Review of Dr. Strange (1978) by Mark B — 13 Jan 2011

As a comic book, Dr. Strange was amazing to me as a kid. The whole good versus evil thing, if not on earth, then in another dimension where sorcery and magic ruled. As a television movie and possible pilot for a TV series, not so much.

If you never saw this movie, letalone ever heard of it, I am not surprised. This one is probably lost in the vaults of failures, or possibly even in the collection of die hard comic book fans. While television was producing their versions of comic books hero series with Spiderman, Wonder Woman and The Hulk, much like the movie studios are doing today, some of their projects were less appealing and not well accepted. Still, it's interesting to see something that could've been but never was.

"Dr. Strange" is a sorcerer's apprentice type movie where a young unknown is meant to take over from an old master. And although a good idea at the time, this movie comes across as a drawn out and very tired. "Charmed" or "Twilight Zone" episode. It never really takes off nor builds to the point of excitement or suspense. I will give it points for building up to a TV series that probably would have been pretty fun to watch back in the day. But dragging out the story in order to have a bizarre final battle at the end was not the gimmick that was needed. So they ended up with a forgotten TV movie instead of a cult status series.

Don't be too surprised if you see a Dr. Strange movie in the works today for the big screen. It would actually work great in this day and age. And if the movie studios are planning a "Defenders" movie, this is one character that they can't leave behind. I wouldn't be too suprised considering that "The Avengers" is in production.

As for this piece of classic TV-film, it's not very classic. On the contrary, it's very forgettable.