DOCTOR STRANGE AND THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS (2022)

[geneweigel]

I think it helps not being a comic fan watching this one but then you wouldn't get some of the cool factor as well. For the almost adult kids who are tired of Hollywood it fizzled because of PC.

I like the story but the comic brain was looking for things that were not happening which I suspect was from doctoring the script and reshoots.

[geneweigel]

My wife really disliked this movie, the whole ride driving her to work complete rant.

[GRWelsh]

I was trying to put my finger on what I didn't like about this movie. There were several things, actually. The problem with "magic as a super power" is that when it isn't clear what the capabilities and limits are, writers can use it to do anything and the viewer feels confused and disconnected. It worked better in the first DOCTOR STRANGE (2016) movie because we were seeing the the story through Stephen Strange starting out as a normal human, so we could identify with him not knowing what magic can do. But in this movie, there are all of these magic-users and it isn't clear what they can all do or what their relative power levels are. What can magic do and what can't it do? We need to know this in order to understand the dramatic tension. I just felt disconnected from all of the CGI magic and monsters flying around. I also didn't like the way Wanda killed the Illuminati so easily, and especially how she sealed Black Bolt's mouth without even making a gesture. Their deaths felt more like a horror movie, and out of place for the tone of the MCU. The Illuminati are supposed to be the most intelligent beings on their world, and they just drop down in front of Wanda without any strategy like a cliché super hero team and died like chumps one at a time. No teamwork! I don't like how they made Wanda basically godlike and a full-on villain, which she shouldn't be. There's no coming back from all of those people she killed, no matter how she justified it. They basically ruined the Scarlet Witch as a superhero permanently, which I do not like. And what a terrible way to introduce Professor X and Mister Fantastic to the MCU. Two of the most brilliant minds in Marvel Comics and they accomplish nothing and simply get killed. You could say they aren't "our" Professor X and Mister Fantastic since it was in a different universe and so it doesn't really matter. But that only raises another problem. Does the fact that these deaths happen in other universes make them less meaningful and thus lower the stakes? With time travel introduced into the MCU in AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2019), and now the multiverse, it seems like any failure can be reversed and any death can be undone... This was a criticism of the first SUPERMAN (1978) movie as well. I know these concepts come from the comic books, but I don't like them much in that medium, either, for the same reasons. These concepts widen the scope, but lower the stakes. No consequences, no drama.

[geneweigel]

This is the comic that it was based on:

marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Avengers_Vol_1_187

And technically, in the comic it isn't Wanda but rather the demon Chthon using her as an "in case of emergency take over the life of this magical baby sometime in their future". However, "Marvel" (I don't know if there really is a truly Marvel Marvel anymore) is all hodge-podge crap nowadays just look at CAPTAIN MARVEL (2019) for example with Mar-Vell as an older lady. They admitted after the movie was out for a while that it was the politically correcting that wiped the original Captain Marvel on fierce purpose. They just couldn't have a man be the source of the power. Also for Wanda they might have decided to nix the Chthon possession of Wanda concept to sort of "Walking Dead" the Wanda actress to the exit before she asked for a raise.