Don’t I Know You from Somewhere?
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): While I’m still age-aware (74) and respectful of my immunocompromised-wife, Nina, regarding the latest surge of the latest COVID variant in our San Francisco area I responded to my intense interest in this latest Dr. Strange story to chance venturing out to a local theater to see it (wearing a mask the entire time, sitting in the front cluster of seats to be far away from other patrons) because it’s one of the few concepts in the ongoing Marvel/Warner Bros./Disney superheroes franchises I’m still intrigued enough with to keep investigating a limited cluster of such characters despite a general now-decades-long-burnout with these kinds of special-effects-driven-stories. Overall, I think my choice was worth it, although (as I note farther below) there’s so much backstory here (and connections to other Marvel characters and various-media-existences) woven into this current tale it can be quite overwhelming to try to keep up with all that’s now being referenced (not that you really have to, as this story stands reasonably well on its own terms as long as you don’t really care who Doctor Strange and/or the Scarlet Witch have previously been), based on past cinematic/comic book appearances, so just accept these characters when we’re immediately tossed into this narrative as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness begins. There’s too much going on here to even attempt to summarize in these opening comments so just allow yourself to be overwhelmed with a battle between sorcery and witchcraft where nothing less than potentially the stability of all existence (if the Scarlet Witch triumphs, then abuses the new-found-powers she’s seeking) is at stake. If that’s not intriguing enough to lure you out to a theater, just be patient: I’m sure this will end up on Disney+ at some future time after it’s finished draining the gross national product of a good number of countries (it’s easily on its way toward that goal already).
That’s the only feature film I’ve found time (and interest) to investigate this week, though, given my other chosen-viewing-investments in a couple of inconsistent local sports teams, the Golden State Warriors basketballers (now up 3 games to 2 over the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA Western Division semi-finals, after a miserable 39-point-loss on May 11, 2022) and the Oakland Athletics' inconsistent-baseball-misadventures (13-19 as pre-season concerns are often becoming sad reality), along with a cluster of intriguing cable/streaming series which I won’t review but do encourage your investigation of: Tokyo Vice (HBO Max) just concluded an 8-episode run (easily found for binging) with Ansel Elgort as an American trying to be a successful Japanese journalist, runs into trouble with feuding Yakuza mobsters, Ken Watanabe as a cop trying to help him; The Staircase (HBO Max) offering an ongoing-8-episodes, based on a true story of Michael Peterson (Colin Firth) who says his wife (Toni Collette) died in an accident yet he’s charged with murder (a tale of the same name also told in a 2014 documentary miniseries [on Netflix], aspects of which are included in this new docudrama);The First Lady (Showtime cable; streams on many platforms, see the specific link in JustWatch [basic site noted just below]) with Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt, Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford, Viola Davis as Michelle Obama; The Man Who Fell to Earth (Showtime cable; streams on several platforms) with Chiwetel Ejiofar continuing with what David Bowie sought, water for his dying planet, in the previous film of this title (Nicholas Roeg, 1976), now with Bill Nighy as an older version of Bowie’s character; PBS-TV’s Masterpiece Theatre: Ridley Road about young Jewish spies infiltrating a British Nazi organization in 1962 (current episodes on Sunday nights in my area or series available on their Passport streaming option). Also, here are links for the schedule of cable network Turner Classic Movies, which gives a wide selection of older films with no commercial interruptions, and the JustWatch site offering a wide selection for rental or purchase streaming. If you want to see what reigned at the domestic (U.S.-Canada) box-office last weekend, you'll go here.
