Film Land - Dr. Strange

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Another season, another Marvel movie- like the cleaning of a house, it ever ends.  That’s not a criticism of Marvel’s machinery of success or even their latest outing, just a simple statement of fact.  The Marvel Studios formula and structure are such an ingrained success at this point it seems like they’ll persist through the national zeitgeist and media frontier that initially spawned it to become a pop cultural institution of eternity.  This makes reviewing their films a bit of a tricky business. 

The fact that a Marvel movie is good is, at this point, something of a given.  Every Marvel movie out there is going to be at least enjoyable and will probably be the flavor of the month for about a week or two, but the bigger question now is whether or not they’ll actually persist.  Iron Man and Captain America have graduated beyond franchises to cultural touchstones while Thor and Hawkeye still struggle for relevance.  So how does Dr. Strange stack up against its Marvel brethren?  It’s alright.    

Dr. Strange Trailer & Set Photos

Edited by Robert Beach

My favorite thing about Marvel studios is even amid all the formula-driven plots and studio-mandated storytelling, there’s still a creative spark and vibrance for the material at the heart of these movies. Every time I’m feeling a little burnt out on the Marvel product something new pops up to drag me back in. When Thor: The Dark World and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. exhausted me, Captain America: Winter Soldier brought me back to life. I liked Age of Ultron, but it was still a frustrating mess. Then Ant-Man and Jessica Jones washed all that away. 

A lot of that has to do with tone and style. Marvel’s simply at their best when they aren’t actively trying to make blockbuster hits, but are more trying to experiment with genre and visuals. And now we have Dr. Strange, Marvel’s latest “experimental risk” in a long line of experiments that proved to be not that risky. But is there a better film to be found in this first trailer, poster, and set photos or are we on track to another well-intended disappointment in the vein of Incredible Hulk. 

1st Dr. Strange Images

So, I guess it’s about time to talk about Dr. Strange.  Honestly I’ve been kind of mixed on this whole project since the beginning, and I say that as one of the few genuine Dr. Strange fans.  I know a lot of folks are getting into the sorcerer supreme now thanks to the publicity of the film production but I’ve actually been a big fan of his since before the MCU got started and even I was pretty skeptical about a Dr. Strange movie.  The main reason for this is just that not every character or comic can work across several mediums. 

There are some comics that just only work as comics, the same way there are TV shows or books that could only work and be as resonant as they are in one particular medium.  It also didn’t help that I’m not really a Benedict Cumberbatch fan.  Now we’ve got our first look at him in costume along with some interesting concept art sketches and…while, I’m still not convinced this is going to work it certainly looks more interesting than it did before.