The Single Biggest Mistake Each MCU Film Has Made
7. Doctor Strange: The Lead Being Such A D**k
The Movie:
Now we enter the lower tier of the MCU.
Doctor Strange is not one of the franchise's better films. It is visually stunning, well-acted and often thrilling, but in terms of writing it is unfortunately devoid of charm, humor (save for a terrible Beyonce joke) or compelling narrative progression, while the romance and central villain are woeful.
Despite all of those aforementioned issues, they're not the big problem. Unfortunately, the main problem here is the hero himself, which is never good for a superhero movie.
For the record, Benedict Cumberbatch is a great actor and his performance is excellent, but the character of Doctor Stephen Strange is not.
Strange is a complete pr**k. He's not flawed but sympathetic like Tony Stark is, he's just an arrogant, moody, unapproachable !*$% who doesn't have the emotional angst or character development that the other MCU main heroes do. It's hard to see what anyone, let alone someone as apparently wise as the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), sees in him at all.
Since Strange is the center of the film, it's hard to get invested in his character arc or the general narrative given how unlikable he is. Thankfully the character improved considerably in his brief role in Thor: Ragnarok and in Avengers: Infinity War, but it would've been nice if they'd remembered to make him likable for his actual solo movie rather than films in which he is just a supporting character.
Fix:
Make him even slightly likable.