Review | Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness movie review: Benedict Cumberbatch returns for Sam Raimi’s head-spinning adventure sequel
- In his second solo outing, Doctor Strange teams up with a young girl pursued by a demonic force who covets her ability to bounce across the multiverse
- Full of delightful cameos and one sequence that’s a true Marvel highlight, the movie will also have fans of Sam Raimi’s early low-budget works cheering
4/5 stars
But the good news is, Sam Raimi is at the helm. The director who brought us the original Spider-Man trilogy, with Tobey Maguire, undertakes his first official MCU movie – and thankfully makes it his own by the end.
Strange saves her from the creature, learning that a demonic force covets her unique abilities to bounce across the multiverse. “We could use an Avenger,” he says, corralling the help of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), though things don’t quite pan out the way he hopes.
As friends become foes, Raimi’s film is like a twisted trip into an Escher painting – particularly when Strange and America are sucked through the multiverse in a brilliant sequence that is a true highlight in the Marvel canon, with the pair spinning through a dizzying array of worlds, even as cartoon and “paint” figures.
While there are some delightful cameos to come – it’s definitely worth staying off the internet to avoid spoilers – the film does enter a sticky patch around the 90-minute mark, as multiverse madness sets in.
“It’s not my first weird trip,” Strange says. No, but it’s a highly enjoyable one.