Off the Shelf: Doctor Strange (2016)

So, we didn't feel like watching election coverage on the 8th of November, (didn't feel like getting excited or depressed) so we went to the movies instead -- and watched Doctor Strange. (SPOILERS in PINK!)

I'm not the biggest fan, but there will be no Cumberbashing.The Plot: Doctor Strange is an actual doctor; a famous surgeon, but also a smug jerk. He gets into an accident and his hands (i.e. his career) are destroyed. In desperation, he goes to Nepal and meets some mystic people who he thinks can help him... who gradually teach him to be slightly less of a jerk and gain his assistance in working against evil.

And they're really, really good at writing with sparklers.That's... the movie, pretty much. I more or less enjoyed this film -- more in some spots than others. More in the beginning, because I actually felt that the "origin story" part of this movie was the most entertaining part. When they got into the second half, which is the traditional Marvel "Extended Fight Scene"... it began to lose me a bit.

Here's what I didn't like:

1. The Mysticism: The mysticism in this film was heinously underdeveloped. If you're going to use Eastern Mysticism as the heart of your film, you really, really, should maybe read a book on Eastern Mysticism. Or even mysticism of any kind, for that matter! Read about meditation techniques, actual energy channeling techniques... anything. Because here's a pattern I've noticed -- every good story involving mysticism has a grounding in actual mysticism. Lord of the Rings? Tons of Catholic mysticism with a healthy dose of Norse Mythology. Star Wars? DRIPPING with Eastern Mysticism and mythological archetypes. Chronicles of Narnia? More Christian mysticism than you can shake a stick at.
Tilda knows!Whereas, Dr. Strange's training in the mystical arts was flying through a colorful screensaver -- and then reading books on the subject, off-screen. Those two things somehow gave him the power to channel such powerful magic through his body that he can teleport through space.

2. The Relationships: The relationships in this film were heinously underdeveloped. Dr. Strange used to date Rachel McAdams. They broke up because he was mean and selfish. He later... appears to feel kind of bad about that, since the one thing he treasures from his life was a watch she gave him that was engraved with some kind of "love"-type sentiment. He then hassles her for free medical care, and walks out on her. TWICE.

[image error] You know how important Rachel McAdams was in this movie?
THIS is the best picture I could find of her in it.3. The Mysticism... AGAIN: Okay. At the end of this movie, we find out that the wise elder who helped Dr. Strange learn to do magic was, in fact, DRAWING HER POWERS FROM THE DEVIL. Dr. Strange's sidekick, Mordo, is entirely put off by that, and leaves. And, you know what? That's an entirely reasonable stance to take. If I found out that the Pope was drawing his powers from the Devil (even if he was doing some transient good with those powers), I would be more than concerned, and probably leave the Church, because ultimately NOTHING GOOD COMES FROM THE DEVIL, even if it temporarily looks good. And they didn't touch on this problem in anything more than a cursory fashion. In the end, Dr. Strange resolves to go on using his magic (presumably from the same evil source) to go on fighting evil. Really doesn't make much sense.

4. The Humor: The humor felt as though it had been awkwardly shoe-horned into the script after Guardians of the Galaxy came out. Dr. Strange -- this humorless, angry man -- occasionally just throws out a pop-culture zinger (he starts randomly mentioning Adele and Beyonce at one point; again, nice pop-culture references your average 12-year old would get, but seem a bit forced to anyone over 12). It just... didn't work. I mean, Dr. Strange's problem is that he's a self-consumed jerk, and -- in my personal experience -- those people really have very little sense of humor. They just take themselves a little too seriously for that sort of thing.

5. The Visuals: I mentioned previously that Dr. Strange spent a while in this movie falling through a screen-saver. I felt as though I might have seen this screensaver before... like, maybe some point after it first came out in 1968:

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) "Star Gate" sequence.
And the rest of the fantasy visuals in the film, I felt like I had seen previously in an extremely more recent screensaver: 
Inception (2010) "City Bending" sequence. 
I'll give it to the filmmakers that they took both effects a bit further than they were taken in the original movies... but I was still left feeling as though I was watching something I had already watched. (Because I HAD.) I'm honestly surprised more people weren't crying foul at the derivative quality of the effects ("We've seen it before!") but, I suppose all the 12-year olds in the audience probably haven't. 

My review up until this point probably gives the impression that I overall disliked the film -- but that's not wholly accurate. Here's what I liked:
1. Benedict Cumberbatch: I'm not really a fan of his -- in the sense that I go out of my way to watch his movies -- but I'll give it to Benedict Cumberbatch: he's a decent actor. He does have more charisma than your average modern Hollywood leading man. And in this film he was doing an American accent, which made him sound like Tom Selleck, which delighted me. (The drawback of that is that, when I mentioned this to Mr. Hall, we went off on a tangent about what an awesome "Doctor Strange" Tom Selleck would have been. I mean, just think of it!!) But all and all, I give it to Cumberbatch. He was good in this movie.
But I can't stop thinking about how awesome this would have been...
2. The Mysticism... For the Third Time: Okay. You might be wondering why I'm saying that I liked the mysticism when I just spent two paragraphs above telling you that I disliked the mysticism -- that it was underdeveloped, under-researched and underthought. Well, here's the thing... at least it had some. One of my biggest gripes with the majority of the Marvel movies so far is their strident attempts to remove any mystical or spiritual elements from their films -- even when it made sense to have some. (The "magic" used in the Thor movie is hidden under the blanket of, "You call it magic, we call it science." [And, presumably, "You call us gods, but we just call us really old people with excellent reflexes."]) Dr. Strange actually allowed the possibility that there is a spiritual dimension to life, which I highly appreciated. Hollywood doesn't need to be so terribly afraid of admitting that there might be more to life than meets the eye.
3. Story and Pacing: For the most part, the story and pacing were pretty good. As I said, for me it kind of lost it once we got into the traditional Marvel "second half of the movie extended fight scene" -- and then it felt like it ended kind of abruptly -- but I still had an overall positive impression from the film. I want to see more. (Although I also object to the fact that no Marvel movie can  just be a self-contained story... but that's an objection for another time.)
RECOMMENDATION : So, ultimately, do I recommend Dr. Strange for a potential spot on your shelf...? Depending on two things: a) that you basically like Marvel superhero movies, and b) that you don't need your movies to be deep. This move was pretty-looking (if a little bit dizzying... or, perhaps, nauseating, at times). It was a piece of light entertainment; mostly harmless escapism. So, I'd issue a tentative "yes" to that question. With any luck they don't jack it up with a horrible sequel.