Doctor Strange: A glowing review

*Spoilers*
There are basic elements that make up a superhero, that include but are not limited to: 

• Unrequited or turbulent love interest
• A tragedy/injury that alters the course of a life
• Mutant interference (Captain America, Luke Cage, etc).
•  Disbelief surrounding a newfound ability and the choice to do something good with those abilities 
• A struggle to defeat someone/something that threatens the future of humanity

I have always been a fan of Doctor Strange. He falls into most of  the basic elements of the superhero mold without losing authenticity or uniqueness. His ability to harness magic feels relative, like if we sought out the Ancient One, it would be possible to learn how to master mind over matter...that with the right tools we could learn to bend time and draw the doorways to the rest of the universe.

In summary, Doctor Stephen Strange is a brilliant and renowned neurosurgeon with an arrogant personality to match (think of Hugh Lawrie as Dr. House). After a good lesson on why you shouldn't be a distracted driver, Strange's car goes off a cliff and he wakes up in a hospital room with severe injury to his hands. After alienating his ex-girlfriend and loyal colleague,  Christine (played by Rachel McAdams), Stephen drains his financial resources in search of a cure. Strange then learns of a man who was considered to have an incurable spinal injury and despite the impossibility of it, was walking again. Stephen seeks the man out and learns of an ancient order that emphasizes balancing the energy in the body to truly harness the power of the spirit and master mind over matter. Strange is trained by the Ancient One (played by the amazing Tilda Swinton who's name I forgot when I was a guest on The Loaded Couch podcast yesterday) and finds an ally in his other teacher, Mordo (played by Chiwetal Ejiofor).

It becomes a battle for the world when a former promising student of Kamar-Taj, Kaecilius (played by Mads Mikkelsen) steals a page from a book that will allow him to unleash and harness power from Dormammu of the Dark Dimension. Doctor Strange has to quickly evolve in his abilities and with the power of the Eye of Agamotto (also referred to as the better known infinity stone) and the Cloak of Levitation he is able to save the world by trapping Dormammu in a time loop. Meanwhile, the Ancient One is mortally wounded and Mordo, a faithful student up until this point, discovers from Doctor Strange that she was not who she said she was and had been harnessing power and immortality from the Dark Dimension herself despite preaching against it to her students. Strange later realizes the Ancient One was more complicated than that and tries to explain it to Mordo, who now has a vendetta against other sorcerers, to no avail. Mordo goes off on his own, angered by the perceived hypocrisy of his former master, and is positioned to rise up as the next villain of gray areas. Stay tuned for post-credit scenes which include Thor and another Mordo scene. 

I had expected to love the movie and was glad it lived up to my high expectations.  We saw it in 3D which was definitely worth the splurge in ticket price. I'm usually not a huge fan of 3D because it has a tendency to make me nauseous but despite the mind bending special effects, it was over-the-top without being overwhelming. The casting of Benedict Cumberpatch as Strange was the perfect choice as any fan of the Sherlock series on BBC would agree. His American accent took a little getting used to since I am used to loving his British accent but he was so good at it that I almost forgot he wasn't made in the USA. Not all actors have the ability to pull off a good, non-native accent (Angelina Jolie as Olympias in the film Alexandra comes to mind as cringe-worthy).  Tilda Swinton, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetal Ejiofor, Mads Mikkelsen, and the rest of the cast were awesome in their roles as well and brought the story to the live action screen without compromising the integrity of the familiar Doctor Strange comic's arc.

My husband Jeremiah and I brought our 7 year old son Jonas to see it and while there are some adult themes, we thought it was okay for kids.  Our parenting philosophy is to assess the emotional climate of your child and decide what is best for him/her. If you are planning to take your child to see Doctor Strange, just know their boundaries, read up on the movie, and make your choice accordingly. With that being said, my 7yo loved it and so did we. :) Definitely a great one to experience on the big screen (and in 3D if you want to splurge).

With the latest addition of Doctor Strange to the franchise, along with the Netflix originals, Luke Cage, Dare Devil, and the upcoming Iron Fist, The Punisher, etc. the Marvel Universe seems to be just warming up. It's definitely an exciting time to love superheroes.