Doctor Strange.

To atone for not posting in one week of October, I will be releasing this post earlier than usual. This is also due to the fact I have already seen the latest Marvel film recently and so I need to write it all down before I forget. What is the latest Marvel film that came out? Why it is none other than:

Doctor Strange.

Full disclosure: I have no real knowledge of Doctor Strange so if some of my notions and thoughts on Doctor Strange seem uneducated or outright wrong, reader, you now know why this is the case.

What makes it:

Cumberbatch's acting. One part of the film I remember enjoying was Benedict Cumberbatch's performance as Doctor Stephen Strange.  In the film, he manages to portray the various states of life Strange is in a convincing manner, where we can see the arrogant high profile surgeon, the broken shell of a man, the naive but willing initiate, the know-it-all student, the reluctant hero and eventually, the experienced intermediate sorcerer in all of Cumberbatch's performance. The broken shell aspect was quite well done to me as it had the right amount of emotion put into it without seeming too unrealistic. What helps with my enjoyment of his performance is his own sarcastic jabs and remarks throughout the film but I presume my own enjoyment of those are a result of having seen Cumberbatch in Sherlock as the eponymous character and due to enjoying his performance in it, resulting in some bias. 

Decent effects. As the trailers indicate, there are plenty of special effects in the film. Then again when magic is involved in a film, some form of special effects are to be expected. The magic on display for the most part look nice while the reality shifting parts are quite nice to look at. The effects in a certain part are quite a sight to behold. The only problem is that the reality shifts are nothing too grand or have been done before i.e Inception. Still as far as features of this film go, the effects were decent.

The solution to the final conflict. To avoid spoilers, I will not say anything directly about the aforesaid solution but to me at least, it was a rather smart and creative approach when using certain kinds of magic. I do like it when magic of that nature is exploited correctly.

What breaks it:

Forgettable side characters. Aside from Cumberbatch, none of the characters struck out or were memorable to me. Somehow with all the discussions on magic and multiverses accompanied with tension and emotion, I never  gave any regard about any of the characters. The Ancient One was an average mentor type that served her purpose, Mordo did not register as anything more than a companion, Wong was simply present and Palmer was the token love interest that acts like a basic everyman. I get that the film is supposed to be the origin story of Doctor Strange but did it have to make the other characters forgettable and lacking in additional shown depth? It is a basic rule; show, don't tell. One should show the complex and thought-provoking aspects of a character rather than simply talk about it like with Mordo's background and the Ancient One's feats.

One nice thing to note here is that unlike most Marvel films, here the token romance ultimately fails. It might seem like a minor point to like but after watching so many Marvel films with token romances that pop up like crazy, it is somewhat refreshing to see a film where the protagonist does not get the love interest.

Forgettable antagonist. Along the lines of forgettable side characters is a forgettable antagonist like Kaecilius. While there are mentions of his tragic backstory and how it may have motivated him (which the viewer will have to pick up by themselves), he does not impress me as a villain and left little impact on me. His feats are standard villain fare with boosted powers from a darker source, his motivations are rather basic & shallow, and his underlings barely registered as characters. In fact, I could not even differentiate the underlings save for one who only stood out because of his death. Plus there is one more fact that I hesitate to state outright for fear of spoilers but I will say that it is linked to one type of chess piece. While the actor's performance was adequate for the most part, the villain here felt underwhelming as a whole.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/o7MtfYoRvxo/maxresdefault.jpg and https://www.comicbookmovie.com/comics/marvel_comics/what-is-the-marvel-studios-formula-a133104

Recycled Marvel formula. While I am capable of excusing Marvel's recycled formula for making superhero films due to their entertainment value (i.e prologue with villain's feats shown; introduce protagonist and status quo; create situation that brings protagonist into fray; some form of training or character moment; action with protagonist's side not winning; some sort of sacrifice; protagonist rises up to the challenge; protagonist wins etc.), this film makes it difficult to ignore said formula. The film felt predictable to me with every progression of the story being something I could predict with little inaccuracy. It got to a point where I could predict plot twists and revelations of certain characters which usually does not bode well for most films.

In fact if I were to compare this film to another Marvel film, I would compare it to the first Thor film. In fact, this film and Thor left me with strikingly similar feelings of underwhelming satisfaction and entertainment. What does not help is that both films have similar plot threads like a haughty protagonist being brought down to their lowest, being allow to discover traits like virtue, the protagonist being called to handle a world-threatening crisis and the protagonist succeeding. While the formula may be an effective and safer approach to making Marvel film stories, it can result in the overall film's story becoming more predictable and less exciting. The formula here left me feeling only a little satisfaction as the entertainment value was not as high as previous Marvel films (like Civil War).

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PacingProblems

Pacing felt rushed. Another problem I had with the film is how fast the film felt. While there was time dedicated to showcasing the result of Stephen Strange's accident on himself and his personal life, the rest of the film felt rushed. After a rather brief training sequence, the film suddenly escalates to the point where Strange and Kaecilius finally meet and do battle. That part is then rushed through quite a bit to reach the point where the mentor performs a heroic sacrifice and after a rather brief inspirational talk with said deceased mentor, Strange proceeds to the film's final battle which is resolved fairly quickly too.

Parts that would have involved Strange learning about the type of magic used by the other sorcerers in detail feel like they were cut out, leaving a viewer like me with mixed feelings. While some training sequences in films can overstay their welcome in terms of length, it is advisable to go into some detail on these training sequences especially where magic, with its own set of rules, plays a major role in the film. The rest of the film just felt rushed as though the film could not stay put in a particular moment for too long. By the end of the film, I was quite surprise when the credits began to roll since it felt like the film only reached the halfway point.

Final thoughts:
The film, while competently made and watchable for the most part, was not as entertaining as the Marvel films prior to this one. As a result, I do not think that I would recommend giving the film a watch. While I was somewhat entertained by parts of the film, it was not a fulfilling experience even for a superhero film. While it did not bore me, it felt like watching a run-of-the-mill superhero flick like the first Thor film. Others have compared this to the first Iron Man flick which I can understand since this is another superhero origin film.