By: Justin Pomerville
Although "Captain America: Civil War" was the beginning of Marvel's third phase, the introduction of the Sorcerer Supreme is the REAL beginning. Being that this was the first story of a new character since Ant-Man back in 2015 (I'm not including Black Panther and Spider-Man because those were cameos), it really needed to push the boundaries to keep us intrigued. I know it got a lot of hype overseas and I did a pretty god job staying away from early reviews so that I wouldn't be spoiled, at least up until 2 hours before seeing it...thanks internet. This movie is the quintessential setup of the new line up of heroes which include Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and to a certain extent, Wasp. Would this movie live up to the hype of the rest of the franchise? Overall, there has yet to be a genuine flop, but over the last couple of years, I personally kept waiting for that shoe to drop, mainly when they first announced "Guardians of the Galaxy" and then later on with the announcement of "Ant-Man". I had the pleasure of not only seeing it on opening night, BUT was also able to see in the Regal's 4DX theater.
The overall feeling for this film is that I really enjoyed it. I thought it did a really good job setting up new elements that we haven't seen very much in the MCU, those two elements are magic and other dimensions. So far, in terms of magic, the closest we have seen is Scarlet Witch. And with the other dimensions, we have only really seen that in "Thor: Dark World" when the main battle is Thor, Malekith, and company falling in and out of dimension. This movie sets up the two elements in a really good (and somewhat trippy) way. And since we haven't seen this on film, it was going to be interesting how they were going to set it up so that it sets itself apart from other movies that use magic and other worldly dimensions. This move also felt very much like the first Iron-Man in it's set up, which works really well as a formula for doing these origin stories, which this movie is all about. Overall impressions is that this is probably going to be up there on my "Best Marvel Films" list, but it did have a few flaws.
This is the point where I will tell you that it might get spoiler-y. Turn away now if you don't want to accidentally read something that you didn't want to know.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays Doctor Stephen Strange and I honestly believe it was a great move. Much like Tony Stark, he thinks more about himself than anyone else and spends the majority of his time not only making himself famous, but also pushing the boundaries of what can be done in terms of medicine (where as Tony does that with technology). The whole story arc is literally like Tony's, minus not being kidnapped by terrorists...and the use of magical healers, but still it is. He is brash, arrogant, and wants to be loved by all, but doesn't reciprocate those emotions to others. He is cold and calculated when it comes to working on patients and picks only those that will help his personal gain of more knowledge and new practices, which in turn, will make him more popular. I know some people were thrown off with his American accent, but I didn't really notice and it didn't change how I felt he played the character.
Tilda Swinton played probably one of the coolest roles in this film, The Ancient One. She is the teacher of all the sorcerers and is overall, the most powerful. The big thing about her portrayal isn't really how she played it, but how everyone treated the casting. In the comics, The Ancient One is usually portrayed as an old Asian man. But that is a discussion I will not go into on this. All I'm going to say is that she did a great job being both a teacher like character, but not being fully rigid while in the process. Her moments with Strange are very "You're The One"-ish, which totally worked for this film.
Mads Mikkelsen played the main bad guy, Kaecilius and really it was alright. Unfortunately, like most Marvel films, it felt like a filler character because the movie is more about the origin, not the villains. Kaecilius kind of fell into the pile of villains that they just used to move the story along, much like Malekith in "Thor: Dark World", Yellowjacket in "Ant-Man", and Ronin in "Guardians of the Galaxy". He was just around to be the lesser villain that is used to expose what is the bigger threat. In this case, the bigger threat is Dormammu and the dark dimension. The performance wasn't bad, it just felt like there was no real point of building him up as such a big villain.
Chiwetel Ejiofor played the role of Mordo, loyal sorcerer follower of The Ancient One and teacher to Stephen Strange. Now, I'm going to spoil something for all of you, but this story is also about him. In the comics, he is one of Strange's most powerful villains, and this movie is building that story for a future film. Chiwetel did a great job with the character, giving him purpose in all his decisions and doubts. This movie is the building of him becoming the villain that will probably be like Loki is to Thor. He got the amount to screen time that I felt was appropriate in order to not show off too much of what his future would be. Smart, resourceful, but very naive in this film. Which is great.
Overall, visually speaking, this was great. The effects were clean and intricate. The fights were very different from what we have seen before, especially with the added visual aid of the "Inception"-like moving buildings. And because of seeing it on a 4DX, screen actually mace it look even better. The overall story was really good, being that it was just an origin story. The action sequences were really nicely put together, and one of my personal favorite set pieces was being in the Sanctum Santorum. I also think it did really well in not being overwhelmed with needing many cameos from the other films (minus the mid credit scene), but alos was able to add to bigger picture with the inclusion of an Infinity Stone. This movie was a really good step to add a new and hopefully deeper level to the MCU.