A Multiverse Of Madness: A Divisive Movie That Is Either Magical, Scary, Or Just Plain Strange

The latest from Marvel and the Cinematic Universe is here!  And while that could also be applied to Moon Knight on Disney Plus.  I am actually referencing the latest MCU movie to come out, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.  The latest of these movies to hopefully provide more clear concrete direction for the MCU, spoiler alert, it does not.  But what it does do is blend the horror and super hero genres fairly well, even though I would have obviously been cool with the even darker R-Rated version.  And while this is a surprisingly divisive movie, I think it get's the job done.  The storytelling is good, the cameos are amazing, even if a few mainstays for the Wanda and Strange storylines are left on the cutting room floor a bit.  Yes, that ice cream song is bad bad, worse than the Spider-Man 3 dance or even the Morbius dance.  But outside of that, let's talk more about the pros, and some of the not so pros of this movie?  And of course let me know your take on this Doctor Strange movie on social at either NickNackMovies or NickNack_IC on Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Letterboxd, where you can find my updated entire MCU movie ranking list!

Transcript

Nick Nack Goes to the Movies Pod S3E9

-Intro/Jingle/call to action

-What’s good?!?  Welcome to Nick Nack Goes to The Movies, your one stop shop podcast for all things movie, tv, and pop culture.  Streaming on all podcast platforms and on all socials at either Nick Nack underscore IC or Nick Nack Movies on Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, and yes, Letterboxd.  It is time for another magical moment, and while there was some question to whether the Fantastic Beasts franchise was good, honestly more hate than I think it deserves, that wouldn’t be the cast for the Doctor Strange sequel…Right?

-Well shockingly the latest MCU movie, which is pretty hit-laden, has something pretty divisive.  I don’t think there is a clear reason, but after the warmly enough received solo outing, the Infinity war/endgame duology, and of course his role in one of the stronger MCU films of all-time, the latest Spider-Man, expectations were high.  This second true trek into the multiverse, how could it be bad?

- Sure, that first multiverse movie brought in not just MCU but almost the entirety of Spider-Man live-action cinema history to the big screen to near perfection.  That may be a good or a bad thing in regards to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.  What cameos would be here and how much deep Marvel film lore would we see.  I don’t know if Nicholas Cage and a Ghostrider return rumor was ever discussed, but things were getting pretty crazy for this Sam Rami cinema experience.  

-But I have some things to say for this horror/super hero hybrid flick, so let’s discover together a few things.  Now spoilers aplenty so be warned, the actor list is spoilery enough so be prepared.  If you haven’t watched it yet, do it now and then come on back.

-Actors

-So now that you have for sure watched the movie, let’s talk about the stacked cast.  Sure you knew Benedict Cumberbatch would be back, and of course Benedict Wong and Elizabeth Olsen.  The assumption was there would be some role for both Rachel McAdams and Chiwetel Ejiofor to reprise.  I think I was probably most shocked at how much of Dr. Christine Palmer was in this and how little Baron Mordo we had.  Now neither of these were this universe’s version, that will come up a lot here, we had a bit of the first Palmer version, but no original Mordo is shocking with how the first left off.  Probably one of the biggest head scratchers.

-The Wanda kids are back, but somehow no Paul Bettany vision cameo or anything, interesting, but the in-universe explanation is not too bad.

-The newest add was Sow-Chell Gomez as America Chavez, a character who I can’t say I was familiar with, but the does great in the role and I will be curious to the long term MCU plans with these younger characters.  The biggest question that has been with us since endgame is still here.  Where do we go next?  The assumption is Kang but not a lot has been show outside Loki of that.

-Now before we get to all the exciting cameos from that one scene, yes, the Iluminati stuff, that could and will be a whole chunk, so let’s just get into that as we get to the main meat and potatoes of the episode!

-Main Episode

-This movie jumps us into the action pretty quick with the new character, America Chavez and thankfully off the bat we are sure this is another Doctor Strange, both Benedict and Elizabeth are busy playing alternate versions of themselves, albeit most of Wanda’s are pretty similar.  

