Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs
1. The Rushed Pacing
While on paper the prospect of an MCU film that clocks in at a tight 126 minutes seems great, the unfortunate truth is that Multiverse of Madness is a frantic, rushed sprint to the finish line.
Raimi's film is completely breathless as it darts from one wild set-piece to an exposition dump, to another action sequence, and so on. While it ensures audiences are likely to maintain attention throughout, the result is also often more exhausting than it is entertaining.
Considering some of the out-there concepts the film has to explain to the audience, not to mention the emotional particulars of Wanda's character arc, it feels like a disservice to race through them at warp-speed.
One can speculate that these pacing issues may stem from the film's rough post-production process, which included extensive reshoots earlier this year, as the end result does rather feel like a studio-mandated cut cleaved down to its essential parts.
As much as brevity can be the soul of wit, in a film that's trying to spin this many plates at once, some added breathers were most certainly needed.
Accepting these issues, though, here's why you should absolutely watch Multiverse of Madness...