You know for a movie that likes to calls itself Multiverse of Madness there’s hardly any Multiverse in it. I got a chance to see it in IMAX 3D. I can’t lie it looked beautiful. The more I rewatched it I start to see what everyone else was talking about. It’s a sequel to Doctor Strange. Wandavision. Infinity War. Endgame. And No Way Home. Even with all the cameos I was there for Doctor Strange. Scott Derickson was meant to direct Doctor Strange 2. He had Nightmare as the villain and wanted to lean more into the horror genre. Feige and Disney wanted to go in a different direction. Creative differences. Same thing happened with Edger Wright and Patty Jenkins. Sam Raimi got a gig. And Danny Elfman was doing the soundtrack. Who wouldn’t be excited. He directed the Spider Man Trilogy. And he’s a horror director. No wonder I’m scared of Doc Ock’s tentacles.
His camera work won’t go unnoticed. Strange and America’s multiverse hop scene was mind bending. Savage Land, 2-D animated world, Paint Land, Bee World, Hell, Hydraland, and a visit to the Living Tribunal. The story left more to be desired. It felt more like setup to Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars. I much prefer the first one. America Chivaz dragged the plot quite a bit. I can see why Defender Strange wanted to kill her. Her sacrifice would’ve indeed been far more valuable than her life.
There are cameos but NWH did it better. Black Bolt from the Inhumans tv show was a big surprise. He got a comic book accurate costume this time around it was CGI including Mr Fantastic. Mr Fantastic’s suit is overdesigned. Too much black not enough blue. The logo was nice touch. Then he gave away their secret weapon to Wanda. And the award for Dumbest Man Alive goes to John Krasinski. Turned his into spaghetti in seconds. She pull a Invincible tearing the Illuminati to shreds. She’s stronger than Captain Marvel. It was nice seeing Patrick Steward’s Proffesor X again til he died. He probably agreed to come back only if he died. I respect that. He’s meant to be an amalgam of TAS and film version. They even played a version of the TAS theme.
Scarlett Witch actually made for a pretty scary villain. She wants her kids back but in a twisted way. The Darkhold corrupted her soul a bit. I just wished it happened in another movie like Kang Dynasty. House of M. One thing’s for sure she’s got a rough road ahead of her. It look like she pulled a Doc Ock from Spider Man 2 killing herself but Feige has big plans for her. If she were manipulative by Nightmare or some other secret villain I’d find it more believable.
My favorite scene part was the music battle between Doctor Strange and Sinister Strange. Like What If he doomed all reality this one just happened to have the Darkhold. He used Dreamwalking to find a variant of Christine; it led to many incursions including this one. Strange needs the Darkhold to stop Wanda if he beats Bully Strange. Sinister had transylvania vibes then Strange threw music notes at him. Sinister Strange had the upper hand with that third eye until Strange threw one note sending Sinister Strange to his death. He forgot to say line. Things Just Got Out Of Hand. Reed said it but it fell flat.
One of the things I didn’t know at first were the Incursions. I read the 2nd Secret Wars in 2016 I got confused on what was going on. I skipped Time Runs Out jumping right in. When a multiverse character spends too much time in another universe an Incursion could happen destroying both universes. Sony took the wrong idea putting Vulture in another universe. Capitalizing on the multiverse train. Well that’s just lazy writing. The second spell put all the villains and Spider people back in their respective universe. Well that’s just lazy writing. See you Sony Universe would want to be ya.
I wished we actually got to see Strange use the Book of Vishanti. It did showed a star alluding to Chivaz but I wanted more. Zombie Strange made up for it. They cut a wizard battle between Strange and Wanda across the multiverse. Nightmare was going be the villain. He was my favorite villain in the Ultimate Spider Man cartoon. Voiced by Mark Hamill. He was going to fight Strange at the ice rink he sister died at. Maybe if we’re lucky they’ll have him in Doctor Strange 3 for real this time. It’ll give me nightmares but its worth it.
Multiverse of Madness isn’t the Spider Man 2 I was expecting but I’ll take it over Trash and Blunder. It looked liked a Sam Raimi film but it wasn’t his cut. Him and Scott both deserved better. Maybe for the 3rd movie Scott and Raimi can co direct. Raimi handles the cinematography. Scott writes the script. Hope Nightmares the villain this time. Thrid times the charm. Maybe it’ll be a classic in 5-10 years. I still enjoyed it. It’s one of those films that I can watch without keeping me up at night.