-And pretty quickly we are both down a Doctor Strange and also a bit wary of ours.  Sure, every single one is different, and ours could never take a villainous turn, right?  Well if that shocks you, have I got a character arc that should not come as a surprise for Wanda Maximoff, even if her show had a bunch of fun timely theme songs.

-Now like I said, we don’t get to see our, I will use our as the ones we mostly got to know through this universe of the MCU with the built up film history.  But there is a fun nod and setup of Strange not being able to a, get the girl, and questions about if the whole Thanos thing could have been done any other way.  Which is a good build up to questions asked/shown later on in the movie.

-Also, straight up, the Strange suit-up here is like, very cold.  The pocket square to being his cape as he jumps off a balcony looks so cool.  There have been some cool ones over the almost 30 film franchise so far, a ton of Iron Man ones come to mind.  But this has to be one of the best of all-time, no cap, not sus, insert other internet and gamer slang.  Fortnight battle pass and all that!
 -I do like the whole added horror aspects to this movie, they build as they go, but for sure the whole octopus demon in its Lovecraftian design, for start, good, but when its eyeball ends up on the outside of its head, you know this is gonna be a very different marvel movie.  You can see how it pushes the limit of T for Teen, or PG-13 in movie terms, sorry, got a bit video game distracted there.  I mean, this won’t be Game of Thrones or Friday the 13th by the end of it, but it is not as far off as you would think.  Not that there haven’t been some darker things in these, but this is something else.

-Sure, some demon hunting her for whatever reason of multiverse stuff is only so built up and explained.  Now this is where things get interesting.  We could have had a very different start to Wanda and her introduction here than we got.  So, the movie version was still pretty good, Dr. Strange dropping shade on the other Avengers and Wanda accidentally revealing herself as the root cause of these demons hunting America.  It is a good build and shock reveal to show how far Wanda has fallen in her justifiable grief, is losers are people who loose things, she has unfortunately become the biggest loser with little to fall back on.  

-Now the other version could have had this Mordo go after her, which tracks for his post-credit arc of wanting to stop all magic users.  Now he would be wrecked pretty quickly and fall to her clearly demonstrated evil turn and power level.  She would bring his severed head to Kamar-Taj and it would kind of be like that scene right before the siege of Minas Tirith with releasing the prisoners, but a bit more personal.  Not sure which was better, the evil dark turn quick or the more subtle surprise shock and awe, what am I hearing angle.  But just wanted to let you know of both out there.

-We love a good sympathetic tragic villain, and there is no one more fitting of the bill than Wanda, they try to make you not root for her, but I am sure there will be people that will go through this whole film and still be on her team and side.

-The Kamar-Taj raid scene is however, still very good.  The absolute carnage the Scarlett Witch pulls on them, the magical war parts, and all of the crazy defenses that are fully in part to Dr. Strange accidentally telling the person hunting America.  What a good moment, also her coming through mirrors here to get to America and all of the weird like twisty body stuff, it is true beautiful horror that I am all about!  That and seeing the corruption of the evil book on her fingers as she goes, nice attention to detail.

-This of course leads to the big multiverse trip with our Strange and America to a new and exciting Marvel world.  Wong gets kind of screwed left with Wanda, and you really had a ton of moments where you thought they would kill him off.  They did it to Michael Rooker’s Yondu in Guardians 2, so why not have it happen here to another beloved character.  I guess they could never really with his seeming place in the new Avengers thanks to Shang-Shee.  But with the eventual thought of wanting Dr. Strange to be a sorcerer supreme again, they could totally have done it and I would have been sad but not shocked.

-So, this new universe of course has a Bruce Campbell cameo, not surprising for spider man Tobey fans, or evil dead people.  I still haven’t done the movies or shows, but most except one are on streaming services like Tubi, HBO, and Netflix.  Everything but Evil Dead 2, apparently you have to solo pay for that one.  Some Marvel exclusive fans may not be all about it but I thought they were fun nods, both the brief part here and the less Marvel of the post-credit scenes.

