Doctor Strange Review: 8 Ups & 5 Downs

Ups

8. It Is A True Stand-Alone

One of the best things to say about Doctor Strange's narrative decisions is that it works perfectly as a complete stand-alone movie. It feels separate from the rest of the MCU - partly because of the very smart decision to set it initially at the same time as Iron Man 2 - but without any hint that it won't work when he comes into contact with the other Avengers.

There are obviously Easter Eggs - this is a Marvel movie after all - but they aren't blatant and they feel organic rather than shoe-horned in. There are background mentions of the Avengers - including a brief but brilliant explanation of why the Sorcerors do not intervene in protecting Earth from things like the Chitauri attack (their remit is only metaphysical threats).

And it also works as an origin. Perhaps because Strange isn't as well-established in the mainstream as some of the other Marvel figures, he actually needs an origin (also, his power is so inherently linked to the backstory of his hands that ignoring it would be silly), and having it feel sort of timeless and sort of as a satellite to the main MCU was an inspired decision.