Author Topic: Doctor Strange  (Read 3358 times)

Dev7on

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Doctor Strange
« on: November 04, 2016, 08:22:39 PM »
I haven't seen the movie yet and I will some day. I've been watching non-spoiler reviews on YouTube saying it's highly recommended to see Doctor Strange in IMAX 3D because of the visual effects.

Kaos Arcanna

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Re: Doctor Strange
« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2016, 08:33:22 PM »
I just saw it.

No spoilers, but for those who are concerned about such things there are two post movie scenes.

doc7924

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Re: Doctor Strange
« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2016, 09:01:55 PM »
I just saw it.

No spoilers, but for those who are concerned about such things there are two post movie scenes.

Aren't there always two now? One sort of halfway and then one after the entire credits.

Reminds me of watching 'Strange Brew' in the theater when Bob and Doug do their post movie review in the closing credits and say how all the people who left before the credits are missing all this great stuff.

Strange looks like a great addition to the MCU. I think he is in the Infinity Gem films next year.

HalcyonS

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Re: Doctor Strange
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2016, 05:57:21 PM »
I didn't see it in 3D, but I have to admit I really liked the film.

doc7924

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Re: Doctor Strange
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2016, 12:04:26 AM »
I didn't see it in 3D, but I have to admit I really liked the film.

Marvel is on a roll with their films. DC needs to do something good soon.

They should make their hero films more fun and light like the 1978 Superman or the WW TV show - or the Marvel films.

All this dark and gritty stuff ain't working.

Kaos Arcanna

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Re: Doctor Strange
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2016, 01:01:56 AM »
Marvel is on a roll with their films. DC needs to do something good soon.

They should make their hero films more fun and light like the 1978 Superman or the WW TV show - or the Marvel films.

All this dark and gritty stuff ain't working.

But the Christian Bale Batman movies were such a success! Obviously dark and gritty sales! :D


AmberOfDzu

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Re: Doctor Strange
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2016, 01:40:54 AM »
But the Christian Bale Batman movies were such a success! Obviously dark and gritty sales! :D
The right balance is what's needed.

doc7924

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Re: Doctor Strange
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2016, 03:58:56 PM »
But the Christian Bale Batman movies were such a success! Obviously dark and gritty sales! :D

Success is one thing - being a good film is another.

Bat v Supes made a lot of money, so did Suicide Squad, but so many people and critics didn't like either one.

I guess that's their take on it - those Bat films did well so that they figure that's the style people want.

Arcana

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Re: Doctor Strange
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2016, 08:12:12 PM »
Strange looks like a great addition to the MCU. I think he is in the Infinity Gem films next year.

If there was any question (and there wasn't) after you watch the movie you'll know that Doctor Strange will be in the Infinity War movies.

Arcana

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Re: Doctor Strange
« Reply #9 on: November 07, 2016, 08:19:07 PM »
But the Christian Bale Batman movies were such a success! Obviously dark and gritty sales! :D

The Nolan movies were very much a huge success, but it wasn't because they were "dark and gritty."  In fact, they *aren't* actually dark and gritty.  It is more correct to say they lean more heavily on the hyper-realistic - "realistic" as action movies go - and extremely well grounded in its own lore.  The Nolan Batman movies are a complete self-contained story about a particular iteration of the Batman, which doesn't require you know anything about Batman.  In fact, it might be better if you don't.  If you do, the Nolan movies don't denigrate prior canon so they don't offend most fans.  But they chart their own path.  Nolan is a story teller and he likes to tell complete stories, with a beginning, a middle, and an end.  That's why the Nolan Batman movies were successful.

I don't know why people keep thinking the movies are "dark and gritty" (not saying you do, I assume you're being facetious).  But consider that in the Dark Knight Rises the central theme is coming into the light.  Escaping the prison into the light.  The final fight takes place after dawn in the daylight.  That's not accidental.

Arcana

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Re: Doctor Strange
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2016, 08:36:43 PM »
The right balance is what's needed.

I think balance isn't the issue, but rather tone, specifically consistency of tone.  I think the Marvel movies tend to know what they want to be, and part of that is knowing what tone they want to deliver.  That doesn't mean the entire movie is monotone, but rather the Marvel movies tend to make sure that when they want to show something a little darker than what would be appropriate for the movie's tone, they add some humor to lighten the movie up and return to the tone they want.  DS is a lighter movie, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have dark moments.  It just offsets them with lighter moments.  Civil War is intended to be a little darker in tone, but still relatively light.  There's more humor in Civil War than in, say, Winter Soldier.  Winter Soldier is intended to be a darker movie, and it is more serious with less offsetting humor, and the humor that exists tends to be shorter and less distracting.

Compare to BvS or Suicide Squad, two movies that do not seem to have any idea what they want to be.

Arcana

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Re: Doctor Strange
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2016, 09:11:41 PM »
Mostly spoiler-free review (very minor trivial spoilers).

Pros:

1.  Casting.  The casting seemed to be basically on point, as most Marvel movies are.  Benedict Cumberbatch was good as Strange, Chiwetel Ejiofor was really good as Mordo.  Setting aside the whitewashing controversy I think Tilda Swinton did a good job of adding a little depth to what would otherwise be a shallow Ancient One.  Mads Mikkelsen did a good job with what he had to work with, although the villain is not as developed in this movie as he could have been (an oft-cited complaint about the Marvel movies in general).

