By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Scott Derrickson
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg, Benjamin Bratt, Mads Mikkelsen and Tilda Swinton.
Rating: Excellent.
Scott Derrickson, director of “Deliver us from evil” and “Sinister” brings an adaptation from Marvel Comics: “Doctor Strange” and so far this is one of the best and original superhero movies that I’ve seen recently.
The movie tells the story of Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) a succesful and arrogant New York neurosurgeon who suffers a car crash accident that will cause severe damage to his hands.
A desperate Strange tries to find all the solutions and decides to embark a journey to Kathmandu, Nepal where he will seek the help ofKarl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejofor), a Master of the Mystic Arts and the Sorcecer “Ancient One” (Tilda Swinton).
Both Mordo and Ancient One prepare Strange and make him see that he has a special gift and will help them fight against the evil sorcerer Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) and his zealots and preventing that they take total control of the planet.
“Doctor Strange” besides being a movie that is pure entertainment, it manages a very interesting concept that has never been seen before in a movie based on Marvel Comics characters.
The direction by Scott Derrickson, who happens to be one of the co-writers with Jon Spaihts and C. Robert Cargill was very detailed and made also a movie thatvisually astonishing.
Performances are rarely mentioned in this kind of films but here theall the cast was really good and you feel huge simpathy towards Doctor Strange even though at the beginning of the film he is very arrogant but at the same has his charm and wit, which are elements that we immediately feel a connection with.
Another great performance was from danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, who again played a very good villain with Kaecilius and he is terryfing like his character of “Le Chiffre” in the James Bond movie “Casino Royale” of 2006.
The script is very well written and the fact that manages space time continuum reminded me a little bit to Christopher Nolan’s Inception but at the same time both movies have a different approach.
I really liked Benedict Cumberbatch portraying a superhero which is not often for him to play this kind of roles but he takes his portrayal of Doctor Strange to another level.
The visual effects like most of the movies of this genre are outstanding and I am impressed with the quality of movies that Marvel Comics offerend in the last years.
Not only they know how to take care of the visuals in every single one of their movies, but they do care about story and that’s one of the reasons why movies from Marvel have been very succesful and they have surpassed the DC Comic franchise who has been goind downhill recently with the last projects.
The action sequences from Doctor Strange are really well shot and the climax is one of the most original I`ve seen in a comic book adaptation.
With that being said “Doctor Strange” is one of the biggest surprises of this year and I give it a huge recommendation.