Here’s the trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate
that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: (If the text of my plot summary leaves you needing to know more about Doctor Strange and/or the Scarlet Witch you’ll find many resources at the start of the next section of this review just below.) The actual plot of this movie’s quite complicated (with all sorts of references to other Marvel narratives which give it further depth for those in the know; if you don’t mind the spoilers contained therein, see the second item connected to this movie in the Related Links section much farther below for a wealth of Easter Eggs) so pardon me if I skip over what some of you might consider essential details of this Doctor Strange adventure but for others will just be either confusing or require more footnote explanation than I’d prefer to cite. We begin in desperate action as Doctor Steven Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch)—but not the Strange we know from previous Marvel movies—and teenage America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) are being chased by a huge monster while attempting to access the fabled Book of Vishanti; the beast kills this Strange, then America transports his body and herself to our Earth (later we find in the larger scheme of things we’re Earth-616), just as the Dr. Strange we know awakens from what seems to be a horrible dream. He faces his next horror by bravely attending the wedding of his former-love, Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), to whom he was reluctant to make a commitment due to his own insecurities, nothing to do with his sincere caring for her. However, the wedding’s interrupted by chaos in the streets as another huge creature is trying to capture America (that inter-universe girl, not our beloved-country).
After a brutal battle, sorcerer Strange, aided by his close friend/associate Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong), will find out that America—for reasons she can’t comprehend nor control—has the power to jump between the many universes that exist within the multiverse where she’s explored extensively trying to locate any version of her 2 mothers (subtle clues imply America's lesbian also) who were whisked away from her at the moment she mysteriously acquired her unique power from a bee sting (from what she’s encountered, oddly enough, she and her Moms seem to be the only versions of themselves throughout the multiverse); these monsters seem to be attacking her to gain control of that power. America also tells Strange his previous vision of her was no dream, it was what was actually happening so he uses his sorcery to bury the dead version of himself that accompanied America on her recent jump to our universe’s Earth. Strange visits Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) to see what she can tell him about the multiverse but finds she’s the one behind the attacks on America, as she wants to control that universe-hopping-power herself in order to search alternate realities to find actual versions of the imaginary children she created during the stories told in TV’s WandaVision (again, see the next section of this review for more details on that).
Strange tries to hide America in the sorcerers’ ancient compound of Kamar-Taj, but Wanda, now as the powerful Scarlet Witch (an entity who’s taken full control of Wanda), attacks the compound, destroys much of it, kills many sorcerers in the process. In her panic, America opens another portal, taking her and our Dr. Strange through a quick collage of many universes until they land in one where they’re on Earth-838. Unknown to them, there’s also a Wanda there with those desired kids, Billy (Julian Hilliard) and Tommy (Jett Klyne), so Scarlet, using a witch power called the Darkhold, takes possession of that Wanda. A surviving sorcerer at Kamar-Taj sacrifices herself to break this Darkhold, but the Witch then forces Wong to take her to forbidden Mount Wundagore where she can further unleash her powers. Back on Earth-838 Dr. Strange finds his parallel there died in the war with Thanos (see next section for Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame), thinks he’s found a friend in this version of his Earth-616 rival Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), but then he and America become captives of this Earth’s Illuminati,* a group consisting of Earth-838’s Mordo, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), that Earth’s original-Avenger, Captain America; Blackagar Boltagon (Anson Mount), whose breath can cause immediate death; Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), that Earth’s version of Captain Marvel; Reed Richards (John Krasinski) or Mister Fantastic, the genius/elongated man from the Fantastic Four; Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), their version of the leader of the mutant X-Men.
Our Dr. Strange is told Earth-838’s Strange was actually executed by the Illuminati because in the process of using the Darkhold in their universe’s war with Thanos he caused an “incursion,” allowing 2 universes to open up against each other, resulting in a catastrophe, making them dubious of any other version of Strange from elsewhere. Before they can take action against our Strange, though, Scarlet’s regained Darkhold power, entered Wanda of Earth-838 (who seems to be just a human woman devoted to her 2 kids; why Scarlet just happens to go where our other main characters are isn’t clear unless there aren’t that many options for Wandas with 2 boys elsewhere in the multiverse), then attacks the Illuminati, kills all but Mordo while that Earth’s Christine Palmer helps America escape confinement, then they, along with Strange, jump into the space between universes, almost have the Book of Vishanti but Scarlet Witch shows up, destroys it, then takes over Chavez’s mind which forces her to send Strange and Christine to an incursion-destroyed-universe, while she goes with the Witch back to our Earth-616 to complete the ritual of losing all her universe-hopping-powers.
