Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness: Non-Spoiler Review
Technicals
Now is probably a good time to bring up my qualms with the visual effects. I have long been a vocal detractor of Marvel’s at-times shoddy compositing, and there are certain points in this movie that had me grimacing. Honestly, I would go as far as to say that one or two little moments were as badly-executed as the infamous Bruce Banner suit composite from Infinity War.
To a general audience who aren’t actively looking for this and who don’t have a personal vendetta against Marvel’s apparent inability to dedicate to quality effects 100% of the time (sorry, I promise I’ll leave it there on this note), it probably wasn’t too noticeable. On the earlier end of the runtime though they fumbled the ball in a number of scenes, and that’s not a good way to set up a film with a two-hour film that you know in advance will be very VFX-heavy.
The sound was a bit of a mixed bag at times too. With Danny Elfman in charge of the score, I was expecting some delightful Marvel-friendly fare but at times the music felt ill-fitted. The beauty of movie music and sound effects is that you’re meant to barely notice them being there because they fit so well, but on a few occasions this wasn’t the case. Sometimes pieces that were meant to be high-tempo jigs to accompany fighting or bickering felt more like you released a bunch of middle-school band members into a music room and told them to go wild on the new equipment. That’s overly harsh, yes, but not untrue.
Overall the film gave the impression that it was trying to be daring and revolutionary, but managed to achieve neither of these goals. It was a safe, predictably plotted Marvel offering dipped in a fancy outer coating. It was fun and there were moments of triumph, but overall it wasn’t anything to be investing your whole personality into.
Would I recommend seeing it? Absolutely – we need every ounce of joy we can get these days, especially with everything that is happening in the world at the moment. Is it going to be topping many lists as the best MCU offering yet? I wouldn’t hold out your hopes for it.