Dr. Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Movie Review

Dr. Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness was my most anticipated movie of the year! But sadly, it has become one of the most disappointing movies of the year. We follow Dr. Strange as he meets America Chavez, a young girl who can open portals to different realities in the multiverse, and together they must escape from a powerful enemy who wishes to steal America’s power. I expected this movie to be as crazy as A24’s “Everything Everywhere All At Once”, but its weak script proved to be The Multiverse Of Madness’ downfall.

I do appreciate the horror direction given by the director Sam Raimi. It gave me that fresh take on superheroes that I have been craving for a while. The performances of Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange and Elizabeth Olsen as The Scarlet Witch were also a sight for sore eyes, but those were not enough to save me from this disappointing movie experience

When I sat down to watch The Multiverse Of Madness, I was ready to get what I was promised: a chaotic journey through at least 5 different realities. Instead, I was given only TWO realities–the main reality where the Marvel Cinematic Universe takes place, and another that is exactly the same as the MCU, except street lights are reversed. Only showcasing two realities diminished the impact of the story; one other multiverse isn’t really that mad. I wanted to see something different, like a reality where the characters are all animals or a reality where Thanos took over the universe. The Multiverse Of Madness should have simply been titled “Dr. Strange 2”, given the low amount of actual multiverse.

The Multiverse Of Madness also doesn’t fully utilize the character America Chavez. America is the key to the entire movie, and yet they don’t give her anything to do. Besides a scene in the beginning, America has few lines of dialogue. Her only contribution to the movie is moving characters from one point to another. I would have forgotten that America was in the movie if it wasn’t for the main villain actively trying to kill her. I was upset by the disrespect towards America because she is the catalyst for the adventure and yet doesn’t get to participate in it at all.

The dialogue in this movie was the most painful aspect to watch. It was as if I was reading a comic book from the 60s, loaded with cheesiness. This made awesome characters like Dr. Strange, Scarlet Witch, or Wong look goofy. The MCU overall can be cheesy with its dialogue, but Multiverse Of Madness dialed it up to an 11. I was constantly being pulled out of the fantasy of the story and reminded that I was watching a mediocre attempt at a superhero film.

This movie will go down as one of the weaker films within the MCU. Multiverse Of Madness? More like Multiverse Of Sadness!