*A group not to be confused with novelist Dan Brown’s Illuminati, carrying on their centuries-old-confrontation of scientists vs. clergy of the Catholic Church in his book Angels and Demons (2000).
⇒Our Strange encounters a severely-diminished-version of himself, has to fight/defeat him, then with Christine’s help he uses that universe’s Darkhold to enter into the dead version of himself back on our Earth-616 (which causes souls of the damned from Hell to cluster around this zombie) so he, Wong (seeming killed by Scarlet earlier but not so), and an awakened-to-her-powers-America fight the Scarlet Witch, with Chavez sending her back to Earth-838 where she sees the boys are terrified of her, want their real Mom back, so the Witch retreats back to Mount Wundagore, destroys all versions of the Darkhold throughout the multiverse, seemingly herself in the process (as if we can ever truly be sure of such), after which America sends the Earth-838 Christine back to her home (although she’s helped our Dr. Strange to finally let go of his attachment to Earth-616’s version of this woman). As this all wraps up, the surviving sorcerers are rebuilding Kamar-Taj, America is now in training to join them, Dr. Strange has developed a third eye as a result of using the dangerous Darkhold to dream-walk into that doppelganger-corpse of himself. Then as the credits roll, he’s confronted by sorceress Clea (Charlize Theron) who tells him his actions have opened up a incursion into our universe, so they go together to deal with repairing it (further sequel, anyone?)⇐
So What? As with most superhero movies within a larger collection of stories, for example the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the DC Extended Universe (DCEU)—or any other narrative’s (extended) sequel—… Madness has a collection of coherent plot elements that allow any viewer to understand/(hopefully) appreciate/(more hopefully) like what’s on screen, but if you’re not a frantic MCU/Marvel Comics fan you might benefit from some backstory material such as found in this short video (12:50), though it gives you probably more than you need on connections to characters from the comics, makes a lot of speculation about what might be in … Madness, most of which doesn’t pan out. A much-better-detailed-background on our sorcerer Doc is in this recap of his previous cinematic career, which can be further enhanced by reading our reviews of some of those movies: Doctor Strange (Scott Dickerson, 2016; review posted on November 10, 2016), Thor: Ragnarok (Taika Waititi, 2017; review posted on November 15, 2017), Avengers: Infinity War (Anthony and Joe Russo, 2018; review posted May 3, 2018), Avengers: Endgame (Russos, 2019; review posted on May 1, 2019), Spiderman: No Way Home (Jon Watts, 2021; review posted on January 6, 2022)—which now shares a notation with … Madness as … Home was the top domestic (U.S.-Canada) grosser of 2021 ($804.6 million [#3 All-Time], worldwide $1.9 billion [#6 All-Time]) while …. Madness is currently 2022’s overall #2 domestically (if you don’t count the Spider-Man …'s 2022 carryover-dollars), behind The Batman’s (Matt Reeves; review in our March 17, 2022 posting) $369.2 million.
As for Wanda Maximoff/Scarlett Witch, she’s in the Avengers … movies noted above plus Avengers: Age of Ultron (Joss Whedon, 2015; review posted on May 7, 2015), Captain America: Civil War (Russos, 2016; review posted on May 13, 2016), with her most notable role leading into … Madness being the Disney+ 9-episode mini-series WandaVision (2021) where she creates a fictional reality in the town of Westview, NJ for herself to assuage her grief over losing her lover, Vision (Paul Bettany), in … Infinity War, so in her little alternative-world-bubble she sort of brings him back to life for a time along with creating those fictional children she so yearns/demands to reconnect with in … Madness.
