What did you think? What did you like and what did you question? What would you have done differently and what exceeded your expectations? Did Benedict Cumberbatch make Strange real? How about Mordo? Wong? Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One? And Dormammu?
Did you feel that the magic was adequately depicted? Was the Eye of Agamotto how you envisioned it? How about the Cloak of Levitation? The Sanctum Santorum? Or the Dark Domain? Was Ditko honored or forgotten?
I thoroughly enjoyed the film and saw it in the 3-D IMAX format. The visuals were stunning. I liked that the story stayed relatively faithful to the comic book. I respected that they showed a significant amount of Strange prior to the accident and during his training. Despite being an origin story, I did not feel it was entirely predictable. I thought it was risky to make Stephen Strange so selfish and egotistical, but I think that helped show his evolutionary path. His first mind trip was fantastic. As far as weaknesses go, I thought Dormammu was insufficient and would have preferred the entity be kept mysterious and hidden for future episodes. And I definitely would have liked him to be portrayed more consistently with the comics. While I liked the concept of the resolution with a time loop, I thought the explanation and execution was a bit rushed. I also am on the fence about the Cloak's characterization - initially I really enjoyed the scenes but in retrospect I question if giving the cloak an almost Disney-like personality will work in the long run. I have to say I really liked the set design, particularly for the Sanctum Sanctorum. I am very torn on Tilda Swinton's portrayal of the Ancient One; while she is a fine actress, there were times when I was distracted and pulled out of the film by her portrayal and by the choice to cast her.
So now it is your turn - break down the plot and rate the movie in comparison to other Marvel offerings. How does it stand in terms of cinema origins? On a scale of Seven Rings of Raggadorr - how would you grade the movie?
The floor is yours! Redartz and I will join in with our own comments and musings.
