5 Ways Marvel's Doctor Strange Movie Let You Down

1. The Story Does Not Expand Your Mind

There was an opportunity here that this movie squandered. It just barely mentions that there is a multiverse, that there are other dimensions, that the way we as average humans view the world is very limited, like looking at it through a keyhole. Yet, there’s never a point where we feel our eyes have been opened and the veil lifted.

In the first issue of the current Dr. Strange comic, Strange explains that there are interdimensional bacteria that live in our plane of existence. They are invisible to us, but stick out like a sore thumb to his third eye. The world as we know it is rendered in black and white while colorful weird creatures crawl over unsuspecting people. Strange compares them to the microscopic lifeforms that live on our bodies without us knowing. “Your soul attracts parasites as well.” he explains. “On a mystical level instead of microscopic.” The movie didn’t have to import this exact element, but something close to it would have been a simple way to make us feel our view of the world is different now.

Instead, we see Strange travel through a series of visually stunning dimensions, but it offers little more than spectacle. He was right to question the ingredients of that tea, since the supposed proof of a larger existence is nothing but a really crazy acid trip. Sure, it was stunning. Sure, it was spectacular. But how is all of that going to hold up when it’s not on an IMAX screen in 3D? When it’s time to make the sequel, the production team will need to find a new visual showcase beyond the shifting environments, because that will feel like a rehash. If they really want to impress us a second time, they’ll have to find a way to illustrate new and different forms of magic. The keyword here is STRANGE. It should feel weird and unsettling, like something we’ve never seen before or at least don’t see often.

That is the real problem with this movie. For a character who is synonymous with oddity, everything feels very familiar, very safe. Marvel has a winning formula and they aren’t about to make drastic changes now, but this film in particular was begging for something fresh. At the end of the day, this is still a Disney movie and they’re not going to push the envelope by suggesting there are other deities besides God or that secret invisible demons might be living on our skin.

It’s not that the movie we got was bad, by any means. It was a perfectly adequate film that did its job well, but it’s a bit of a let down to get something that’s simply competent when there was the potential for something really amazing. Yes, this is all just nitpicking and criticizing the movie for what it’s not rather than what it is, but we wanted a deeper experience. We wanted our minds to be blown, not just our eyes dazzled.