2.  The Magic.  The portrayal of magic in Doctor Strange was interesting, visually arresting, and basically fun.  I think there was a little too much shaky-cam to fully appreciate it at times, but I liked the fact that magic appeared to "bend the rules" in more than one way in the movie.  There's magical melee combat, there's conjuring, there's astral projection, teleportation, dimensional travel, and reality warping.  There's also the MCU's version of magical talismans which have touchstones to the comics but function to varying degrees in different ways in the MCU.  The Eye of Agamotto is there, of course, as is the cloak of levitation.  And the notion that magical talismans are imbued with not just power but personality is interesting.

3.  The resolution.  Without giving anything away, I liked the fact that Doctor Strange actually hews to something that happened often in the classic DS comics, which is that Strange is often interacting with forces so powerful that you can't just punch them until you win.  Is there a climactic action set piece like most Marvel movies?  Yes.  Does Doctor Strange beat up the villain and win: game over?  No.  The ending is clever and appropriate for Doctor Strange and sets up what could be a recurring theme in future Doctor Strange movies: Strange confronts ludicrously powerful foes but doesn't have to become even more ludicrously powerful to beat them.


Cons:

1.  Pacing.  I felt the movie dragged in some places.  Not enough to hurt my enjoyment of the movie, but enough to be noticeable.  Particularly in the second act.  In trying to show Strange's shift from ambivalence to proaction, I think the movie hung on the ambivalence too long.

2.  The villain.  As I mentioned previously Mads Mikkelsen does a good job with what he has to work with, but he isn't given enough to work with.  I think there's a good villain in there, and he is presented as someone with an actual root motivation, but that motivation isn't expanded upon enough.  Strangely (heh) the movie spends so much time on Strange's relationship with Palmer, his interactions with Wong and Mordo, and his early resistance to the Ancient One that it runs out of time to spend on the villain.  Doubly interesting because it seems they all have a past: it is said (in the movie) that only broken people end up in Kamar-Taj, but that isn't expounded upon except of course for Strange himself.


Fridge Logic:

1.  Why didn't Kaecillius approach Mordo to become a disciple?  It appears like Kaecillius knew the one thing that would set Mordo off, and chose not to try.  It doesn't seem likely that Kaecillius would not have known, given he was a disciple of the Ancient One for an apparently long enough period of time to get to know Mordo.

2.  Could Marvel be setting up the MCU for a split, with the "cosmic" heroes in one section of the MCU - Doctor Strange, Thor, Captain Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy - and the "earthbound" heroes in another section of the MCU - Iron Man, Spiderman, Black Panther, Ant Man, Captain America - with some heroes occasionally crossing over, like the Hulk?  It is possible that post-Infinity War we could see a three-part Marvel Cinematic Universe: the Netflix universe, the (earthbound) Avengers universe, and the cosmic MCU.  Which is kind of how the comics worked as well.


Overall:

8 out of 10.  Well worth seeing.  Further proof that Marvel can continue to expand its MCU universe while still keeping things fresh and not retreading prior movies.

PS:  Sorcery is a melee set?  Dang.  Scrappers get all the good stuff.

Dev7on

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Re: Doctor Strange
« Reply #12 on: November 21, 2016, 04:05:26 PM »
PS:  Sorcery is a melee set?  Dang.  Scrappers get all the good stuff.

That's why Scrappers is my favorite Archetype.  ;D I just watched Doctor Strange over the weekend and I love it! I didn't watch it in 3D but, the visual effects are STUNNING!!!! I know Marvel doesn't do a good job with villains but, in my opinion Kaecilius was a threatening villain. He's not intimidating though. I think Marvel is starting get better with their villains now. Look at Kingpin in the Daredevil Netflix series. He's dangerous, threatening, and intimidating. My favorite part of movie is
Spoiler for Hidden:
When Doctor Strange was fighting Kaecilius in Hong Kong and Doctor Strange use the Infinity Stone to reverse time. It reminded me from the game Quantum Break with the effects. It makes me want to play my Time Manipulation character again...  :'(
  All this magic makes me want to play City of Heroes again. It's similar to the game like
Spoiler for Hidden:
The Ancient One's lair= Midnight Squad
                                              Kaecilius= Circle of Thorns
                                              Mirror Dimension= Ouroboros
                                              Amazed= Carnival of Shadow, Night Ward
                                              Dark Dimension= Dark Astoria
                                              Soul/ghost fighting scene in the hospital= Numina, War Witch, Diabolique, and Ghost Widow
                                              Doctor Strange= Dream Doctor

Arcana

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Re: Doctor Strange
« Reply #13 on: November 21, 2016, 06:54:13 PM »
All this magic makes me want to play City of Heroes again. It's similar to the game like

During City of Heroes' run I used to bemoan the fact that sorcery as depicted in the Dr Strange comics was something that didn't really exist in the game nor was there really a suitable substitute.  I stand by that assertion, at least as it pertains to the way magic worked in the comics.  But I will say that the MCU interpretation of Dr Strange's sorcery and magic *is* something that would be very easy to implement, explicitly as Dominator sets.  I too saw a lot of City of Heroes in the movie, at least in terms of superficial flavor.