Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs
Downs...
4. The Script Is A Total Mess
From top to bottom Multiverse of Madness' single biggest problem is its script, which courtesy of Loki writer Michael Waldron is a car crash of moods and ideas that don't always cohere.
The spine of the story, centered around Wanda's (Elizabeth Olsen) continued grief following Vision's demise, feels like a crumbling skeleton on which a number of undeniably entertaining, wacky set-pieces are hung.
The narrative, a largely nonsensical series of supernatural fetch quests which set the stage for the aforementioned action sequences, basically beg the viewer not to question any of it or expect anything in the way of rigid internal logic. It is a multiverse movie, after all.
Dialogue-wise even the usually reliable, quip-heavy MCU humour is pretty lackluster here: most of the gags feel overly broad and there are depressingly few big laughs, which even in its more dour entries the MCU hasn't skimped on.
While the script's messiness will be seen as a virtue by some, indicating a film untethered by the staid restrictions of typical franchise filmmaking, there's a point at which the "anything goes" aspect of the multiverse story de-incentivises audience investment.
If anything can happen, why should we really care about any of it?