Doctor Strange

Its excellent Netflix output has so far been Marvel’s main avenue for expanding its horizons (mostly into darker, grown-up territory). The company’s film division has lately been mixing up its successful formula with new genres, however, and Doctor Strange is arguably the cinematic universe’s most ambitious feature yet.

Trippy stuff like alternate dimensions and the warping of time and reality are the film’s main attraction. Such subjects seem to always invite a self-serious, arguably pretentious approach, the picture and its makers practically preaching to the audience how smart and great they are. Doctor Strange needs no such sermonizing, tackling the material with a confidence so assured it's able to have a smarmy, joke-cracking attitude about the whole thing and not miss a beat. It would almost seem arrogant if the movie weren’t so much fun.

The film gives us a hero to match in Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), a master neurosurgeon with an ego that rivals Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark. After a deadly car crash damages the nerves in his hands, he travels to Nepal to seek treatment at the mysterious site of Kamar-Taj. Upon his arrival, he finds a cabal of sorcerers led by the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) who conjure interdimensional energy to defend the world. Strange trains with his hosts and develops new powers and abilities, conveniently just when renegade sorcerers led by Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) seek to summon the evil force Dormammu from the Dark Dimension.

Yes, strange, indeed. Novice viewers or casual Marvel fans might not comprehend every bit of what’s going on, though the film navigates through the narrative with reasonable clarity. And frankly, the sights we see on that journey are much more engaging than understanding it completely, anyway. The combat through kaleidoscopic mazes of bending space and time are some of the coolest, most imaginative use of visual effects in some time. It’s also very funny, at least as quip-filled as Guardians of the Galaxy. And aside from the unfortunate whitewashing of Swinton’s character (sorry, but simply referring to her as “Celtic” does not rectify things), the movie boasts one of the bests casts of any single Marvel picture (as opposed to team-ups like The Avengers).

Above all, it’s different enough from other superhero fare that it feels fresh and enjoyable. It may ultimately be a lighter film than its trippy elements would suggest, less heavy than the character drama some of the Avengers have gone through recently. But in a genre that produces around a half-dozen films a year now, something that feels new and exciting (on top of being a blast visually and otherwise) is a rare gem.