Well the cinema is empty I'm in right now. Maybe 10-11 people in here but the movie hasn't started yet.
I hope it does well, I always enjoyed Doctor Strange in the comics. I think it might just edge out Ant-Man in terms of revenue personally, but let's wait and see.
Non-spoilery, general impressions below but under spoiler tags for the most sensitive anyway.
Good: Cumberbatch, faithful rendition of Strange, straight up full-on amazing Ditko visuals, great ending fight, loads of classic Strange characters and namedrops, fun soundtrack
Bad: Totally straight-up Origin Story-ish means you won't get surprised by anything, somehow wasted Mads Mikkelsen as a villain, magic is treated as a punchy superpower kung fu thing with not much mystery.
It was very Matrix meets Iron Man meets Inception through the MCU formula blender. I thought it was enjoyable but somehow lacking, while still in the upper tier of marvel movies. I think they could do so much more with this now that the Origin story is out of the way. ***½ outta 5.
Non-spoilery, general impressions below but under spoiler tags for the most sensitive anyway.
Good: Cumberbatch, faithful rendition of Strange, straight up full-on amazing Ditko visuals, great ending fight, loads of classic Strange characters and namedrops, fun soundtrack
Bad: Totally straight-up Origin Story-ish means you won't get surprised by anything, somehow wasted Mads Mikkelsen as a villain, magic is treated as a punchy superpower kung fu thing with not much mystery.
It was very Matrix meets Iron Man meets Inception through the MCU formula blender. I thought it was enjoyable but somehow lacking, while still in the upper tier of marvel movies. I think they could do so much more with this now that the Origin story is out of the way. ***½ outta 5.
Non-spoilery, general impressions below but under spoiler tags for the most sensitive anyway.
Good: Cumberbatch, faithful rendition of Strange, straight up full-on amazing Ditko visuals, great ending fight, loads of classic Strange characters and namedrops, fun soundtrack
Bad: Totally straight-up Origin Story-ish means you won't get surprised by anything, somehow wasted Mads Mikkelsen as a villain, magic is treated as a punchy superpower kung fu thing with not much mystery.
It was very Matrix meets Iron Man meets Inception through the MCU formula blender. I thought it was enjoyable but somehow lacking, while still in the upper tier of marvel movies. I think they could do so much more with this now that the Origin story is out of the way. ***½ outta 5.
I would've liked to see more of her 'cause she's the character that keeps things 'grounded' and I liked her in the part, but she gets sidelined for a big part of the movie. I guess they don't need a Night Nurse in the movies since they got Claire in Netflix-verse.
Well the cinema is empty I'm in right now. Maybe 10-11 people in here but the movie hasn't started yet.
I hope it does well, I always enjoyed Doctor Strange in the comics. I think it might just edge out Ant-Man in terms of revenue personally, but let's wait and see.
Ant-Man only opened to a paltry $57M while Strange is currently tracking between $50-75M. I'm expecting Strange to have good WOM and strong legs to propel it well past Ant-Man.
There's practically no chance it'll perform worse than Incredible Hulk
Non-spoilery, general impressions below but under spoiler tags for the most sensitive anyway.
Good: Cumberbatch, faithful rendition of Strange, straight up full-on amazing Ditko visuals, great ending fight, loads of classic Strange characters and namedrops, fun soundtrack
Bad: Totally straight-up Origin Story-ish means you won't get surprised by anything, somehow wasted Mads Mikkelsen as a villain, magic is treated as a punchy superpower kung fu thing with not much mystery.
It was very Matrix meets Iron Man meets Inception through the MCU formula blender. I thought it was enjoyable but somehow lacking, while still in the upper tier of marvel movies. I think they could do so much more with this now that the Origin story is out of the way. ***½ outta 5.
Question: How would you rank it among the other Marvel films ?
The complaints are the same, worse, I have for say GOTG which had no plot whatsoever, horrible villain etc. I mean even Batman Begins has the same issues to a lesser extend (origin story, meh villain bad love interest but it handled that story really well even if by the numbers. But I still liked those films.
I'm not referring to you btw just in general it's a shame to see the formulaic origin story as a - considering it is based on the comics. Every origin SH film is formulaic by default. I fail to see how that's a bad thing.
