Doctor Strange

DC Comics has always had an array of "A-List" characters (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc), whereas Marvel has never really had this. They've got Spider-Man. And that about sums it up. Don't get me wrong, Marvel has "teams". The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Avengers - big teams, but more the sum of their parts, with each individual complementing the team, rather than surviving alone. (That said, in the 90s, both Wolverine and the Punisher achieved a degree of notoriety, noted by the comic "What The...?!" where, when sales of comics fell, the appearance of those characters would boost sales. Wolverine has survived, but two dodgy movies have killed off the Punisher's appeal). Of course, Marvel have been intent on disproving this with movies such as Ghost Rider, Blade (whom the majority of people probably wouldn't realise was actually a comic character), The Hulk, and more impressively Iron Man. Now, Marvel are spitting out a series of animated movies, the first of which I've reviewed, but curiously the next features the rather curious choice of character: Doctor Strange.

Dr Strange has never really been able to survive a comic series of his own. He's a character that excites when he appears in comic series, but on his own he tends to be a bit of a bore. Dormammu, his chief villain, looks incredibly stupid, and there's only so much magic that the Marvel Universe can have before one begins to ask, so why doesn't he just go and use his magic to defeat every villain? Due to all of this, the decision to give Dr Strange his own animated movie is curious.
Stephen Strange the arrogant surgeon who has a car accident that damages, is forced to travel to Tibet after losing everything in the hope of finding the cure for his hands. Here he comes across the sorceror supreme and his servants who include Wong and Mordo. So far the story is pretty similar to the original Dr Strange story and as Mordo turns against his master to support Dormammu, the story is complete.

Happily the designers were clearly aware of Dormammu's look in the original comics (indeed it has even been updated in alter comics to get away from what it used to be) and not it looks quite terrifying. The whole idea of trying to break through the cracks in the dimensional barrier by going through the sleeping minds of children who have the ability to peirce the dimensions in their sleep is quite interesting and works well. Aside from both Mordo and Dormammu, a further threat comes from what is initially described as the last of Dormammu's creatures, but turns out to be a swarm of fish-like pirahna-type creatures. It's quite disturbing to see these creatures strip most of the Ancient One's disciples to the flesh.

And yet there is something about this movie that just doesn't quite hit the right spot. I don't really know exactly what it is, because the movie seems to tick all the right boxes - there is the emotional journey, the action at the end, the character development, good voice casting...it all seems to be fine. But maybe that's the problem. Maybe the fact that everything is "fine" rather than "fantastic" is the real problem that this movie possesses.

I wouldn't not recommend this movie, but I don't find myself able to rave about it.

"B-"