DOCTOR STRANGE DVD REVIEW

[Liam Creswick]

Reviewer: Liam Creswick lcreswick@gmail.com
Quick Rating: Average
Title: Doctor Strange
Rating: PG

Dr. Strange trains in a mountain city in Tibet to become the Sorcerer Supreme and stop the dread Dormammu from entering our dimension.

Directors: Patricia Archibald, Jay Olivia, Richard Sebast
Writers: Greg Johnson, Craig Kyle
Based on Comics and Characters by: Stan Lee Steve Ditko
Cast: Bryce Johnson, Paul Nakauchi, Kevin Michael Richardson, Michael Yama, Susan Spano, Johnathan Adams
Producers: Avi Arad, Craig Kyle, Stan Lee, Eric S. Rollman, Frank Paur
Publisher and Production: Marvel Studios, Lions Gate Films

For their next trick, the people who brought us the other Marvel animated movies like Ultimate Avengers and Invincible Iron Man will take Dr. Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme of the Marvel universe, and make most everything entertaining about his adventures… disappear!

This movie chronicles Dr. Stephen Strange’s transformation from an angry, bitter neurosurgeon into the Sorcerer Supreme. When the good doctor loses his hands in a car accident, he searches out every option to get his digits working again. When science and medicine offer no help, he desperately travels to Tibet, thanks to advise from a stranger. This stranger just so happens to be a member of a team of sorcerers currently trying to stop a being of pure magic, Dormammu, from breaking into our dimension. Their interest in Dr. Strange is due to the fact that he is the only normal human who can see them. In Tibet, they train Strange in the ways of magic, but never tell him that he is destined to be the next Sorcerer Supreme. Too bad Strange can’t read the cover to the box of his own movie, as what he doesn’t know, the audience certainly does. This movie becomes an exercise in waiting; waiting for him to become the very powerful and lavishly dressed Sorcerer Supreme.

As I understand it, it was the intention of the film makes to explore Stephen Strange’s personal journey of becoming a sorcerer and accepting his sister’s death. This personal strife and transformation is not nearly as interesting as the creators think it is. While I hate to criticize a movie because they didn’t do what I would have done were I to make the flick, I can tell you that Dr. Strange’s twisted, magical, multi-dementional adventures that we know from the comics are far more entertaining than a guy trying to fix his hands, mourn his sister, and scrub a floor at the command of a small, old, hovering magician.

This weak story of personal realization is strung together with some decent action scenes. The Ancient One’s team of sorcerers and the fights they get into with magical monsters are the most engaging parts of this movie. Each character uses some physical object such as sand, rope, or fire to cast their spells. This makes for some very cool visuals, such as a scene when one of the characters grabs the trunk of a tree, makes the tree grow quickly, and then sheds it’s leafs so the branches make big spikes. This is not only cool to look at, but is a step away from the usual magic seen in cartoons, such as colourful beams of energy and magic words. The villain Dormammu gets a very interesting redesign in this feature, and is now made of black and red spikes floating around one and other, which looks very sinister and evil. Unfortunately, his fight with Dr. Strange is very predictable thanks to poorly hidden foreshadowing early on. It is also not nearly as visually stunning as the other magic feats seen earlier. Considering the first ¾ of this film was spent establishing Dr. Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme, I was expecting a far more spectacular fight with Strange’s powers now full blown, but what we get is disappointing and anti-climactic. Baron Mordo’s role in the film is equally as predictable as the fight with Dormammu.

Bryce Johnson, the voice of Dr. Strange, sounds very similar to Tony Stark in the Iron Man movie, but it fits this character well too, so no complaints. All the other voice actors do a decent job of their roles, but not to any notable degree. Unfortunately though, Dormammu’s voice was a total miss for me, especially considering his cool new look. Jonathan Adam’s Dormammu voice reminds me more of a Monster Truck announcer than a magic monster from another dimension. As stated, the visuals in this movie are pretty eye-catching, but the animation of these images are not on par with previous Marvel animated flicks. Early on there is noticeably choppy animation, and while the rest of the flick doesn’t look as bad, I missed some of the nice touches from the other Marvel movies, like the cell-shaded techniques seen in Iron Man.

The extra features on this DVD include a short but sweet look at Dr. Strange in comics through the years, as well as some behind the scenes stuff for the movie. We also get a look at the next Marvel animated project – a Batman Beyond like take on the Avengers – that is interesting and unnerving at the same time. Finally, there is a collection of cinematics from the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance game. I don’t know why, as they make little sense outside the context of the game, but they’re there.

Dr. Strange has a fairly weak story, but sports enough good visuals and action to keep you interested long enough to see it through to the end. It seemed a lot of this forth film was phoned in, but it wasn’t totally unwatchable.

Overall:


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[Picard]

I agree with your review, and imo this is the weakest of all the new animated movies that Marvel have released.

However, i don't agree with you on Dormammus redesign. I would have prefered the "original" one instead of the new Balrog-ripoff.

[DocOrlando]

Wow, that's diappointing. I watched the Doctor Strange preview on the Iron Man DVD a couple of weeks ago, and while I wasn't entirely hooked, I was at least looking forward to a new Marvel animated adventure.

But since he's not my favorite character by a longshot, I suppose I'll end up skipping this; I trust your opinions.

I realize they have to change up these origin stories somewhat for the sake of today's kiddies or some other reason, but honestly...sometimes the first take on a character is the best one.

[PukeDrunk]

I thought the best part of Iron Man was the Strange preview. I'll see it for free, so I can sit through a couple boring parts.