Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Review

After months of anticipation and speculation, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness releases in theaters this weekend. Multiverse of Madness follows Stephen Strange as he defends his reality from monsters and enemies from other realities with the combined efforts of Wanda Maximoff, Wong, and America Chavez.

This film was a fun new adventure into the multiverse of the MCU. It was cool to see a story of Doctor Strange in his prime as a full-level sorcerer. Of course, it was a lot of fun to journey into the multiverse and explore all of the opportunities that come from that. As people speculated, there were a few moments of fun cameos that come with being able to explore the multiverse. I thought the cameos were handled very well, not making the movie be a cameo palooza and sacrificing quality for fan service, but just enough that it feels natural and gives fans what they want. All of the characters are great in this film, Wanda and America Chavez are very much leads in the story just like Doctor Strange which gives them a lot of good character development. I really liked the direction they took Wanda's character in the story, it was not what I was expecting but felt like a natural place from where we left her after WandaVision. I also felt that they balanced all of the characters really well. At first, I was concerned that having 3 main characters would be too much going on but the movie managed to give each character their moment and give an adequate amount of time to develop. The story itself was also very straightforward and quick. The conflict is established right away and our characters can journey into the multiverse fairly quickly which works best for the story. Finally, the main thing that makes this movie stand out is director Sam Raimi bringing his horror style. This is the first "horror" movie in the MCU and I think this movie really pulled it off. There isn't so much horror that it is too scary for most people but just has enough gore and body horror that gives the movie that horror flare and allows the MCU to dip a toe in the horror genre. It still feels like a typical MCU film with just a sprinkle of horror to make the movie be something different.

Before I get into the bad, there are a couple of important disclaimers. First, it is definitely more violent and has some frightening images so it may not be for everyone. However, to put it in some perspective, my wife doesn't like horror at all and I think she would be fine with this movie. Second, don' go in expecting a bunch of characters and cameos to happen. There is a little bit of that in there but not near as much as a lot of people have been speculating. So it is important to get your expectations in check so you don't leave disappointed.

Unfortunately, there was one thing that kept this from being a top-tier MCU film. The big issue is the run time. When I first heard that the runtime was just over 2 hours, I was concerned that it would be too short to dive enough into the multiverse which after watching it I felt was the case. The runtime didn't give the movie enough time to really dive deep into the multiverse. I think having it be about 15-20 minutes longer would've given more opportunity to have some more multiverse fun and maybe sprinkle in a few more cameos. The runtime didn't impact the plot itself but just didn't let the concept of the multiverse live to its full potential. With the name Multiverse of Madness, I was expecting more madness and didn't quite get that. A more accurate title would've been Doctor Strange and Some Multiverse Madness.

Overall, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness manages to pull off a good story with good character moments while dipping its toe into the horror genre. While there was some multiverse fun to be had, I felt that the runtime didn't allow it to reach the full levels of Multiverse Madness as there could've been.

Grade: B+ Score: 8/10 Recommendation: Go see it