I realize this is a tremendous amount of backstory to explore if you want to be fully up to date on what you’d see in this latest chapter of Doctor Strange’s adventures, but never let it be said I didn’t try to overwhelm you with (possibly useless) previously-created-trivia. Once you’ve learned/seen all you care to about the past events of Strange and Scarlet, though—as well as either seen the current movie or at least read my full synopsis in this review (including the Spoiler material) then you might be interested in another short video (8:00 [ad interrupts at about 4:12]) which also contains spoilers while it asks questions raised by … Madness including an interesting one about … No Way Home: Does everyone across the multiverse now only forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man or have they forgotten the Web-Slinger’s total existence as well? (An answer to this would appear to have been noted by Doctor Strange in … Madness, but, in contrast, America doesn’t seem to have encountered any Spider-Men in the universes she’s visited; I guess she didn’t get to the ones where the character’s movie presence was played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, so just as their universes didn’t have any Avengers I guess some others don’t have a Spider-Man.) Ultimately, I’d be curious to hear from anyone who doesn’t have any (or even just a little) of this background to see how crucial you think it is for fully enjoying Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or if this MCU story is entertaining enough on its own merits without needing to know about all this extra info.
Bottom Line Final Comments: Whatever you might think of this latest Doctor Strange … presentation, though, you’ll find that my 3½ stars (70% of my 5 stars-maximum, but I rarely go over 4 stars so 3½ is actually quite complimentary in my context) splits the difference between the 2 main clusters of critics in the CCAL because the Rotten Tomatoes evaluators have provided a cluster of 74% positive reviews while the usually-more-reticent-ones at Metacritic come in with a 60% average score which is in the realm they often inhabit (when they venture into the range of the 70s they’re already getting borderline-giddy; more details on both of these critics’-accumulation sites about … Madness and anything else I ever review can be found farther below in the Related Links section of this posting). No matter what I, or any other critic for that matter, may think of this Doctor Strange … installment (which gets a bit wearisome in all of its constant special-effects-battles, even if that’s what the target audience for such stories clearly wants) moviegoers have flocked to it, giving it the biggest opening of the year so far with 213.6 million in domestic dollars (from 4,534 theaters, so if you haven’t seen it yet it’s likely not too far away from you), enhanced to $507.8 million globally.
If you’re saturated from superhero stories (which I generally am, although the Strange character’s intriguing to me, I always enjoy whatever Cumberbatch does [if the Academy {founded on May 11, 1927} hadn’t been determined to give Will Smith their Best Actor Oscar for King Richard {Reinaldo Marcus Green, 2021; review in our February 3, 2022 posting} and felt they’d already awarded Denzel Washington enough so that he—as my true favorite—wasn’t going to get that honor for The Tragedy of Macbeth {Joel Coen, 2021; review in our January 20, 2022 posting}, then I’d have been elated to see Cumberbatch awarded for The Power of the Dog {Jane Campion, 2021; review in our December 9, 2021 posting}, but hopefully that trophy will be his for something still to come], and I was quite curious to see what would become of Wanda after her New Jersey sojourn), you might have little interest in this showdown between Strange and Scarlet, but if you’re willing to chance an excursion to a public theater now that the pandemic’s surging again in various locales I think, if nothing else, you’ll find the special effects to be spectacular in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (well-justified by the enormous screen-crawl-time during the credits of all the computer-specialists from several companies needed to create all of these astounding, eye-catching-visuals).
Well, now we’ve come to the part of the review you most prefer, the end when I finally stop blathering on, let you contemplate what you might think of whatever I’ve been going on about while you listen to the concluding commentary in my chosen Musical Metaphor. You might think I’d go with something seemingly-obvious such as Electric Light Orchestra’s "Strange Magic" (on their 1975 album Face the Music)—yes, I know the conflict here is between sorcery and witchcraft (I really can’t tell the difference in the events of this movie, but maybe they both come under the heading of “magic”?)—with lyrics of “You’re sailing softly through the sun / In a broken stone age dawn / You fly so high / I get a strange magic,” but that’s about all this song says except to repeat the title endlessly so, while I’ve got nothing that speaks to the complications of the multiverse, I can at least go “Across the Universe” (from The Beatles 1970 Let It Be album, their last one except for later compilations/ anthology material) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90M60PzmxEE with uplifting Lennon lyrics about “Sounds of laughter, shades of life are ringing through my open ears / Inciting and inviting me / Limitless undying lover which shines around me like a million suns / It calls me on and on across the universe […] Nothing’s gonna change my world” talking of a harmony throughout at least 1 cosmos Strange/his co-conjurors worked hard to achieve in this movie (“Jai Guru Dava, Om” chant can be translated into “Victory to God divine” or “All glory to Guru Dev” among other options).
