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MOVIE REVIEW
'Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness' Suffers From Major Studio Interference
By Sal LoCicero | May 6, 2022
At this point, Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios have decided that no story, predictable humor, uninteresting characters, and gratuitous cameos are more than enough to succeed, and given how spoiled audiences are nowadays, they’re (unfortunately) correct. ‘Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness’ is literally what happens when everything everywhere all at once happens without reasoning.
Martin Scorsese said that Marvel movies were like “theme parks, not cinema”, and it’s fine that Marvel Studios has kept things running the same no matter who criticizes them, but ‘Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness’ feels the most like a “theme park” ride. It barely comes across as a movie, and it makes you question where the future is headed for the MCU. Sam Rami’s (originally confirmed) two and a half hour long feature is butchered by two hours and six minutes of forced, uneventful madness. From the opening scene alone, you get a sense that you are in for a messy, big budget blockbuster.
Within every scene, there is always something that is missing. Bad structure is so pervasive that you lose every bit of interest in all the random occurrences that go on. America Chavez doesn’t receive a solid introduction (since she is a brand new character in the MCU). It’s obvious how much footage was removed from the final cut.
There are a few fan favorite cameos, and while their presence is exciting, the idea to bring some superheroes together seemed a lot like a last minute idea during production. Marvel Studios found a way to take control of Rami’s movie, as if they couldn’t trust the filmmaker to create something good. ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘Spider-Man 2’ were all from Sam Rami, once Sony took control of the process for ‘Spider-Man 3’, that is when everything went south. Marvel Studios is not so new when it comes to taking control over everything, 2015’s ‘Ant-Man’ went through a lot of problems before its release. Originally, Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) was set to write and direct, until creative differences between Wright and the studios interfered in their collaboration, making Edgar Wright leave ‘Ant-Man’ (however he was still credited for writing the movie).
Phase Four has already divided fans, once ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ concluded Phase Three, everything felt different. ‘Black Widow’ released ten years too late, and ‘Eternals’ failed (tremendously) where ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ (2014) succeeded. Thankfully, ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ teased us with possibilities for greater entries from this phase.
Being the next movie to release after the fan favorite phenomenon (‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’), while having been titled ‘In The Multiverse Of Madness’, there are a lot of fan expectations that weigh on another movie, and it can be a big shoe to fill - that is if another director had been attached to this movie. As you can already tell, Sam Rami is not to blame for the way this came out, if anything, it would have been really great to have seen more of Rami’s signature directing style unleash on the screen.
Grade: F
What are your thoughts?
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