This article contains spoilers for the movie
On Tuesday, I went to watch Marvel’s newest and most highly anticipated film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and, I have to say, I was slightly disappointed by this sequel.
While the cinematography and visual effects were out of this world, the plot was missing something. As the multiverse is such a big part of Marvel at the moment, after Spiderman No Way Home, and since the title of the film literally includes the word multiverse, I thought we would see more of it. The opportunity was there for a giant crossover, where we would see characters such as Spider-Man, and even dead characters that could be alive in other universes such as Iron Man. The multiverse was not as ‘mad’ as I expected it to be.
Cameos fall flat
With cameos and crossovers including characters such as Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Mr Fantastic (John Krasinski) and Captain Marvel (Lashana Lynch), it definitely didn’t disappoint in that area. However, these characters were killed not long after they were introduced so we hardly get to hear from them or see them interact with others. It seems almost like a waste.
The Multiverse of Madness also introduced a new character – America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a young girl who has the power to switch between universes but cannot control it. She was an okay character that helped to move the story along. However, I think she was pretty one-dimensional and I would have liked to see more of her personality and backstory, but maybe that’s to come.
However, one thing that I did love about the Multiverse of Madness, was its brilliant choice of villain. Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) really brought the story to life and I actually ended up feeling more sorry for her than any other character. Although, many fans have been complaining that the same ground has been trod too many times. She went through a similar arc in Wandavision and, by the end of it, realised what she was doing was cruel and wrong. Yet she seems to go back to square one in Multiverse, killing everyone in sight to get what she wants.
In terms of genre, I liked that this film leaned more towards horror, and had me jumping in my seat at times. The darker twists and gruesome scenes are something we haven’t such much of in Marvel and I’m excited for this new direction it’s headed in.
