I was not in a good head space at all watching it the first time, so I had to watch it a second time.
My number one worry going into this film was that it wouldn't be a Stephen Strange film but a Wanda film. I was half right.
Spoiler alert: She is the main baddie. And she kills many people to try and suck the power out of America Chavez in order to "dream walk", the act of going into a variant of oneself and taking over their body. She has been corrupted by an evil book and has found out there are variants of her children in the multiverse and she wants them for herself. I kind of felt like her story was already told in WandaVision, and this also feels like a season finale of that.
The exposition, which there is a lot of, is not as bad as I've seen in other movies. But because there is so much "madness" going with Wanda chasing Chavez through the multiverse, the script doesn't allow that much space to breathe.
There are some strong moments in the film involving Strange meeting his other selves, or talking with a variant of Christine, and being confronted with his own ego and arrogance. But sadly, they are very fleeting. And that's a huge problem. My favorite scenes in the MCU have always involved dialogues about morality, grief, mortality and other strong themes. Ex: The balcony scene in the first Doctor Strange + the Sokovia Accords debate in Captain America Civil War.
The movie's themes are primarily about people wanting what they can't have. While this wasn't the sequel I was truly hoping for, it is what we have. It's what I like to call "the saggy middle": not quite up to par with its predecessors but entertaining and important nonetheless.
My number one worry going into this film was that it wouldn't be a Stephen Strange film but a Wanda film. I was half right.
Spoiler alert: She is the main baddie. And she kills many people to try and suck the power out of America Chavez in order to "dream walk", the act of going into a variant of oneself and taking over their body. She has been corrupted by an evil book and has found out there are variants of her children in the multiverse and she wants them for herself. I kind of felt like her story was already told in WandaVision, and this also feels like a season finale of that.
The exposition, which there is a lot of, is not as bad as I've seen in other movies. But because there is so much "madness" going with Wanda chasing Chavez through the multiverse, the script doesn't allow that much space to breathe.
There are some strong moments in the film involving Strange meeting his other selves, or talking with a variant of Christine, and being confronted with his own ego and arrogance. But sadly, they are very fleeting. And that's a huge problem. My favorite scenes in the MCU have always involved dialogues about morality, grief, mortality and other strong themes. Ex: The balcony scene in the first Doctor Strange + the Sokovia Accords debate in Captain America Civil War.
The movie's themes are primarily about people wanting what they can't have. While this wasn't the sequel I was truly hoping for, it is what we have. It's what I like to call "the saggy middle": not quite up to par with its predecessors but entertaining and important nonetheless.