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[Haflinger]

So I celebrated the American election by watching Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange the next day.

 

I did kinda read the comic when I was a kid. But that was the seventies. The comic was really aimed at teenagers and I was only a little kid. I couldn't really follow most of what was happening but I remember all of these really wild visuals and I liked that about it.

 

So, anyway. The movie delivers on the really wild visuals. Oh my god. This is definitely a movie to see in theatres. I saw it in 2D because I find 3D disorienting but I suspect that in 3D it would have been even more mind-blowing.

 

The story was straightforward enough. Cumberbatch is typically brilliant, the other actors are generally quite good but he's definitely the star. If you like his style, the other actors are mostly cast from the same sort of mold only not quite as good as he is. (Well, except for the librarian. The scenes with the librarian are sort of fabulously hilarious in a very understated way.)

 

There is a kinda cool twist ending that I liked. But really, this is a movie to see for the visuals. I expect that in ten years time people will be dropping acid and watching it again.

[Redezra]

...

Dormammu, I've come to bargain.

Dormammu, I've come to bargain.

Dormammu, I've come to bargain.

Dormammu, I've come to bargain.

Dormammu, I've come to bargain.

Dormammu, I've come to bargain.

Dormammu, I've come to bargain.

...

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

I used to read Doctor Strange as a kid. I had a subscription to some other title that got cancelled, so Marvel decided to replace it with DS. It was trippy and weird even then. The movie was quite good, but that should be no surprise. Marvel Studios has really figured out the secret sauce.

[Haflinger]

I've only seen the X-Men films (which are good, I mean, the actors are tremendous and the rest is OK) and Ultron, which honestly was kinda lame. Doctor Strange wasn't much like any of them - or the SHIELD TV show, although Joss is right now trying to make SHIELD more like Doctor Strange and mucking it up.
 
Oh and the first Iron Man film. Hurray for Robert Downey Jr. playing a superhero. I mean, that's basically everything that's good about that film, but it's enough. Still nothing like Doctor Strange.

But this movie felt more like a sort of non-depressing The Wall. With Escher. Lots of Escher.