Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Directed by Sam Raimi and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, and Benedict Wong, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness embraces the outlandish in one of the MCU’s most unconventional entries, largely thanks to Raimi’s distinctive directorial style.

Ridden with nightmares of unsuccessfully protecting a young girl from cosmic threats, Dr. Stephen Strange leaps into action when he sees her in real life being chased through the streets of New York by a Lovecraftian monster. It turns out her name is America Chavez; she’s being sought for her unique ability to traverse the multiverse. The pursuer is none other than the corrupted Scarlet Witch, who now scavenges reality for a specific version in which she can be with her imaginary children, regardless of the destruction she may leave in her wake. Dr. Strange & co. embark on a mind-bending adventure to stop the Witch, both joining forces and being confronted by many “new” faces along the way.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is frustrating. Sam Raimi at the helm, combined with the intellectual properties of the MCU, should have been nothing short of the explosive piece needed to launch the franchise into a much-needed creative and thematic reboot. And to a very limited extent, it does deliver: the film has brilliant moments which quite literally show a multiverse of possibilities. For a post-Endgame MCU striving to maintain a passionate audience, the multiverse would certainly prove a fascinating, largely unexplored canvas to pique our interest. Exciting glimpses into parallel universes as seen in successful Marvel media like Into the Spider-Verse, No Way Home, and even What If…? should have been the major focus of Multiverse of Madness. These creative highs end up being few and far between in a movie that literally has “Multiverse” in its name; even when the film gets to shine in its Raimi-ian craziness, it’s curiously restrained, with all of its most intriguing aspects settling for criminally small amounts of screentime. Instead, it prefers, for no good reason, to repeatedly backtrack onto its ridiculously weak and trope-y plot points involving Strange and Wanda. 

This is not to say that Multiverse of Madness wasn’t entertaining. Cumberbatch is still compelling as the powerful but principled Doctor, and it was great to see Wong finally have a larger role. The special effects are once again on point, albeit some parts of the film do devolve into a CGI Strange throwing CGI at even bigger CGI while CGI all around them crumbles – as CGI does. Raimi’s signature style is also eminent throughout the film, offering a unique horror quality unprecedented for this franchise. Ultimately, the MCU’s hesitancy to do too much with Multiverse of Madness is somewhat understandable, given increasing criticism about franchise incoherence, and interconnectedness with multiple TV shows unavailable to large parts of the audience. Very nearly a creative spectacle but evidently bogged down by the interests of an increasingly risk-averse MCU, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ends up being crushed by the weight of its own possibility.