Where I watched it: Disney+
After being cryogenically frozen for 9 years, director Sham Pay-me (Sam Raimi) returns to what he is known best for... Evil Dead, Spiderman and cashing cheques.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a jumble of scenes that leave you confused, bored and then bored some more. This Doctor can surely cure any case of insomnia.
I remember not being too fond of the first Doctor Strange movie but I grew to like him more as an ensemble character in the other MCU films. He was particularly good in Spider-Man: No Way Home. But in this he kinda sucks... his usual jaded attitude and smarmy sense of humor is all but gone without a proper sidekick.
This film is also a sequel to the Wandavision show, which I enjoyed for the most part and half of the screentime (if not more) is taken up by Wanda/Scarlett Witch. Right off the bat she reveals herself to be evil (which I don't recall her being at the end of Wandavision but whatever) with a dastardly plan to "dream walk" into a different universe, one where Wanda is still living with her fictional kids, take over the consciousness of that Wanda and basically just live out her life there.
This plot line and the scenes that follow would be extremely confusing for anyone who hasn't seen the Wandavision show.
Sadly, all the possibilities that exist after seeing Spider-Man: No Way Home or the Loki show hinting at the multiverse, is not really present in this. There is literally one scene that I'm pretty sure was in the trailer where Doctor Strange is kind of falling through multiple dimensions/universes and it's pretty fun. There's a cartoon world and an old timey film world. That stuff is fun, like Alligator Loki and Tobey Maguire and all that shit.
Instead of traversing multiple universes as the title would suggest, they mainly stick to the one where Wanda is living with her fake children and the Avengers are the Illuminati, run by a popular bald wheelchair-bound character from another popular franchise. There's also another universe where Doctor Strange has a musical note battle with an Evil Doctor Strange.
I'm not going to say much about America Chavez because what is there to say? Did she even need to be in the movie? MacGuffin much?
Rachel McAdams was super forgettable just as she was in the first Dr. Strange movie.
The only aspects of this that I really felt entertained by were the hardcore Sam Raimi moments. Toward the end of the film it basically turns into Evil Dead with zombies, pov ghost cam, skeletons, the necronomicon and there's even a Bruce Campbell cameo that I'd actually go as far as to say is the best scene in the movie (when combined with the 2nd post credit scene).
People are calling this a horror film... I think not. It's still very much an action adventure Marvel movie but it does have a bit of horror elements peppered throughout. I was definitely surprised at what they were able to get away with in the "Illuminati" scene. There's nothing scary about it though.
According to IMDB the script wasn't finalized when they began shooting and it was only finished when they were like half way through filming. Most films that end up following this sloppy ass model turn out to be garbage like Alien 3. I'm sure that had some role in why the film constantly jumps from one thing to the next with no proper sense of direction.
I'm sure in some alternate universe this thing is a 10/10. But here... no.
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