Review of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) by Nmuldoon — 07 May 2022

God, rarely have I found myself so bored at the theater.

For a film franchise that has sometimes been criticized for feeling more like television, never has a Marvel film felt it to this degree before. The whole thing feels like a middling episode of a Sci-Fi Channel Original Series with just exposition piled upon exposition piled on exposition. There is little here resembling any kind of emotional storytelling or humanity, just borderline incomprehensible plot threads to set up other Marvel movies. If you like soy banter instead of anything resembling character development then this is the movie for you.

If you were hoping that Sam Raimi, arguably the best filmmaker to ever work in this franchise, could bring his identity to the Marvel machine, I regret to inform you that the scoreboard reads “Disney 1, Raimi 0”. Sure, there’s some of Raimi’s dutch angles and signature dolly zooms here to remind you he’s still involved but that’s about where it ends. (Ok, actually there is one very funny Bruce Campbell cameo, the only genuine laugh in the film).

Even the much teased Marvel cameos, that now seem like the new direction for this franchise, completely fall flat as it serves little purpose beyond waving a bright shiny new toy in front of your face.