I pretty much swore off the MCU after Far From Home. That movie was the right cross in the 1-2 combo that broke my love of the overly bloated juggernaut franchise. I just… the corporate checklist became too much. I’ve dealt with it too much. I’m done with it.
But Raimi, doing a sequel to my second favorite Phase 3 movie?
Civil War beat Dr. Strange.
Yes, it is my second favorite of Phase 3, although Ragnorak is its own good time.
I mean, I couldn’t say no.
I should have. God if only. But I didn’t.
Let’s get the stuff I liked done. Because it is here. I just… what could have been!
I adore the central message of the movie: happiness is fleeting, relationships win no matter what. I really like how they kept asking how relevant happiness is to a good life, if life can be worth it given that you’re not getting what you want. That’s a message I’m surprised got through a corporate machine designed to make you buy toys. Anytime anyone makes that point in a corporate commercial I’m gonna point it out.
I liked most of Wanda’s arc. I adored WandaVision, and while I was surprised that corporate allowed Wanda to be the antagonist I really appreciated it. Wanda being shown as a grief-stricken addict to power was incredibly well-done… until the end. We’ll get there, but I really want to show I approached this movie on its own terms as I could. And man Elizabeth Olson really really sold it, to a degree I should have come to expect from her, but I always kick myself when I don’t. Elizabeth Olson is a woman of craft. I’m glad she’s getting work and this movie was the one to sell me on being an actual fan of Elizabeth Olson.
Yes, even over WandaVision.
So.
Cumberbatch really does a great job with what he’s given. He’s given a bit of screen time playing multiple versions of Strange and does a good job in making them similar, but different in ways that feel organic. There’s a lot of untold stories behind those eyes, sometimes in the same scene. Cumberbatch’s talent for camp is called upon and he did a good job with material that sometimes gets genuinely terrible. But more on that later. Suffice to say that Strange’s arc of grieving the loss of Christine was poignant and I liked how they ended the arc of the movie by showing the acceptance of the protagonist of his entire life situation, pleasant and unpleasant.
What, you thought his third eye opening after truly accepting his fate was an accident?
C’mon folks.
And the cinematography? God, it’s gorgeous! There was some really imaginative stuff here, particularly the music fight, which was one of the most creative sequences I’ve ever seen in a movie, nevermind a summer blockbuster. I’d not recommend seeing it in the context of the movie itself, just watch if on YouTube… here. Just watch. You deserve to see something this cool.
This movie also stands out as being the goriest and creepiest Marvel movie. Raimi got to play, straight up, and it was great to someone actually masterful with a camera directing a Marvel movie. There’s some seriously creative camera and editing work here. I mean it!
So the stuff I like? I love.
Unfortunately corporate got involved: garbage world building, dialogue, and selling false promises. The stuff that’s bad in this movie? Holy crap. I mean Feige, I get you have your agenda but damn.
I hate the “not technology” magic. The magical not-artillery, the not-Star Wars energy shields, the incredible not-gadgets… this is the sorta magical shit I hate in my inmost depths. I hated it in Thor: The Dark World and I hate it more here. So many creative things going on in this movie… and they resort to canons and shield generators??? I’m sorry, I know it sounds petty… but I don’t care. I hate it.
Wanda’s turn around at the end was pure, nonsensical bullshit. The entire movie she’s clearly addicted to power and she sees reason at any point? That’s outright stupid. I don’t see Raimi in that, although I could be wrong. Humans don’t change on a dime, not like that. Gollum trips, he doesn’t change his mind and throw the Ring in!
Yes, I really do think she’d not make it because of the anguish of the children.
I know, people suck. I’ve watched mothers do worse. Get over it folks.
Speaking of people sucking… the Illuminati was clearly meant to be fan service. It was awful. Reed Richards was dumber than a bag of rocks and got everyone killed. I’ve never disliked a group of Marvel heroes so fast in my life and I read Civil War when it came out. This wasn’t storytelling, it was grade-A Marvel schlock, the type of nonsense I’d expect from the summer crossover comics… not a big budget movie that could actually afford to pay good writers.
Y’know, NOT modern Marvel writers???
Speaking of which, what on God’s green earth was up with the dialogue? I know one writer is credited, but that is a damned lie. There’s some dialogue in here so out of place, so cringe, so stupid that it could not have been the writer. I refuse to believe it. Even the sentence structure changes, and so drastically that the one writer credit really needed to be two, with the second being: “The idiots who thought “We have her back” was a good scene.” It’s truly an embarrassment, coming at points in time where the emotional weight of the movie was genuinely being sold… until the stupid joke interrupted like a turd being passed off as a meatball in gourmet spaghetti. What a waste.
Multiverse had real potential. There’s aspects of the film that are so good, so genuine, so artful, that it makes the Marvel corporate bullshit become a genuine offense to movies. Marvel had a virtuoso on their hands and just couldn’t trust the audience enough.
I’m shocked at how bad a product it made this movie.
What a shame!!!
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