Doctor Strange (2016)

rating: ***

the story: An arrogant doctor loses the use of his hands, but his mind becomes greatly expanded.

review: The MCU Avengers cycle is a full-blown phenomenon that has come to define the modern cinematic era, and the twenty-three movies to date that comprise it have seemingly explored just about every kind of superhero movie imaginable.  Doctor Strange did it with magic (although it's also one of the few outright examples of superpowers in the franchise, too).  That's the main calling card here.

A lot of fans saw too many parallels between Stephen Strange and Tony Stark.  One of the few criticisms fans have leveled against these films is that the plots tend to be the same: brilliant individual has a fall, builds themselves back up, defeats villain in spectacular fight.  And the villain tends to be fairly uninspired (with a few exceptions).  But you can level the plot critique against just about any story.  I tend to think the specifics are worth considering.  Strange and Stark are only tangentially worth comparing at that level.  Stark may be a tech genius, but he's also building on a family legacy.  Strange is a brilliant physician.  They both may possess out-of-control egos, but Strange is far more likely to use his skills to actual benefit than Stark, who initially just wants to make easy money, without caring about the consequences.  For Strange, he may alienate colleagues, but he's undeniably saving lives.  He believes he can save more lives if he can just perform his research undisturbed.  Essentially, Stephen Strange is House on a grander scale.  (It's really hard not to envision the producers using the Hugh Laurie breakout role as a pattern for Strange, and how they determined Benedict Cumberbatch to be the best pick for the role.)

Then Strange goes on the journey to becoming Doctor Strange, and the visuals take over.  Clearly the movie itself was inspired as much by Inception as the Harry Potter films, and letting the blend of them run wild.  Too wild, really, however awesome the results.  The characters never really treat them as anything but meaningless backdrop.  They're audience eye candy, nothing more.  But still hugely notable.

Doctor Strange is the "Sorcerer Supreme," but he is also, essentially, a superhero wizard.  And that's the role he fills in the MCU.  The ending features a nifty time-repetition that the character's later crucial appearance in Avengers: Infinity War suggests is how he discovers the only way to beat Thanos (in all fairness, that's probably the best sequence of this film, watching Strange repeatedly confront what is otherwise a pointless CGI effect just as doggedly each time, so it would probably have been just as pointless to repeat the sequence, especially when we know Strange can't win this time).

Cumberbatch has a meaty role to play in this appearance (he doesn't have nearly as much to work with in later appearances to date), and is once again thoroughly Cumberbatch.  Rachel McAdams is probably the most credible female supporting player, having often played this type where others in the MCU felt hamstrung in similar roles.  Tilda Swinton is perhaps about as perfectly cast as she's ever been as the Ancient One, Mads Mikkelsen letting his eyes do all the work in the way he so creepily often does.  Benedict Wong is the kind of actor who doesn't need much to make an impact.  Benjamin Bratt has a tiny role that makes you kind of wonder why they even bothered.  Chiwetel Ejiofor is the most baffling case.  He went from starring in the highly acclaimed 12 Years a Slave to this rather than, say, Black Panther (who instead is played by Chadwick Boseman, who is an utter charisma void).  I don't get it. 

This is not a movie that expects much from its audience, and so it doesn't really try much, aside from visually.  It slides by on mumbo jumbo.  Why Strange is as good at magic as he is at surgery, not particularly explained.  It just sort of happens.  But if you don't care, you get a movie that does just about what it needs to.  And at that, it's about as good or better than the average MCU film.  It knows what it really needs to accomplish, and at least nails that.  Knowing what Strange does in other movies is just kind of icing on the cake.