‘Blu-ray or Bust’ - DOCTOR STRANGE

‘Blu-ray or Bust’

DOCTOR STRANGE (2016, PG-13, 115 minutes, MARVEL STUDIOS/DISNEY)

Oh, Marvel Cinematic Universe—you sneaky, cheeky monkey, you.

You just had to go and hire Benedict Cumberbatch, didn’t you? Listen, kids, what I am really supposed to do is give you an honest review of this film. I have reviewed nearly every Marvel film released, and the majority of them get high marks. Except for THOR: THE DARK WORLD. That one was kinda stupid. I was needlessly worried when ANT-MAN was released; what took away all of my hesitation to buy into the path that producer Kevin Feige has been dreaming up since IRON MAN hit theatres in 2008 was, as usual, the casting.

Take away the special effects, take away the one-liners, the action—hell, even strip away the scripts, and you know what you are left with? Besides the entirety of THOR: THE DARK WORLD? The cast. As brilliant as the money behind the MCU has been when it comes to hiring top-notch talent, they have clearly outdone themselves with DOCTOR STRANGE. Cumberbatch brings to the role so much more than you would expect, just as Downey did for Tony Stark. While the two characters are altogether different, they both share that ego which comes with genius. As with most of the characters we have had the pleasure of meeting over the last decade, Strange is a broken man, one in search of redemption and purpose.

A brilliant neurosurgeon, injured in a car accident, seeks healing from the West… okay, let’s stop right there. I was talking about casting, so allow me to digress for a moment, and give you a plot summary that explains it best.

Ahem.

Sherlock Holmes gets in a car wreck, screws up his hands, so goes to ‘The Orient’ to heal. He meets The White Witch (Narnia reference) (that’s Tilda Swinton…) and that one real bad dude from SERENITY (Chiwetel Ejiofor). They teach him how to channel his inner sorcerer in order to beat up Hannibal Lector (THE Mads Mikkelsen), who is trying to bring about the end of the world. Because that’s what bad guys do.

If some of the reality bending techniques seem borrowed from INCEPTION, just you wait; there is more of a steampunk-type slant to the constantly changing landscape which grounds the colliding and ever-changing realities. In other words: you buy into the psychedelic happenings like a chubby kid on a sugar high. (That is not an insult to chubby kids, as I, myself, am a chubby kid, and suffer from constant sugar highs, so I KNOW.) Marvel could have easily just thrown in the idea of magic co-existing in the super-powered universe they have created and been done with it. They could have told you just to accept it, and you might or might not have fallen for it.

But if you think about it, Marvel introduced magic to you a few movies ago—AND YOU BOUGHT INTO IT WITHOUT EVEN BLINKING YOUR EYES. “The Scarlet Witch”. Yep. That was your introduction to magic as an active element of the Universe. What Marvel now does with magic is give you an even broader experience with it, and it opens up a whole new realm of possibilities. In short, there is not an aspect of this film which does not work wonderfully. This, kids, is one brilliant stroke of madness, one whose influence will be felt in nearly all of the forthcoming films, and not just because of the obvious mystical nature of Strange’s world. See, it is also about alternate realities and universes—which means that Marvel can now introduce whatever the hell they want into the mix.

The special features are, as always, all inclusive. You get character history, one of the funniest gag reels yet, behind the scenes docs, and enough build up to the Phase Three aspect of the MCU to get you all hot and bothered.

As Marvel slowly phases out Iron Man (oh, trust me, it’s gonna happen sooner rather than later, kids—mark my words), I for one am excited to see how many STRANGE films we’ll get. This is a character that—much like Tony Stark—you build a team around. Just you watch.

Film Grade: A

Special Features: A

Blu-ray Necessary: Most Definitely

- T.S. Kummelman