-I gotta say, the dream walk stuff was a trip and pretty fun.  More horror elements of hunting herself to see her boys and be reunited.  While I would have loved to see a Paul Bettany, either human or robot version in these, I guess what we got was still good enough.  Just a missed opportunity.

-The Wong/Wanda storyline is only so exciting at times, but seeing the whole evil temple with her likeness and the demons guarding it bending to her will, the whole Scarlett Witch scene from Wandavision with Agatha Harnkess really takes a different tone here, and it is in the best possible way.

-Pretty quickly after meeting an alternate Mordo trying to find a alternate strange we get the big reveal, the big thing we were waiting for and trying to avoid before seeing it ourselves.  The Illuminati roster, and while there were ideas for who was in or out, I think it is safe to say, I was not disappointed.  I would love to hear your thoughts on who we eventually got, because the only one we knew ahead of time was some form of Professor X played by the legend who first brought him to live-action, Patrick Stewart!

-So this roster had to me the most exciting with so much speculation, Ryan Reynolds Deadpool, one of the Spider-Men (most likely Tobey Maguire), A Tom Cruise Iron Man, a Magneto, heck even a Ghost Rider was rumored for this team or just the movie as a whole.  So was kept on the roster?

-Besides the Alternate Mordo and some variant of Professor X, we eventually saw the tease of a Jet Pack Captain Carter played by Haley Atwell, which we love to see, and the tease of some Captain Marvel, played this time by Lashana Lynch.  A fun switch-up of putting Maria Rambeau from Captain Marvel instead of Monica Rambeau from WandaVision played by Teah-On-Ah Paris.  It would have been interesting to see her in the role with her connection to Wanda, or at least a recognizing moment for Wanda when she goes against them.  Now the payoff from her in WandaVision may not come to pass and she will just be in the The Marvels movie.

-The last two were probably the biggest surprises, first was one probably people probably weren’t asking for, but I was super happy for it.  Inhumans was one of those projects that just never got sorted out, from a movie take place around Infinity War for a group similar to the X-Men to a weird hybrid TV show on ABC, the results were unfortunately, not very good.  Even with Game of Thrones baddie legend E-Wahn Ray-On in it.  It stared Anson Mount as the Inhumans king, Black Bolt.  This actor was amazing in the AMC western Hell on Wheels, a genre we don’t see often on TV or in general.  Common was in it too!  But it was a nice redemption moment, however brief, to see him in comic accurate gear and just on the big budget movie screen.  

-Now the big one of course, the one that took the internet by storm with his inclusion.  The rumors of John Krasinski in the MCU have been long-standing, especially for the role of Mr. Fantastic.  And the dream pairing of him and his actual wife as the couple in the fantastic 4 as invisible woman.  While all this was wanted, actually seeing Krasinsik as Dr. Reed Richards, was an amazing moment in theaters and I was all about it.

-So, now the big scene, they all talk to strange and recount their take on defeating Thanos and having to kill their Strange.  All this making them a bit arrogant not losing to him, and thinking they can take on Wanda.  Lol how dark this scene that follows was amazing to behold.

-All from the line of asking Mr. Fantastic if he has a wife so his kids will have someone to raise them to pulling a The Matrix get rid of a mouth moment so Black Bolt freaks out and kills himself blowing his own brains off to immediately unraveling Mr. Fantastic and popping his head killing 2 of the 5 members was pretty wild and so quickly over.

