by Ashley Miller

“You’re a man looking at the world through a keyhole.”

Imagine infinite universes and realities, some are malevolent others are benign, and you live your entire life unaware of these other universes, thinking you know everything. Let’s say you’re a neurosurgeon, and one day you look down at your tablet while driving, lose control of your car, fly off a cliff, smash your hands and try everything you can to regain control of them, so you can continue your life’s work. Even if it means taking your remaining money and flying to Kathmandu to speak with the Ancient One after modern medicine fails you. Well then you might be Dr. Stephen Strange.

I had high expectations for Marvel’s “Doctor Strange,” and they were met within the first half hour. But, before entering the theater I had one problem with the movie, which I am going to touch on quickly. To “smash stereotypes” Marvel whitewashed the Ancient One, who is one of the major characters as she is the woman who trains Doctor Strange in the art of magic. In an attempt to right their wrong, they wrote in the character named Wong, who is a giant stereotype for Asian people in the comics as Dr. Strange’s tea-serving sidekick. But, in the movie they changed his character around, so he’d be less controversial and have a more important and powerful role. Wong was actually a pretty good character and will be important in the following movie, so kind of well-done Marvel.

The acting and visuals of this movie were some of the best I’ve ever seen. Especially when it comes to visuals, it was what one would say “trippy,” and you could see how much work went into making this movie have as many magical aspects as humanly possible. During the sequence where the Ancient One blasts Doctor Strange through at least thirty different dimensions, it felt like you were being thrown through the fabric of reality with him.

Villains and the development of the conflict is where the movie fell short as it was more of an introductory story for the character. The villains had no dimension (ha) and never really explained their motive. Then it was one fight scene within one of the institutes and then all of a sudden its the final battle and you’re still thinking, “So why did they do that? How are they going to live in a world where time doesn’t exist? Wouldn’t that be boring?” I will say the defeat of the villain was pretty awesome, but the buildup was not so great.

Would I recommend this movie? Yes, I think some of the things mentioned in this movie about the magicians helping the mystical side of the world while the Avengers take on the physical aspects will be a big thing in the upcoming “Infinity War.” In fact, the movie mentions one of the Infinity Stones, so it’s obvious that this movie is significant to the continuity of the Marvel franchise. I really hope that Marvel goes deeper into the power of these magicians when they join forces with the Avengers against Thanos in “Infinity War.”