noted in this NY Times article:

@Master_Lok Sorry about the Tron CPU image, but you know that misery loves company.

I love your breakdown of the performances of the main actors and I totally agree that Mads and Tilda's performances were lacking, but Benedict brought the essence of Strange to life; especially in the beginning of the film.

I was going to mention this in my previous post, which is regards to why Derrickson watered down the mystical nature of magic in Doctor Strange and it has to do with China's restrictions on importing movies the promote superstitions, which was the case with the reboot of Ghostbusters as noted in this Hollywood Reporter article,'Ghostbusters' Denied Release in China , but I was already running long and short on personal time.

I think Mads' and Tilda's performances were kind of vanilla as well, and I think it was not to "Yellow Face" (the Asian equivalent of "Black Face") their performances as Derrickson noted above in China's restrictions on importing films which prohibit the following, as noted in the China-Briefing website:

Which is what I think is the real reason why Derrickson didn't cast an Asian person as the Ancient One and why Tilda's and Mads' performance were lacking a dark mystical flavor, because China would have most likely banned it.

So, I totally with you @Master_Lok that Derrickson was probably extremely frustrated with the mandates placed on his film. Especially, since he has been a huge fan of the character for such a long time, so much so, he spent a huge amount of his own money to pitch his idea for the Doctor Strange movie to Marvel as noted in this interview:

So knowing the restrictions place on Derrickson, I commend him on his ability to tell an entertaining and safe, Doctor Strange under those conditions.

On another note, DC/WB has been run through the mud lately because of their DCFU, and so I want to make note and commend their decision to keep the artistic integrity of The Dark Knight, when the refused to change/remove an Asian character from the film and thus was banned from China as noted in this Slashfilms article:

 

Wow. Thanks for all that background. Interesting about cults and superstitions. I'd heard that China was getting prickly about certain things, but I never knew the exact list. That kind of boggles my mind given the popularity of Taoist priests and the Kyonsi Vampire lore in many Hong Kong films. Even Shaw Brothers went crazy Taoist magic in the early 80s. Then again, Hong Kong is not mainland China. And you did mention anything that looked more realistic than fake (which the Kyonsi genre largely was until Rigor Mortis (2013).

Yes, they were definitely trying to avoid the 'Yellow Face' controversies. I remember Derrickson saying he spent a significant amount of his own money to direct Doctor Strange (prepping the astral projection fight in the hospital as Dr. Palmer tries to keep Stephen's mortal body alive).

The astral projection is something I also enjoyed very much. I'd like to see more done with that.

Here's to commiserating about the Dormammu-Tron CPU head.

And, yes, I agree for the restrictions Derrickson probably had placed upon him, he did make an entertaining movie. That's great about DC too.

Hmm, I am just rereading this interview with Scott Derrickson as DS was released on blu ray last year. These comments about the magic and visual effects might almost back up the restrictions you mentioned:

Sorry, Scott it looked like CGI to me...

 

Yes, I thought Mordo was better in the film too. I agree with everything else you said too. Now I can see from @Sith_Sensei_Prime’s posts as to why many things I enjoyed were jettisoned-all In the name of box office. I go back and forth with enjoying the movie, but as with anything, I am glad it was made and love some of the aspects to it, I look forward to seeing what they do with Stephen going forward.

 

I love Mordo's response to Strange when he gave him the WiFi password: "We're not savages."

 

As Thor would say, I thought Loki liked tricks.

 

Not going to lie, the scenes with Strange are my favorite part of Thor: Ragnarok. Show that man the portal...

 

Makes me wonder if Loki is going to want some revenge on Strange in IW...

 

If Loki

Spoiler

survives handing over the tesseract. Although, he could spill the beans on Stephen too.

 

Exactly what I'm thinking. He's always ready to make a deal.

 

Spoiler

That's assuming that Loki knows the Time Stone is there. Besides, was Dr. Strange wearing it or was it still back in its original place?

 

Spoiler

He was wearing the amulet but would Loki even know what was in it?

 

That's a good point,

Spoiler

yet Wong filled Stephen in about Tesseract and the Aether during the Infinity War Prelude comics. And thanks to sending Loki through the portals during Thor:Ragnarok, Stephen may know where the Tesseract and the Aether are too.

 

Spoiler

Maybe he figured it out while falling for 30 minutes? He had a lot of time to think about... time....

 

Ok this was well done ...

 

I have to think that Thanos wouldn’t be too happy with Loki. When the series started, Thanos was already in possession of the Mind Stone, and he entrusted Loki with it. Loki briefly had the Space Stone, but then lost them both. Thanks to Loki’s arrogance, Thanos’ task of acquiring the Stones is now that much tougher.

 

8 to 10 weeks for my Avengers Infinity War Free socks! Thanks delicious post products!




Got adult size, hopefully it'll fit cuz I got Thanos but hopefully they're big enough to befit the Mad Titan

 

I don't suppose they're sending them from the Dark Dimension?

 

I guess Doctor Strange made another bargain.