However, despite the ultimate stabilized outcome (OK, a bit of a spoiler, but did you really expect it all to end in chaos? Besides, the mid-credits scene sets us up for future chaos anyway, so maybe I haven’t revealed too much after all.), this movie’s mostly about battles for the preservation of all existence so I’ll truly finish off with another version of “Across the Universe,” a music video of Fiona Apple connected to the fascinating film, Pleasantville (Gary Ross, 1998), where Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon play contemporary siblings sucked into a 1950s black & white TV sitcom where everything’s as straight-laced as TV programs from that era: Father Knows Best, The Donna Reed Show, Leave It to Beaver, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriett. As these more-open-minded-kids begin to liberate the attitudes of others in this constructed environment, color begins to manifest itself in individuals leading to hostile reactions toward people of “color” (get the implications?) until all is in color, harmony reigns again, our lead kids are brought back into their (our) world. In the Apple music video, though, the focus is on the violence which erupts in the challenged/changing world as Apple sings nonchalantly in the foreground while a mob destroys a soda shop behind her, even as all hell breaks loose (especially as she rotates, unfazed, around the ongoing assault, verifying that “nothing’s gonna change my world”) just as Doctor Strange and his superpowered-cohorts work diligently to bring order back out of the madness created by Wanda's stability-starved Scarlet Witch.
SHORT TAKES
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: In quick fashion, here are some extra items you might like to know more about: (1) Disney's copyright on 1928 Mickey Mouse threatened by Sen. Josh Hawley bill; (2) Hawley's bill called "blatantly unconstitutional"; (3) What's new on Netflix in May 2022; (4) What's new on Amazon Prime Video in May 2022; (5) What's new on Hulu in May 2022; (6) What's new on Disney+ in May 2022; (7) What's new on HBO/HBO Max in May 2022.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
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Here’s more information about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness:
https://www.marvel.com/movies/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness and https://movies.disney.com/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9T9lDGnW7w (43:09 on all of the Easter Eggs [ads interrupt at roughly 11:45, 21:48, 37:36]; spoilers of course)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/doctor_strange_in_the_multiverse_of_madness
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness?ref=hp
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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work. (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews-academic-articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)
If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world. I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check-out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile (quite an eternal while, in fact, but maybe while there you’ll get a chance to meet Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, RIP). Ken
P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker (although, as you know, with bar songs there are plenty about people broken down by various tragic circumstances, with maybe the best of the bunch—calls itself “perfect”—being "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" written by Steve Goodman, sung by David Allen Coe). But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion/lover/
wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes/wanes over the months/years to come. But, just as we can raunchy at times (in private of course) Neil and his backing band, Promise of the Real, on that same night also did a lengthy, fantastic version of "Cowgirl in the Sand" (19:06) which I’d also like to commit to this blog’s always-ending-tunes; I never get tired of listening to it, then and now (one of my idle dreams is to play guitar even half this well). But, while I’m at it, I’ll also include another of my top favorites, from the night before at Desert Trip, the Rolling Stones’ "Gimme Shelter" (Wow!), a song “just a shot away” in my memory (along with my memory of their great drummer, Charlie Watts, RIP). To finish this cluster of all-time-great-songs I’d like to have played at my wake (as far away from now as possible) here’s one Dylan didn’t play at Desert Trip but it’s great, much beloved by me and Nina: "Visions of Johanna."
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