Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness *spoilers from post 118*

Watched it on friday evening on lieMAX - would recommend it!

Quick one is that it is a Sam Raimi standard film (maybe the best cape film from the past 10 years hmmm), enjoyable overall but I would say the second half saved the first half of the film for me. Good performance from Benedict throughout the 2 hours (I really cant nitpick much, he is just on another caliber than the rest of the cast), very enjoyable side characters (Wong and new girl - especially I am so glad the new girl is likeable) - Wanda performance was ok that I wished her performance could have been better, and of course thank god no woke sh!te in it (and maybe just a little touch of M-She-U, which is acceptable).

First half of the film is mainly mediocre CG + the usual problems of a typical Marvel film - most actors cant act well that you can tell they are in a green screen they have no idea what they are supposed to see etc (most noticeable when wanda bombing the fortress, and...Wanda's performance throughout the film when she is in any CG scene). Overall for the first half I was 'reasonably' disappointed and I kept thinking 'well see this is actually the best quality of a marvel film that one can hope for, produced by an actual good director like Sam Raimi - but overall experience is still meh'. Some dialogue stood out to me already (Strange's dialogue with Wanda, Dr. West and his girl at the wedding), and I didn't feel bored.

Second half truly made up for me - best scene to me it was the good strange vs evil strange, the fight scene is just so Raimi and I just liked it so much. Again, good performance by Benedict, all his Strange are different lol. The plot started to be pulled together and the stories happened in the first half of the film ('build ups') made sense and the characters truly came alive near the end - Wong/zombie strange fought together, Chavez opening the portal for wanda, Wanda's performance in that last scene with 2 boys, and the last scene of wong/strange/chavez - it has been so long that I felt the characters are 'real' in a superhero film (last time was probably old Raimi spidey and Nolan's trilogy?). The Raimi style dialogue saved the day really - I just enjoyed them so much and they fit the characters so well.

Obviously the plot is not without flaws (like the Book of good basically did nothing aha), but overall as a whole, Raimi did an excellent job to manage so many nonvital stuffs in the plot and ensured the good balance on the pacing, characters, entertaining elements (humour, dark/horror stuff) and also managed to cramp in so many fan service stuffs. What a project yes, and suddenly we have a valuable example of 'how to do a capesh!t right in 2022'.

And ohya, imo the Illuminati stuff is pure distraction. But it was a pleasant surprise when I see Reed Richard ha (I have no spoiler on this and ya we knew Krasinski wanted to play the character in the past decades ha) and good to see Sir Patrick with the yellow wheelchair from our beloved 90s Xmen cartoon aha and the sound track was the bomb!) - but ye I dislike captain carter so much and I can't stand captain marvel (just because they are paper thin characters from Wandavision and 'What If') - good showcase of how powerful Wanda though.

Bonus point on the memory lane future machine scene - that is a delightful way to contribute to the plot/character and explains some key details in a concise manner.

All in all, best cape film for a long time, with actual directing and thoughts put into the project, commendable performance by Benedict and supporting actors (again, wished Wanda could performance better but overall ok, and what a pleasant feeling to have a new girl who is likeable).

Wow the speed of yours to strawman the wall of text I said. Nope, I like/love so many fictional characters in any form of entertainment format - I never care less on the gender. It is marvel/disney who has been pushing out the sh!te (lots of bait and switch projects in the past years) and I am let's say 'suitably' aware of the 'norm'. I dislike crap characters i.e paper thin shallow character aka Mary Sue because they are boring, simple as that.

@seraphimvc

I stopped reading your post at the point were Elizabeth Olsen was “okay” becasue you clearly have had trip through the Multiverse yourself and seen a Doctor Strange sequel from a different Earth.

What movie/show talks about Stark Tower being sold?

Is it No Way Home?

Happy said it was sold during Homecoming. IMO it'll be Reed Richards or Victor Von Doom

I know Richards is rich in the comics but another genius who is a billionaire genius in the MCU?

Might it be better if the money comes as result of the superpowers?

It would be good if Doom bought it for a dastardly scheme.

I thought it was pretty good actually. Ending was a bit unconvincing but the film itself as a whole was solid enough. I really wished they shown us more of the multiverse though. The time spent in the alternative hipster-style New York and how it was presented was incredibly unsatisfying.

You would want to have watched Wanda Vision.

He probably got given a million quid for 2 days work....I am sure Jackman will learn to forgive him.

No those could be done after mutants go public. It wouldnt be all mutants at intro obviously.

For human to human scenes, she did fine overall (few scenes well done, some meh some acceptable) - wait me to elaborate below.

What I meant in my post is only relating to how she acts in those green screen scenes - thats what mainly bothering me, her 'acting' just took me out of the scenes when I could clearly see that she was looking at a green screen. Again, when it comes to human-human scenes, she did fine overall.

