Review of Doctor Strange (2016) by Kym S — 19 Feb 2017

Where do I start? I was going to start with the positives, but even those are overshadowed. The special effects are impressive, but unfortunately cannot help but be compared to The Matrix - and come up lacking.

The casting was something of a joke. I have no problems with Benedict Cumberbatch, as such, but I feel the popular choice of Pedro Pascal would have worked better. Benedict did a good job, overall, even if I found myself wincing at times whilst listening to his take on an American accent.

Tilda Swinton playing the Ancient One was a terrible decision by Marvel, as was the casting of Chiwetel Ejiofor. After white-washing the Ancient One, diversity was apparently needed, so they cast a black man - as the character who would become the villain.

Even when going for diversity, Marvel slips into racism and stereotypes. And tropes. First off we have the 'white man saves everybody whilst asian man and black man stand around uselessly' trope.

Then there's the 'white man learns asian skillset and does it better than anyone else, including other asians' trope. Oh, and don't forget the 'teacher reluctant to take on new student because the last one turned bad' trope - Disney already did that one in King Fu Panda.

in short, this movie, whilst not the train wreck that was Captain America: Civil War, is not that much better and Marvel needs to step up their game if I'm ever paying for a ticket to see one of their movies in the cinema again.