Doctor Strange Review: 8 Ups & 5 Downs

4. The Effects

I don't say this lightly, but I have never seen a film like Doctor Strange before. Others like The Matrix and Inception have impressed with stunning visuals, but Scott Derickson has achieved an unbelievable feat in taking elements from both, adding his own new additions in the shape of the spells and incantations of this world and surpassing both.

Some of the sequences - including The Ancient One sending Strange down the rabbit hole to "open his eye" are flat-out incredible. They are artistic wonders on their own, pain-stakingly crafted out of the most wild and vivid imaginations, taking in the iconic artwork of the comics and a sort of LSD-infused dreamscape that is beyond anything you could reasonably imagine. This is absolutely next level stuff, and if it doesn't win an Oscar for the effects, something is badly amiss.

And not only that, but the lower level practical effects are also great: n particular, the make-up that goes into Strange's hands is spectacularly realistic.