Now on the actual acting part, from what I have seen, she only has 3 expressions: blank face, cry, and angry - there is no in-between. Obviously all these are subjective but hey Benedict did so well for his parts (lets say 45% of the movie), Olsen has like 40% of the movie as well, I am sorry (again hey is just personal opinion), most of her scenes took me out of the scenes - except in the end the last scene she was talking to the 2 boys, that felt real - but then immediately when 2 Olsens came on the same scene I lost it again. Is something to do with her eyes expression or something, the 'normal' wanda couldn't see the scarlet witch or it doesn't feel 'real' when she was imagining to look at the different version of herself.

I’m sure Jackman is terribly heart broken. McKellan too.(I don’t know to make a rolling eyes emoji)

I'm pretty sure he just changed his mind, and I doubt Hugh Jackman would ever hold it against him.

[deleting my rant on people who have a problem with strong female characters and their Woke emasculation conspiracy theory as I had misread previous posts and is been done to death anyway]

Anyway, as for the film. Yeah, it wasn't bad. I wasn't gone on the first one. Thought it was up (down?) There with Thor 2 and Iron Man 2 (and later Eternals) in being pretty dull and poor.

But I thought this was an improvement. Not going to change the world and telling that some of the best bits involved the cameos. Bucket Crunderduster's accent still grates but it is better (still going for the Hugh Laurie nasal voice thing as opposed to Martin Freeman's better version)

It was forgettable enough but at least we got to see Bruce Campbell fight with his hand again (and loved the post credit sequence. "Thank God. It's over").

Thought it was surprisingly scary and violent for a PG movie. I know, I know, in Gremlins, they microwaved one and straight up stabbed another in the chest, but I just want expecting it is all. Would tell my friend to be a bit cautious bringing his 6-year-old.

I know this was initially intended to be released shortly before Spider-Man. That Multiverse usage was half MUCH better. (And obviously it goes without saying that Spiderverse is the pinnacle 😃). It would have been interesting to have seen how this would have worked in original release timeline.

Edit: deleted initial rant as misread previous posts.:)

The joke is million times better than the bizarre thing you claimed was said.

When did chartered space flights become a thing in the MCU ?

If there are longer term plans to introduce the X-Men into the 616 universe known as the MCU then surely it'd have made more sense to use the McEvoy Xavier. Trekies who have been watching Patrick Stewarts revival of his other iconic character, Jean Luc Picard, will see that Stewart just isn't capable of demanding film schedules anymore. Also, what if Ian McKellen decides not to return as Magneto?

Patrick Stewart’s accountant deals with his clients morals and integrity as well as their money?

There is an uplifting TV series to made out of this. Touched By A Bookkeeper - “he’ll balance your books, then your soul”

After his final movie as Picard, "Star Trek -Nemesis" came out, time just kept ticking and he got a lot older and frailer.

The 616 thing is a just a Easter egg name, the main comic universe is 616.

The MCU has some other longer official name that's something like 19999......9

@seraphimvc

What “blind love for Elizabeth Olson” am I displaying? You said she was only “okay” in the film - you must be blind yourself.

The “Mary Sue” comments in your post make zero sense. Carter and Rambeaux have had their powers for decades - how is this movie supposed to show us gaining and developing these powers? That is nonsense. What chaee destxer development do you want from any of the Illumanati? They are not there to be developed or grow or change - they are there to help tell the story. Why are you not complaining make character? Wanda powers have been shown to grow over the course of her movie appearances and the TV show plus she uses the Darkhold after the TV show - what more do you need to see?

you’ve typed a long paragraph about “wokeness” but somehow managed to avoided giving examples - which is what you were asked.

It's also important to remember that Wanda took down Black Bolt and Mr.Fantastic pretty quickly because they were still trying to reason with her at the time. When the fighting starts, you have Cap.Marvel (who if her powers are similar to our Cap.Marvel is one of the strongest Avengers), and Captain Carter, who is shown as being no more or less powerful than Captain America who regularly fought against people far more powerful than him but held his own. Captain Carter is merely a substitute for him. If she's a Mary Sue, Steve Rogers is a male version of that.

It's not M-She-U or Mary Sues or whatever other nonsense. Hero/Villain power levels always rise or fall to suit the narrative and their opponent.

Actually Wanda took out Blackbolt because Mr. Fantastic was trying to reason with her. He told her about the vocal power and she turned Blackbolt’s own power against him. ;)

I was going to point to the Thanos fight myself.

Changing power levels is very common in fantasy and action movies and TV shows. In Star Wars Force powered characters regularly hold back for no reason when fighting each other or non-Force people. Hulk is no match no match for Thanos at all but Cap can take him on?

This can all be ignored until one of the characters has boobs.