I am not sure if I have ever talked about this, but I have a minor fear of heights. When I look over the edge of something I can get a little weak in the knees; however, I have no problem flying in a plane and I love roller coasters. This may read as a bit random, but where I am going with this if simply that reviewing “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” is going to be one of those wild rides due to the nature of the film itself. Since we pride ourselves in being spoiler-free on our show combined with me being notorious for not having the “Greek Cred” of my broadcast partners, it is even tougher for me not to say something innocently that ends up being a spoiler. On this review alone, I watched the official trailer three times and spent more time and research on just the simple film synopsis on this film than I ever have before. So put your hands in the air because we are about to take our first big plunge.
Directed by Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Darkman), a lot of your MCU regulars are here like of course Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olson, Benedict Wong, and Rachel McAdams along with newcomer Xochitl Gomez of the Netflix series “The Baby-Siters Club”. Taking place after the events of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Stephen Strange (Cumberbatch) meets America Chavez (Gomez) who has the power to travel through the multiverse (a seemingly infinite number of realms that exist parallel to ours) but is not aware how to control her ability to do so. America is being chased by an evil force that trying to take that power from her, so she enlists Strange and his cohorts to try to both help her understand her power and those who want it for themselves.
This film of course has a ton of CGI, but it works well in the overall story that it is trying to tell. The cast is solid as it is with these films, and I was impressed with the way some of the characters personalities changed from when they went from one universe to another. One of the MCU’s shorter films at two hours and six minutes, I had no issue with the pacing, but the story itself did get a bit confusing for me at points. I am not sure if it is because of my limited knowledge here and I truly tried to pay attention and follow every detail, but it still got a bit all over the place at times which I feel may be the same issue for someone who is not a major MCU fan. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” has so many things that can be spoiled, intentionally or not, so be warned, see this film upon it’s release, which I will recommend as a Saturday afternoon showing in the theaters.