-They did have to make the fight go on a bit longer, thankfully not all just shock factor.  But cutting Captain Carter in half with her own shield, and even with Captain Marvel putting up a fight, crushing her with her a statue.  This all sounds dark, but they do what they can to keep I not rated-R.  She killed a lot of Ultron bots and had their oil on her instead of just blood.  They made Wanda super dark here.  And this movie got a bit weird to thankfully.  Now Men weird, that movie was the weirdest thing I have ever seen in my life with wayyy too much body horror birth giving for my liking.  But having Professor X get into her mind to try and save things before getting his neck snapped was once again, just some real good horror and drama that had you on the edge of your seat.  They were gone quickly, but the story telling idea of them worked, I just hope we see our universe of these characters sometime in the near future, especially Krasinski.  Sadly, no Magneto here with him being Wanda’s father, hopefully one day soon the X-Men bridge will happen with the MCU and the Fox X-Men history, this was a good start at least.

-Wanda hunting the remaining people, Strange, this universe’s Christine Palmer, and America, always looks and keeps the tense nature up.  She comes through the water, looks fully demonic at times, and there are a few good jump scares mixed in.  This universe’s Mordo survives, and the rumors of him bringing his team back alive or who knows what with multiple of them with unsolved arcs left, much to sort out.  

-So Strange and Christine end up in a dark world where universe incursion occurred.  This is an interesting setup that would make Sony potentially have to give Keaton back or the rules state that the Sony universe would implode, so yes, do this.  Send Vulture back to the MCU.  Super curious what Venom 3 will be all about now.

-There were so many questions on if What If was required MCU viewing, but the Captain Carter and dark Dr. Strange in that animated show were not the ones here, so it can more or less be its own thing, which I am in-favor of.

-The fight between the stranges and using music as a wepon was super cool.

-All of this fighting was in general super cool to see with fun VFX special effects.  

-We also got zombie doctor strange as he did some dream-walking of his own, being a hypocrite and doing the same thing Wanda did, which is a fun question the movie asks but never really answers why he can do reckless things and she can’t.  But zombie strange with a bunch of demon hands on his cape, super cool.  Now the fight once again looks cool and America gets to discover her powers and control them a bit to help take out Wanda.

-Now before that happens, we get a horrendous ice cream song from a variant of her kids, let me tell you, this is horrible.  Like really bad.  Not sure what this was, but this is one part I will cringe re-watching in this movie, way more than the hilarious dance and emo Parker stuff of Spider-Man 3, by the same director.

-And thankfully in the end Wong, the true MVP of Phase 4 as of now, Strange, and America all make it out.  Now Wanda, not so lucky, sacrificing herself, a bit unnecessarily, to end the Darkhold, for every universe.  I am sad to see her apparent exit from the MCU, but you never know when she will be back.  

-After this America becomes a wizard in training, would have been fun to see Ned here too.  Dr. Strange gets a third eye, and they introduce another character in the MCU that most casual fans have never heard of in Clea, who is maybe a romantic lead and a sometime bad sometimes good wizard played by Charlize Theron.  No it is not Angelina Jolie’s character from Eternals, a few people were wondering that.  So a good movie, a really fun movie that was also a bit dark at times.  But no Vision, of any kind in multiverse travel or white Vision, no storyline progression from the original Mordo, which feels like a true letdown for the two movie series so-far, and of course the ice cream son.  But let’s get you that letterboxd rating and my MCU list rankings updated.

-Letterboxd rating

- 4 Stars

-Currently ranked 11th on my complete MCU list on Letterboxd, real close to the top 10 right under the original Iron Man and right above Spider-Man, far from home.  I actually went and tweaked this list a bit, biggest change is the original Thor jumping up a few spaces for whatever reason.  Make sure to check out the full list and all my lists on letterboxd at Nick Nack underscore IC.

-wrap

-So that is is, no post-credit here lol.  But I really did enjoy the blend of horror and super hero movie here.  I like my horror movies with a bit of cheddar, I am a Wisconsinite after all.  So this one did it for me.  I love the darker tone and I really did enjoy this, cameos and more.  I am still questioning where the overall MCU will go next, but we have time to sort that out.  No I don’t think Thor Love and Thunder will answer that either, but I am excited for that of course.  But what did you think?  Let me know on social at Nick Nack underscore IC or Nick Nack Movies.  I can’t wait to hear from you and as always, cheers, and until next time cinephiles.