5 Ways Marvel's Doctor Strange Movie Let You Down
4. The Magic Is Vague And Too Easy
How long did Dr. Strange spend training in Kamar-taj? Was it a year? Was it a few months? Was it a three week intensive crash course? This is an issue that plagues all movies with training montages, but usually we get a sense that the protagonist is struggling and then watch as he gradually improves. In this movie, we see that Stephen can’t open a portal, then he can open a portal, and then suddenly he can do everything. It’s like as soon as you’re able to perform one task, all the other tasks are just as easy. This could have been helped by, say, watching the leaves on the trees change colors to illustrate the passage of time. He could have been taken to other environments to train, though that probably would’ve strained the budget and cost us a few kaleidoscopic city moments.
What magic skills were there to be learned, anyway? Sorcery skills in the MCU seem to be: making mandala shields, astral projection, and opening portals with the sling ring. Apparently, learning these three skills and being pretty decent with them qualifies you to be a master. Throughout the movie (and in the mid-credits scene), it’s strongly implied that there are other capabilities that sorcerers have. Benjamin Bratt’s character is able to channel mystical energy to remove his paralysis; Dr. Strange is able to change a cup of tea into a beer stein that refills either automatically or when he wills it. But there was no indication in his training that these were skills that could be learned. It’s understandable that the magic usage needed to be simple and straightforward for a wide audience, so it couldn’t be very complex, but we really have to feel that these people are in a different league than the Avengers and the movie failed at that.
What was Stephen learning from all of those books? Is Kamar-taj all about independent study? We saw him doing formations in what looked like a morning Tai-Chi class and we’re told that he questions his instructors, so there does seem to be some kind of formalized education, but he was able to yank a few books from the library here and there and gain enough skills and knowledge to be second to the Sorcerer Supreme, so what exactly happened? They even foreshadow that his magical education will take years when he explains how he learned to be a surgeon, but then toss out that throwaway line about him having a photographic memory. So, is he advancing because he’s so dedicated? Does he have some latent magical power, like the movie suggests after he’s opened the Eye of Agamotto and made friends with the Cloak of Levitation? Or is it because he has such a good memory that he’s been reading decades worth of spells in a week’s time?
When the climax of the film starts and he has to fight Kaecilius and his gang, Dr. Strange is barely able to maintain his mandala shields and succeeds mostly through the help of his enchanted garment and dumb luck. But because he defended the Sanctum by himself, he deserves to be its guardian? There really weren’t any other sorcerers who were more qualified?
This vagueness hurts the movie’s sense of wonder. You’re asking questions when you should be enjoying the ride. Nobody’s saying that the movie needed to explicitly detail every single way the magic functions. That would A) be boring and B) limit the writers’ ability to be creative. Just don’t leave us scratching our heads.