Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

2. The Supporting Cast Is Mostly Wasted

Multiverse of Madness has a sizable supporting cast, and given the film's rather frantic pacing - which we'll get to in a moment - it's little surprising that many of the cast's most talented members don't get much time at all to shine.

Rachel McAdams, who was given a virtual nothing role as Strange's love interest Christine Palmer in the first film, certainly gets far more screen time here, though still doesn't get a whole lot to do.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is back as Baron Mordo but it largely amounts to a so-so cameo, and the great Michael Stuhlbarg gets perhaps 30 seconds of screen time as Strange's former colleague Nicodemus West.

Elsewhere Benedict Wong is in the movie for a sizeable chunk but mostly feels like a passenger to Strange's journey, while Xochitl Gomez turns in solid work as America Chavez yet never quite graduates beyond narrative prop status.

All in all you can feel the film busting at the seams to accommodate every actor - especially those returning from the first - and not quite succeeding. Some of these parts are so miniscule you have to wonder why they even bothered at all.