Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

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Congratz to Sam Raimi and Kevin Feige for making a worse superhero film than their last collaboration on Spider-Man 3. In fact this film is so grotesquely abhorrent, I fully expected Bully Maguire to pop up from behind some statue or sth. Honestly that would have been a pleasant surprise compared to what was going on here. And don't get me wrong, I love Raimi's campiness, truth be told I missed it dearly, but this is just a parody.

They took this complex wounded so beautifully realised antagonist in Wanda, that had been developed across multiple storylines and came to full fruition in WandaVision (the best thing they've ever done) and
turned her into a cartoonish overacting Simon Kinbergy horror monster, who is now under the influence of some evil magical entity (because of course she is). But as if that wasn't unforgivable enough by itself, they also ruin Wong here, the coolest character they've had. He's a fucking idiot now.
You see some of the best actors in the business come and make a complete fool of themselves in this film. But of all of the cast I feel the worst for Xochitl Gomez whose character is so poorly written, it makes by far the worst impression out of any of these new players that they are introducing in Phase 4.

A good third of MCU comprises of mediocre to subpar films that I don't want to ever revisit, but they've never made anything this offensively bad. It is effectively Marvel's Rise of Skywalker.

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I saw this at the Imax yesterday! I have no complaints! Raimi knows how to make a film!

My theater got so loud when John Krasinski appeared as Mr. fantastic! And Sir Patrick Stewart showed up as professor x! :geek:

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Master Virgo wrote:
May 6th, 2022, 9:51 am
A good third of MCU comprises of mediocre to subpar films that I don't want to ever revisit, but they've never made anything this offensively bad. It is effectively Marvel's Rise of Skywalker.
I understand having issues with the script (I already had issues with the Loki script, I feel Waldron has cool ideas but struggles to insert them in a natural way in the script, so it goes from big moment to big moment, without ever feeling like it flows), but in no way does it compare with TROS. MoM is a very well directed film that has tons of incredible visual ideas. TROS only had Driver and Ridley trying to save a sinking ship.

Phase 4: Eternals > Shang Chi > Multiverse of Madness > No Way Home > Black Widow

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This was a big nothing for me, and I say this as someone who isn't as engaged with all the character arcs and plotlines of the MCU, and definitely missed all the TV shows. But I think a film has to make sense on its own, so I can only judge it by those standards. And by those standards this was just... meh for me.
I'm sure I would've been annoyed if this turned into a fan service cameo vehicle, and I'm happy that it didn't. But instead, in a film titled Multiverse of Madness, I had to, once again, listen to scenes of extreme exposition dump and people talking to each other while walking or standing around in a room, just like your regular TV show from the 2000s. I only say "once again" because I had the same experience with No Way Home.

I feel like they have the ideas for the pitching session but then they just fill everything up with numbingly long dialogues of nothing and very civilian problems of these superheroes. And to be honest this is the one thing I really miss from the 2000s. Because superhero movies such as the X-Men films, the original Spider-Man films, the Nolan-films, etc, had such a "mythic" approach to their heroes. They were always about the place of these heroes in their respective societies, what it even means to be a hero, is it worth being a superhero, how much does the presence of a superhero change society in general, and so on. And with most of the MCU I feel like the films don't engage with these characters on these aforementioned levels at all. Some films do, obviously, but when it comes to these "in-between" entries, it's usually something along the lines of "I love this girl" or "I want to be happy".

For example, I haven't seen WandaVision, and I can barely remember Scarlet Witch's original appearance in Avengers 2, but in this film I had no idea who she was. All I got was an extreme version of Elizabeth Debicki from Tenet, and as much as motherhood is a very intriguing topic on its own, I just didn't care for that aspect in this film. Because it was presented in such a blunt and uninteresting manner. I kind of expected a "simple", balls to the walls, Mad Max-kind of insanity ride. But the way the emotional core of this film was presented, it all just fell flat for me.

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Was anyone else expecting this to be a bit more ... mad?

Like, it's visually spectacular. The sound design in particular is a treat. But I was kind of expecting like more jumping between universes and potentially the appearance of more familiar faces. Like, this is a perfect excuse for fan service. It all felt a little bottled and controlled. I would have thought a film about the multiverse would somehow be more chaotic, I guess. What we got was something that felt more bottled and narrow.

The whole Scarlet Witch plot didn't do it for me. Seemed like they took a fairly interesting and complex character and turned her sort of one dimensional. It felt too contrived.

Some of the action scenes were the real highlights for me. That musical note battle was incredible, and I can't believe I haven't seen something like that before in a film. Zombie Strange was cool too.

A bit disappointing, on the whole. Seems like No Way Home is the only flick so far in this new phase to really be good. Hopefully Love & Thunder can save it.

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"I’m not really sure what the WandaVision schedule was or how it changed. I just know that halfway, or maybe three-quarters of the way into our writing process, I’d first heard of this show they were doing and that we would have to follow it. Therefore, we had to really study what WandaVision was doing, so we could have a proper throughline and character-growth dynamic. I never even saw all of WandaVision; I’ve just seen key moments of some episodes that I was told directly impact our storyline."
- Raimi

This is just a huge fail for Feige, not to be able to coordinate creative teams and guide them to where they needed to be.

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the multiverse of midness

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This guy is the new Chris Terrio, with his bizarre takes and nonsensical justifications.

Doctor Strange 2 Writer Responds to WandaVision Fans' Backlash
"I guess I would say to the WandaVision fans, like, I get it. Watching a character you love do bad things sucks. That elicits a strong feeling, which is what we’re trying to do in the movies. We never would have done it if it didn’t feel like the next step in her character journey."
"To me, my interpretation of the story of ‘WandaVision’ was, that Wanda is confronting her grief in that show, but I don’t think she’s necessarily conquering it. It’s a show about her living in denial to some extent and she’s conquering her denial, but I don’t think that she’s properly reckoning with her anger over what she’s endured, and that anger is what she carries with her as she walks away with the knowledge that she is the Scarlett Witch and with the Darkhold, this evil book. And I think it’s that anger that the Darkhold preys upon and pushes her on what is a, to me and I think to Wanda, a very justifiable, noble journey. She just wants her kids.”

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Yeah, the idea of 'evil book makes character who reads it do evil' seems really flimsy.

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