Stranger and Stranger: Multiversing Madness

I haven't done a review in a long time. So let's do a review! Warning: spoilers abound. I'm not really going to be talking about some of the key spoilers in this review, but there are certainly things I'll be talking about that will change your perception of the movie if you have not watched it yet. You have been warned!

With that out of the way.

Doctor Strange: Multiverse Of Madness had a lot to live up to; and perhaps the trailers should have better set expectations around what would (and wouldn't) be in the movie. The multiverse is something that has been mentioned since Spider-Man: Far From Home, and more recently has featured prominently in the series of Loki, What If?, and the latest MCU movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home - which also featured Doctor Strange. At the end of Loki, we see the Sacred Timeline splitting and fracturing into pieces, but this has not yet been referenced in any of the shows or movies since. In What If?, we saw brief snapshots of different universes, different possibilities - as well as the idea that some beings may be able to move between and beyond them. And in Spider-Man: No Way Home, we get a direct reference to the multiverse, as well as characters from them emerging and colliding in spectacular ways.

In some ways, I think that Multiverse Of Madness struggled from occurring so soon after No Way Home. The latter hit it out of the park on so many levels, and had so much nostalgia to draw on from previous years and generations. And so, great expectations were set on this movie as well, particularly with a name like Multiverse Of Madness - people come bringing all their questions about the multiverse from these recent adventures, expecting that we'll finally see some answers, some crossover happening, that we'll see the multiverse impacting the current MCU in very real and tangible ways.

But that's not what really happens in this movie. Instead, this movie is just another peek into the multiverse; perhaps more than we've had in other places (No Way Home was a look into the past, Loki a fun look at alternate presents, whereas Multiverse Of Madness does give us some ideas about what could be coming in the future), but still less comprehensive than perhaps might have been expected. The main look at this we get is through the character of America Chavez, a great addition to the MCU, a character that seems to be able to travel the multiverse at will (though somewhat erratically at the start), with some glimpse at other bits of power too. We get a couple of glimpses at other universes, our longest glimpse even giving fans some tantalising teasers about possibilities to come; but these aren't really the focus of the story.

Instead, the focus of our story is a continuation from Wandavision; with Wanda, or Scarlet Witch, being arguably the central character for the bulk of the movie. And this, perhaps, is where some of the plot of the movie falls apart a little.

The central idea of the movie is that Wanda is trying to find her kids again (strangely, there is no mention or appearance of Vision). Having realised that her previous attempt to have a family hurt so many, it seems she has changed her plan to only (theoretically) hurt one: America Chavez. Her plan is to take America's power, travel to a universe where she has kids, and live her life there. When Strange asks the question of what will happen to the Wanda in that universe, there's a pause as if she hadn't considered that; or as if that's not relevant, not the point. But most of the movie is spent trying to keep Wanda away from America, often through rather drastic means (and a lot of death). Yet the obvious question never seems to be asked: why don't they just have a conversation, and America opens a portal for Wanda to the universe she wants to go to, and they let her figure things out with the Wanda of that universe? It feels like that would be much less messy. I realise the answer is probably because that would be too easy, of course, and much less drama. But it's sad to feel like Wanda is demonised, when all she is wanting is family.

Putting these concerns aside - it's a pretty good movie. There's a lot of action, and some really interesting fights (one particularly memorable one for me using music as a weapon, with great use of the instrumentation here), but also quite a decent chunk of horror-esque feel to it, and a bit more gruesome violence than you might expect of other Marvel movies. I'm not a big fan of horror, so that side didn't appeal to me so much, but it also wasn't so much to be completely off-putting for me. I enjoyed getting to dive back into the world of Doctor Strange, and seeing a few new techniques from him; it felt like we might see the alternate universe Strange from What If?, but that wasn't one of the ones that showed up. It was nice to see some new characters at Kamar-Taj, including some non-human - perhaps we'll see them again? It's going to be interesting to see where things go from here.

I think one of the difficulties we get as we go further into the MCU is just the proliferation of so many different threads, that go so long before being picked up. We thought a bunch might be picked up here - but no, we'll need to wait a bit longer for that. And each movie just adds more threads, and more stories, each occurring at the same time, and sometimes interweaving, but oftentimes barely even acknowledging each other. Moon Knight, for instance, the latest MCU series, has literally no tie-ins to the larger universe at all. Eternals, one of the recent movies, occurred largely within its own bubble as well, despite taking place across continents and incredible spans of time. If people fall in love with one of these characters from a specific film or show - it's going to be longer and longer before we see them again. Yes, more content is being made than before; but a lot of it is with new characters, and telling new stories, not bringing them together. Which makes it harder and harder to be a "casual fan", or, indeed, a new fan. There's so much to catch up on, and you never really know what will draw on what.

But anyway, I've rambled along long enough. I enjoyed the movie; but it felt like it wasn't what I was expecting it to be, and I didn't like how Wanda was demonised. It felt like we expected this movie to be something different, and something more, and so there's a feeling of being let down from that. But it's still an enjoyable movie, and there's still some great moments in it, and some goodies in there to look forward to (though again, how far in the future? No clue!). Let me know your thoughts if you like down below.