Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness IMAX 3D

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is the second of ol’ BenCum’s outings in his own movie – even though he seems to have turned up in countless others – but I’ll start with a bit of plot, and which I’ll put behind a spoiler-header for anyone who wants to avoid that if they haven’t seen it yet.

However, I will first add that prior to the movie beginning, we did get a teaser for Avatar: The Way of Water – showing in 1.90:1 and 3D, but I still haven’t seen the first one. Maybe they’ll do a double bill when the time comes? It’ll be a long bum-numbing time, though. Intermission, anyone? The first film runs 2 hours 58 minutes in its extended form (2:42 in the theatrical cut), and the sequel is due out in cinemas on December 16th.

Spoiler Inside	Select Show
Well, we first see Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) stealing the power from a young girl, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), in order to kill a big beast, but this is an alternate world. Either way, the ultimate aim for him is to make it to the Book of the Vishanti. Now, I’ve stopped watching all of the Marvel films as they come out, and there’s only a handful that do grab me, from time to time, so in this case, I’m a bit behind plot-wise, but in looking it up, the book is indestructible and also the greatest source of white magical knowledge on Earth. Conversely, the Darkhold does the same for black magic. Back in the real world as we know it, Strange is at a wedding where his former better half, Christine (Rachel McAdams), is marrying another man, but before he can put on too brave a face, there’s a giant one-eyed beast to contend with. And again, Rachel is there, and she recognises him, even though the recognition isn’t mutual. They use what I can only describe as a ‘Portal‘ effect to get from A to B safely, although for those who haven’t played that game, it’s when they swirl their hands about and open up a space elsewhere to walk through, and, for example, step onto the ground after falling through the air. As it turns out, there are multiverses which account for many different Doctor Stranges being in existence, and one of these even allows you to cross the road when the lights are on red, instead of green. Since America is new to the sorcery game, Strange feels compelled to take her to Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) to help with her training, but – and three episodes of Wandavision was more than enough for me, so I’m behind the plot on this – events from that have led her to more often become her Scarlet Witch side. Beyond this, there was a good scene when she found herself up against the Illuminati, which led to a number of guest stars including John Krasinski as Reed Richards, thus starting the Fantastic Four reboot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, along with Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier so, it seems for now, we’re sticking with classic Charles. However, Mr Stewart is 81, and his voice isn’t all that it could be, so I wonder how many more performances we will have from him. So far, he’s the only original member of the X-Men to stay on the big screen since the first movie in 2000. I could go into further detail, but no doubt, someone will tell me I’ve got even more things wrong in describing the plot, but then I like the character, and as I said, there’s only a handful of Marvel films I’ll check out going forward. In fact, the only other one that grabs me is 2023’s Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

Spoiler Inside

Select Show

Well, we first see Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) stealing the power from a young girl, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), in order to kill a big beast, but this is an alternate world. Either way, the ultimate aim for him is to make it to the Book of the Vishanti. Now, I’ve stopped watching all of the Marvel films as they come out, and there’s only a handful that do grab me, from time to time, so in this case, I’m a bit behind plot-wise, but in looking it up, the book is indestructible and also the greatest source of white magical knowledge on Earth. Conversely, the Darkhold does the same for black magic.

Back in the real world as we know it, Strange is at a wedding where his former better half, Christine (Rachel McAdams), is marrying another man, but before he can put on too brave a face, there’s a giant one-eyed beast to contend with. And again, Rachel is there, and she recognises him, even though the recognition isn’t mutual.

They use what I can only describe as a ‘Portal‘ effect to get from A to B safely, although for those who haven’t played that game, it’s when they swirl their hands about and open up a space elsewhere to walk through, and, for example, step onto the ground after falling through the air.

As it turns out, there are multiverses which account for many different Doctor Stranges being in existence, and one of these even allows you to cross the road when the lights are on red, instead of green.

Since America is new to the sorcery game, Strange feels compelled to take her to Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) to help with her training, but – and three episodes of Wandavision was more than enough for me, so I’m behind the plot on this – events from that have led her to more often become her Scarlet Witch side.

Beyond this, there was a good scene when she found herself up against the Illuminati, which led to a number of guest stars including John Krasinski as Reed Richards, thus starting the Fantastic Four reboot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, along with Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier so, it seems for now, we’re sticking with classic Charles. However, Mr Stewart is 81, and his voice isn’t all that it could be, so I wonder how many more performances we will have from him. So far, he’s the only original member of the X-Men to stay on the big screen since the first movie in 2000.

I could go into further detail, but no doubt, someone will tell me I’ve got even more things wrong in describing the plot, but then I like the character, and as I said, there’s only a handful of Marvel films I’ll check out going forward. In fact, the only other one that grabs me is 2023’s Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

Huge poster in the Odeon Trafford Centre…

As for how the film goes when it comes to entertainment, I did enjoy it for the most part, especially a scene involving many of the multiverses, which felt like when Stewie and Brian go through several universes within a short space of time in Family Guy’s Road to the Multiverse. If you’ve seen the trailer, where the Doc’s face goes blocky, you’ll know where I’m coming from, but that’s only a small part of it.

