Gilberto Says DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS Is A Dark Ride Inside the MCU!

By Gilberto Campa

As the Marvel Cinematic Universe enters its 14^th year of connective storytelling bringing the Marvel Universe to life, grand spectacle and all-time record-breaking box office numbers (well over 5 billion dollars) the machine backed by the Powerful Mouse for the last ten years continues to push on. This time around there are different elements at play with the sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange as Stephen Strange prepares to take a journey into the unpredictable multiverse. In The Multiverse of Madness, the consequences of Spiderman: No Way Home will be felt as Strange will have to deal with the repercussions of opening up the Multiverse (amongst other things) and creating much of his own problems. This will also be the first film in the MCU that will reportedly reference and callback events from the recent Disney Plus series WandaVision, Loki & the animated series, What if? To what extent will general audiences feel lost or confused is up to how they relay those plot threads, which is up to the Director and the writing.

Speaking of the director, the next big component of this movie that has many fans excited is the return of Sam Raimi to the Comic Book movie genre (twenty years after he helmed Spider-Man). Promising more of a horror element to the story, there are not too many directors who know the genre as well as Raimi does. With the potential to have too much going on that may affect how people view this movie in the long run, was Sam Rami and the rest of the Marvel team able to make it all come together? After seeing it, I would say Emphatically so. Many people complain that many of the MCU films fall into a certain formula where a lot of plot threads feel cookie-cutter or bland. That isn’t the problem with this installment as Raimi’s DNA is all over this picture, right from the start. Just from the set design, the pacing, the editing, and the sense of fear that certain characters present it all comes together to create the most unique MCU movie that has been done to date. I would also say that this story is very dark not only in its visuals and themes, but it is also dark in its messages and tone.

The character that fully represents the level of darkness in the movie and who also gets the most to do is Wanda Maximoff aka The Scarlet Witch. Elizabeth Olsen continues her momentum from WandaVision and is unleashed in the biggest way possible, truly showing her status as the strongest being in the MCU right now. Doctor Strange is forced to confront his nightmares and lack of happiness by taking on a new apprentice in America Chavez. A relatively recent character in the comics, Chavez has the ability to travel throughout the multiverse at will, which makes her the big plot device (in a good way) for the movie. She is brought to life by Xochitl Gomez who is able to carry her own in her first big feature and goes toe to toe with Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olson. Sam Raimi really got to sink his teeth and go all out creating very unique sequences that have never been seen in the MCU before, while also balancing the heart of the characters and their true motivations. Expect the unexpected when it comes to the Multiverse of Madness as it is a perfect MCU ride from start to finish that sets the bar even higher for future installments. This one lives up to all of the hype and more as there are quite a few surprises in store for all the diehards.