Doctor Strange

18. Doctor Strange

The concept of “Reverse Engineering” is commonly used in the business and marketing world; more or less, start with the end in mind and work backwards to identify all the steps you need to get there. Marvel are also the experts of this method, as they clearly had it all worked out from the beginning. Depending on how successful the first Iron Man film would be would determine if they’d get their chance to create the definitive super hero film. Luckily for them, and us, Iron Man struck gold, and the Avengers initiative slowly but surely took shape. 

By 2016, it was only two years out from the first part of the concluding chapters of the Avengers story. The initial trio of heroes – Iron Man, Captain America and Thor – had their rounds in the ring, until Phase 3 got underway. Ant-Man came first, and we’d see Black Panther and Spider-Man join the team. But before that, one more important character had to take centre stage. And like most average movie goers, his existence was a mystery to them. Like the saying goes, “If there isn’t a movie about it, it’s not worth knowing”, as penned by Kevin Smith in his movie “Dogma”. Movie or no movie, the character of Doctor Steven Strange was definitely worth getting to know, and our chance was via his first solo outing with the aptly titled, “Doctor Strange”. 

Released in 2016, it comes in at 18^th place in the Avengers timeline, and for good reason. With no other tie in or mention of other Avengers characters (until the post-credit scene), Doctor Strange is a unique film in every regard, and functions completely alone from the other films in the Marvel Universe. Because it focuses on the concept of the Multi-Verse, and characters who have the ability to move between them at ease. No other hero in the Avengers community wields that power, which makes Doctor Strange an essential key to the untapped power at the Avengers disposal. But before he gets there, he has to start his journey by losing his power. 

Doctor Steven Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a brilliant surgeon, saving lives everyday with just his hands. A cocky, egotistic doctor with a knowledge of music to boot, he goes against the rules of medicine, performing procedures guided by his own hands and instinct. And he succeeds, which leads to over self-assuredness that he is always in control. At the peak of his powers in the medical world, fate calls on the good doctor, which lands him in a terrible car accident. Badly bruised and broken from the crash, he also loses the use of his hands, and tries to heal slowly over time. 

But not being able to return to full health at the pace he would prefer, Strange grows impatient, and exhausts every medical avenue, getting nowhere. Until he hears of a man who seemed to beat his own injury and regained the use of his body after a spinal cord injury. After tracking him down, Strange heads to Nepal to find the reclusive healing centre the man spoke of. At the end of his road to healing, Strange enters this location with much scepticism, but his logical mind is quickly challenged and transformed, by the existence of spiritual healing, that is achieved by travelling through space and time. 

Having to unlearn everything he’s earned, Strange begins to embrace the new ways, under the guidance of the Ancient One, who takes him under her wing and teaches him how to access new powers, learn to fight and defend the world from its multi-verse enemies. 

This film is not your average superhero film, and unlike anything else in the Avengers series. Its concept is ambitious, and its ambitions are met with first-rate special effects, which take the viewer on a mind trip like no other. Borrowing visual elements we’ve seen in films like “The Matrix” and “Inception”, Doctor Strange explains its own complicated rules through a series of standout action scenes. It’s confusing to grasp at first just how it all makes sense, but the seamlessness of the special effects draw you in, and throughout the film you begin to understand what this world is all about.

Creating this on screen must have been an enormous challenge for the filmmakers, but it is pulled off with creativity and wit, and you will see a style of visual effects unlike anything you’ve seen before. With characters who can fold the matter around them, create portals into other parts of the world, and meddle with the natural laws of life, a combination of magic and sorcery takes flight, and will send you on a whirlwind of movie magic and escapism. 

Crucial to the plot of this film, and future films of course, is the reveal of one of the precious Infinity Stones, which Doctor Strange comes to use to defeat his enemies. Seeing what this stone alone can do is fascinating and comparing that to the other Infinity Stones featured in previous movies in the Avengers series, you can only just imagine what the six of them can accomplish together. In fact, that becomes the whole premise of Avengers: Infinity War as God-like alien Thanos sets out to steal them all and wield their power to destroy the Universe. But he’ll have to take the stone off Doctor Strange, who wears it around his neck. 

You better be concentrating when you watch this movie, as its intricate set pieces driven by complex and fast-moving special effects, will demand your attention. But keep your eyes glued to the screen for some top-notch visuals, which drive the story forward, and will make it hard to know where to look on screen. There is a lot going on in this film, and with a compact running time of less than two hours, it flies by with, assuming you’re attentive enough to keep up and follow along. 

Post Credit scenes – as Doctor Strange will most likely go on to be a major player in Phase 4 after Endgame, his first solo outing here serves up 2 very different scenes; one funny, the other serious. The first more lighter moment, involved Thor sitting down with a beer opposite Doctor Strange, who explains he keeps an eye on beings with powers from other realms, most notably Thor’s brother Loki. Strange offers to help Thor locate his father and leave Earth with Loki promptly. The second scene features the “other” villain of this film Mordo, encountering Pangborn in his work shed. Mordo attacks him, taking his power away, and says “I know what’s wrong with this world… too many Sorcerers”. You can expect Mordo to show up in the Doctor Strange sequel sometime down the track.

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