I'm glad that with the origin out of the way, they can now focus on their own story for its sequel. The origin was to introduce the world and the hero and hopefully the sequel will expand on the villain. Good thing is they got the visuals, action down to a T and the world and characters.
Non-spoilery, general impressions below but under spoiler tags for the most sensitive anyway.
Good: Cumberbatch, faithful rendition of Strange, straight up full-on amazing Ditko visuals, great ending fight, loads of classic Strange characters and namedrops, fun soundtrack
Bad: Totally straight-up Origin Story-ish means you won't get surprised by anything, somehow wasted Mads Mikkelsen as a villain, magic is treated as a punchy superpower kung fu thing with not much mystery.
It was very Matrix meets Iron Man meets Inception through the MCU formula blender. I thought it was enjoyable but somehow lacking, while still in the upper tier of marvel movies. I think they could do so much more with this now that the Origin story is out of the way. ***½ outta 5.
You say Mads is wasted, but is there anyway he'll have a chance at being a more interesting character in the future? Or is he pretty clearly dead (or gone for good) by the end of the movie?
Feige never said that, he was just saying that not every debut movie going forward would be a straightforward origin setup. He has said for a while that Strange would be an origin story, because he thinks its one of the best ones.
I'm finding it hard to rank Marvel films these days because they're starting to blur into this huge mega-movie-industrial-complex in my mind. Of all the Marvel films I've really liked Iron Man, the first Avengers movie, and Cap 2 and 3. I'd say it's almost on par with those but slowed down by the feeling of 'I've been on this ride before so many times these years'.
I didn't actually like GotG that much, so this was definitely better for me. Strange has flaws but the out-there visuals make up for a lot of them and it's a good movie to see on big screen.
Just run question re: the villain.
You say Mads is wasted, but is there anyway he'll have a chance at being a more interesting character in the future? Or is he pretty clearly dead (or gone for good) by the end of the movie?
Feige never said that, he was just saying that not every debut movie going forward would be a straightforward origin setup. He has said for a while that Strange would be an origin story, because he thinks its one of the best ones.
I saw it ata screening last night and thought it was pretty good. Definitely flawed, but highly enjoyable.
Don't think it will make that much money though.
Liked it, good fun, way more psychedelic than any movie I've ever seen - humour was so so at parts but I had a chuckle at some. Visual Effects were magnificent and it didn't relay on it being apart of the Marvel Universe to be a good movie.
Spoiler-ish review:
The origin story is light but the development is really good. It sets up who this character is and who those around him are pretty well. It only briefly touches on the idea of an infinity stone once and damn it is probably my favorite of the stones. The way it plays with time is genius as is its playful use of dimensions. Cumberbatch's accent took some getting used to but grew on me quickly. Funniest moments for me by far were any using his cloak - that thing stole the show for me. Beautifully shot. Slightly disappointed at no teasing of a physical/human like form for Dormammu... oh yeah Dormammu is the big bad here but all he does is sit in his 'Dark Dimension' and let his Zealots do the work. Post-Credits scenes were both fun and informative, felt a little less well produced than the movie over all though and more 'Oh yeah we have to have post-credits scenes' if anything.
Genuinely liked the movie though, I can't wait to see Doctor Strange interact with other characters in the universe some more.
Non-spoilery, general impressions below but under spoiler tags for the most sensitive anyway.
Good: Cumberbatch, faithful rendition of Strange, straight up full-on amazing Ditko visuals, great ending fight, loads of classic Strange characters and namedrops, fun soundtrack
Bad: Totally straight-up Origin Story-ish means you won't get surprised by anything, somehow wasted Mads Mikkelsen as a villain, magic is treated as a punchy superpower kung fu thing with not much mystery.
It was very Matrix meets Iron Man meets Inception through the MCU formula blender. I thought it was enjoyable but somehow lacking, while still in the upper tier of marvel movies. I think they could do so much more with this now that the Origin story is out of the way. ***½ outta 5.
Without getting to spoilery, what's the multiverse like? Demons and such as with the Strange comics, or is more sciencey? Use spoiler quotes please so you don't get in trouble. Your impressions sound good! Marvel's gotta get these villains down...I loved Ultron, Loki, and Baron Zemo, everyone else has been super mediocre.
