New Dr. Strange movie fails to live up to hype

Editor’s Note: Spoilers Ahead

Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness is the first theatrical release that Marvel has put  out in 2022. The hype was real for this movie. Sam Raimi (director of the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy) directed this movie, and multiple cameos were teased and leaked. People were getting very excited to see the multiverse unveiled in this new movie. However, the movie did not live up to the hype (in my opinion) and here’s why. 

The pacing in the film was off. It started strong by jumping right into the action and then slowing down but then it jumped right back into action and then slowed down again. Repeat that cycle a few more times and you have this movie. I would also like to mention that the action in the beginning of the movie was not very good. Especially the scene during the wedding where Dr. Strange flew off of the balcony to fight the monster that appeared out of nowhere. It’s one of the most cliche superhero movie tropes of all time. The hero randomly finding a monster and leaving whatever situation he or she is in to fight this monster that’s terrorizing the city. Quite frankly, I’m disappointed by the lazy storytelling. 

The last thing that I have to say because I’m nitpicky, is that the writers used the age old trope of killing a character but then “surprising” the audience when the character is actually still alive. When Wong was thrown off of the mountain side by Wanda and tried to save himself but ultimately failed to, I got really excited and felt some genuine emotions about his death, but I knew that he was going to come back to life because Marvel is too scared to actually commit to character deaths (and now since the multiverse is open, no one is truly dead). But then they decided to randomly kill Wanda (I suppose I don’t know for sure if Wanda is dead or not yet, but we’ll assume she is) without any reasoning or explanation. It wasn’t like she was in a battle and died; she just threw a building on top of herself because she was sad. 

All in all, the movie kept me entertained for the two hours I was in the theater for, but it was ultimately a failure. I had high expectations for this movie. Lots of things were teased, Raimi was returning, I love Dr Strange’s character and it was promised to be scary (which it kind of was, so that’s something positive), but for the reasons I have just explained, the movie did not live up to the hype. 

I think Marvel will be able to come back. It’s not like this was hyped up as much as No Way Home or Endgame, so I’m excited for what Marvel has next.