Reader warning: Thanos is dead and did not demand my silence on this one so please, for the love of The Ancient One, if you haven’t watched MOM, stop reading RIGHT NOW!
Director Sam Raimi returns to his old comic book movie stomping ground to give it his signature horror take with the release of his first Marvel blockbuster, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse, and nails it so well.
The stellar cast of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (MOM) includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Xochitl Gomez,Rachel McAdams and Michael Stuhlbarg.
For context, you may want to rewatch Doctor Strange, Avengers Infinity War and Endgame, Spiderman:No Way Home and the heartbreaking What If episode 4. Go ahead and binge-watch the 1992 animated X-Men series , Loki and, now that Disney Plus has launched in South Africa, the short-lived Inhumans series too.
MOM picks up where Spiderman No Way Home and Loki left off: the multiverse has been cracked wide open by Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch)’s spell gone awry and Sylvie killing Kang. In short, our universe is screwed and the only person who can fix it is Stephen himself. In a storyline that repeats the NWH one, Strange has to protect a multiverse traveling teen, America Chavez (Gomez) aka Miss America, from the literal otherworldly monsters who are after her for her abilities.
With Wong (who is now Sorcerer Supreme)’s encouragement to fix what he broke, Strange heads off to the one Avenger he thinks he can trust and who gets the magic thing, Wanda (Olsen). Of course, what we as an audience know, that Strange doesn’t, is that little “sweet” Wanda had gotten in touch with her inner Scarlet Witch by the end of WandaVision and she may not as innocent as she appears to be. That Darkhold magic is just too strong to resist and Wanda needs it and America to find versions of her twin sons somewhere in the multiverse so that she can reunite her family. A battle for the fate of the multiverse and Miss America’s life ensues with Strange meeting frightening versions of himself and taking a crazy trip through worlds.
Cumberbatch is a bloody marvel, portraying every multiverse version of Strange with such depth and variety that it is entirely easy to keep track of what makes our universe’s Strange The One. Olsen deserves all of the kudos for how she has played her character’s journey from being Captain America’s ward in Avengers: The Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War to delusional and grieving suburban mom and widow in WandaVision to the understandably angry Big Bad in MOM. You never feel like you are watching different versions of the same character (even if the Russian accent is all over the place) – Wanda’s historical pain and indignation at a universe that has screwed her over one too many times is something we can all relate to.
McAdams FINALLY gets more screen time as Christine Palmer, Strange’s longtime love, and is brilliant as the multiverse version of her character.
Comic book fans have longed for the first onscreen appearance of the Illuminati and Raimi delivers this debut so spectacularly that even us mainly series and movie watchers are left utterly gobsmacked. I did not know where to lay my eyes or how to stem the flow of my fangirling yells as Professor X (Patrick Stewart reprising his role from the past two decades) rolled in, in his signature yellow wheelchair from the X-Men animated series (hello Saturday mornings from my childhood in the 90s flashback!).
Everyone is going wild for John Krasinski’s debut as Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards (and he is great) but let me give a whisper of epic congrats to the producers for bringing back Anson Mount as the Inhumans leader Black Bolt! My fellow fans and I hated Marvel and Disney for pulling all of the Netflix and ABC shows in recent years but now we see the method in their madness (pun intended).
From Charlie Cox’s Daredevil saving Peter in Spiderman:No Way Home to Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin squaring off with Kate Bishop in Hawkeye and now Mount’s Black Bolt in MOM , I love how they are giving the TV show characters, and their hardworking actors, their long-awaited cinematic due.
Yes, MOM follows Marvel’s by now recognisable formula for their superhero movies but Raimi makes it unique with his horror and comedy elements. I adored the What If Strange and zombie episodes and to see Raimi bring that to life onscreen with scares that are not cheap, fun and thrilling homages to horror classics like Carrie, while still firmly cementing Phase Four of the MCU is an absolute joy.
I am disgruntled by the fact that all of Strange’s problems and redemptions are depicted in his relationships with the women in his life. Marvel, for all its progressive casting and storylines for current and upcoming shows (Moon Knight,She-Hulk and Ms.Marvel) and movies (Thor:Love and Thunder), seems determined to continue to depict their villains as deranged, over-emotional women who tear the world apart when things go wrong. Wanda’s Darkhold possession and irrational revenge seeking ego trip is reminiscent of Hela in Thor:Ragnarok. It just doesn’t sit right with me that even in fiction, men are beating women into submission. A larger conversation, to be sure, and we’ll talk about it soon.
Let me end off this review by saying that if Marvel’s writers continue to give us lines that cut us to our core (remember WandaVision ‘s “what is grief if not love persevering?”), I am going to have to stock up on tissues forever. I mean, look at this:
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now playing at NuMetro (see it in the Xtreme cinema, you’ll thank me later), SterKinekor and CineCentre.