Also, are the post-credit scenes more about Strange or the MCU?
Liked it, good fun, way more psychedelic than any movie I've ever seen - humour was so so at parts but I had a chuckle at some. Visual Effects were magnificent and it didn't relay on it being apart of the Marvel Universe to be a good movie.
When the inevitable hero fight comes in Avengers, Strange going to one-shot everyone? Does he feel that powerful? He seems powerful enough to take on the Avengers solo
I liked it a lot. There's a pretty cool inversion on the act 3 action which I won't spoil, but it was real neat. It's also gorgeous and totally worth seeing in imax. Two post credits scenes.
Spoiler: Only MCU wide references were a throw away reference to the avengers, and another infinity stone! So he'll be showing up in infinity wars I assume
Post credits were Thor and Doctor Strange, then Mordo turning evil.
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Visuals were amazing. Pretty much everyone who ends up watching this will be praising them.
It's a solid film, but in the end it's another MCU film. Depending on the person that can be seen as a positive or negative. My problem is that we're 14 movies deep into this franchise.. all 14 share the same similar formula, so it's gonna take something really special to make me excited. Minus the visuals, the film was very by the numbers.
also, I can't believe we're back to another giant thing in the sky third act.
I'm finding it hard to rank Marvel films these days because they're starting to blur into this huge mega-movie-industrial-complex in my mind. Of all the Marvel films I've really liked Iron Man, the first Avengers movie, and Cap 2 and 3. I'd say it's almost on par with those but slowed down by the feeling of 'I've been on this ride before so many times these years'.
I didn't actually like GotG that much, so this was definitely better for me. Strange has flaws but the out-there visuals make up for a lot of them and it's a good movie to see on big screen.
Well, the story is about magic so anything goes, but the way he left the stage felt definitely like he's gone with capital G.
When the inevitable hero fight comes in Avengers, Strange going to one-shot everyone? Does he feel that powerful? He seems powerful enough to take on the Avengers solo
It's tough to say, he doesn't quite have full control yet it would seem. But with the eye of agamotto I would totally say he could one shot anyone, ever... even if they hit him first.
It's tough to say, he doesn't quite have full control yet it would seem. But with the eye of agamotto I would totally say he could one shot anyone, ever... even if they hit him first.
It really is different, I really like how
the villain wasn't killed/beaten in battle, he was outwitted and outplayed by Strange thanks to TIME its self.
massive deus ex machina in a future Avengers film... Well, I guess now I've mentioned it, it doesn't really count as one, but being able to simply undo anything seems fairly OP. Although I guess they mentioned there were bad consequences (Mordo is perhaps one?) of using that power, which is perhaps how it'll balance out.
To be frank, I loved it. It did Doctor Strange and the mythos justice. The characters were fleshed out (well, not the villain) and enjoyable, the visuals are amazing, the score is great and the self-contained feel is really nice. Mads was wasted but I feel that he maybe still ended up being one of the better MCU villains (not saying much). The origin story aspect may be tired for some people but it was necessary here and I think it was unique enough to differentiate itself from the other Marvel movies.
Everything I want to talk about is spoilery so I'm going over to the spoiler thread.
Alsp be warned that this could just be post-movie hype and I'm also a big Doctor Strange fan so I'm more inclined to he all giddy about it.
To be frank, I loved it. It did Doctor Strange and the mythos justice. The characters were fleshed out (well, not the villain) and enjoyable, the visuals are amazing, the score is great and the self-contained feel is really nice. Mads was wasted but I feel that he maybe still ended up being one of the better MCU villains (not saying much). The origin story aspect may be tired for some people but it was necessary here and I think it was unique enough to differentiate itself from the other Marvel movies.
Everything I want to talk about is spoilery so I'm going over to the spoiler thread.
Alsp be warned that this could just be post-movie hype and I'm also a big Doctor Strange fan so I'm more inclined to he all giddy about it.
That's literally the reason I described it as different. It was out of the box thinking. At no point did I think, oh well, he'll just do THAT and it will all be over. It was really refreshing.
I was pleasantly surprised.
Tilda Swinton was pretty good too, it may annoy some purists that she's playing a Celtic sorceror.
I really liked the scene where he put his hand through portals in the library, the apple and the book scene, as well as the trippy psychedelia montage.