The first half of the film is more engaging than the second half. That could be because it’s one fight after another, and you feel it could slow down a bit and strengthen the plot. However, it’s more about spectacle. Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen perform their roles well, along with welcome support from Xochitl Gomez, but for most of the others, they turn up, deliver their lines, and then exit stage-left.

Ultimately, I didn’t even try to understand why we had multiple Doctor Stranges as coherent plotting seems to go out of the window, but I never felt bored during the 126 minutes it ran for, and I’m so glad it didn’t ramble on for over two-and-a-half hours like most of the Marvel offerings.

I hope we don’t have to wait another five-and-a-half years for a third Doctor Strange movie, although I expect a lot of the delays were down to the COVID19 pandemic, on this occasion.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – Final Trailer – Marvel

At this point, I will say that if you can see it in IMAX and 3D, do so, IMAX opens up to 1.90:1 (from 2.39:1) for the entire duration, and even though all Marvel films are shot in 2D with most of them converted to 3D in post-production (rather than shooting in 3D, proper), for the most part, it’s all computer-generated nonsense flying about, so probably doesn’t make much difference.

Compare that to a Michael Bay Transformers film, for example, where he did shoot in IMAX 3D 8K (normally, 3D films only show in 2K, aka 1080p, so regular HD). I saw no.4 and 5 in IMAX and when most stuff blows up, it’s actually real stuff exploding, and it looks incredible.

However, I only looked at Odeon and Vue so far, and only Odeon are having 3D screenings, and for IMAX, it was all of them yesterday, but today onwards, just a handful. I would’ve preferred an early showing, but 2pm was the earliest 3D version. Well, 2.34pm by the time it actually started.

Later in the film, someone in the audience combined dizzying effects of the movie with smoking some weed. Maybe that improved things?

There’s also a mid- and a post-credits scene, so stay for those. Most people did. I’ll describe those here, but I’ll put them behind a spoiler header:

Spoiler Inside	Select Show
Just before the end credits begin, Doctor Strange walks out of his house, along the street, and to his surprise, this Doctor Strange is the one with a third eye coming out of his forehead. He’s struck down to the ground by a load of noise, and screams in pain. Next up, mid-credits, Charlize Theron appears as sorceress Clea, stops Doctor Strange, and tells him: “You created an incursion, and we’re going to fix it. Do you mind?” He replies: “Not in the least”, and off they go into the Dark Dimension. Finally, at the end of the credits, referring back to a mid-film scene where Bruce Campbell appears in a cameo as a hot dog vendor, tries to attack Doctor Strange, but is instead forced into squirting mustard in his own face and punching himself for the next three weeks, this eventually stops. In relief, he looks at the camera and shouts, “IT’S OVER!” The end.

Spoiler Inside

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Oh, and when it comes to my end-credits adventures, at least you can be pretty sure there’ll be a post-credits scene, so on this occasion, the staff stayed well out of the way of interrupting us before the film was actually completely over.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is in cinemas now, and is not yet available to pre-order, hence I’ll update the links atop this page when it is.

However, you can buy the 2016 movie on Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray and DVD.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – ALL Post-Credits Scenes BREAKDOWN *SPOILERS* – DVDfeverGames

Detailed specs:

Cert:
Running time: 126 minutes
Release date: March 5th 2022
Studio: Marvel
Format: 1.90:1 (IMAX Version); 2.39:1 (non-IMAX). (IMAX cameras, Redcode RAW (8K))
Rating: 7/10

Director: Sam Raimi
Producer: Kevin Feige
Screenplay: Michael Waldron
Music: Danny Elfman

Cast:
Doctor Stephen Strange: Benedict Cumberbatch
Wanda Maximoff / The Scarlet Witch: Elizabeth Olsen
Baron Mordo: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Wong: Benedict Wong
America Chavez: Xochitl Gomez
Dr. Christine Palmer: Rachel McAdams
Dr. Nic West: Michael Stühlbarg
Billy Maximoff: Julian Hilliard
Tommy Maximoff: Jett Klyne
Sara: Sheila Atim
Rintrah: Adam Hugill
Charlie: Ako Mitchell
Hong Kong Master: Momo Yeung
London Master: Daniel Swain
Master Hamir: Topo Wresniwiro
Ariann: Eden Nathenson
Vinny: Vinny Moli
The Weasel: Charlie Norton
Kamar-Taj Teacher: David KS Tse
Doctor Strange Fan: Nina Jalava
Captain Carter: Hayley Atwell
Captain Marvel: Lashana Lynch
Clea: Charlize Theron
Reed Richards: John Krasinski
Black Bolt: Anson Mount
Professor Charles Xavier: Patrick Stewart
Street vendor: Bruce Campbell (uncredited)
Clea: Charlize Theron (uncredited)

Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness IMAX 3D – The DVDfever Review – Benedict Cumberbatch

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