Doctor Strange: 10 Reasons It's Awesome
7. The Stakes Are Believable For Once
Another common MCU complaint is that there isn't much in the way of palpable stakes. Agent Coulson "dies" in The Avengers and gets magicked back to life in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Civil War's epic airport fight scene just boils down to superheroes punching each other in the face with no intent to kill.
Doctor Strange tackles this problem in a highly interesting and unexpected way, by reflecting on death and human mortality a surprising amount for a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster.
Even in this movie centered around magic, time manipulation and multiverses, death has a sure finality to it that's incredibly difficult to convince an audience of.
In one riveting dialogue, Tilda Swinton's Ancient One meditates on the inevitability of death, which while perhaps jarringly grim for some tastes, nevertheless helps bolster the movie's moment-to-moment consequences and impact.