REVIEW! - 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'

Doctor Strange is back in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" and I promise that I'll try to stay as spoiler free as I can. In fact, I'll tell you exactly what I can without spoiling any of the story beyond the opening. In another Universe, a young girl named America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) is running from something chasing her due to her ability to jump to multiple universes and she eventually ends up in the MCU where Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) must protect her from whatever it is that's chasing her.

Oh, and Elizabeth Olsen returns as Wanda Maximoff in the movie, but you knew that from the trailers. Doctor Strange comes to her to help with the America Chavez situation.

There, that's all I'll say about the plot of the movie. The story is being blasted by some critics for having too much and for its pacing issues. However, I was surprised to find that I had none of these problems while watching the movie. It was able to follow what was going on and I will say that while the pacing is fast, I didn't really have an issue with it.

I was never sitting in the theater thinking, "No, wait! Slow down! I need more!" The movie's brisk pace actually helps the weirdness that you'll find within the movie. Keep in mind that this is director Sam Raimi and Raimi's gonna Raimi! The movie has many of his signature moves and it all fits so well with Doctor Strange and I kind of hope that this isn't the last film that he'll direct in this series.

Quick shots, unique POV cameras, and a great Danny Elfman score tell you that Raimi is firmly behind the wheel of this movie. The movie's visuals ranging across the Multiverse are spectacular to see. You can tell that Raimi is having a lot of fun playing in the MCU sandbox and it was good having Raimi helm a superhero film once again.

The performances are also fantastic. Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, and Olsen all give great performances as Doctor Strange, Wong, and Wanda. Olsen, in particular, gives a rather strong performance as she is still dealing with things that began in "WandaVision". Oh, yeah! Watch "WandaVision" before this movie as some of its threads bleed into this movie.

Gomez is also good as Chavez, though I will admit that she is used mostly as a plot device more than anything else. The good news is that you can tell that Marvel Studios probably has bigger plans for her character in future films, so the fact that we don't get to know much more about her here doesn't feel like that great a loss.

Cumberbatch finally gets to give Strange more range than he's been able to get up to this point. Remember, in the original film it was about how he became a sorcerer and in both "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame", he was part of a greater ensemble. One aspect I can say about this movie that doesn't give anything away is that he is also dealing with the choices he made during the Infinity Saga and it was fun to see him also play alternate versions of himself, something else that we already knew was going to happen from the trailers.

Now, if I sit here and think about it, I'm pretty sure I could think of something that doesn't quite work right. However, I feel like I would just be nitpicking, so let me think... the dialogue can be a bit spotty at times. There! There's something negative to say about the movie.

Also, like I said before, the movie does move at a fast pace. This has caused some to think that there is the aforementioned pacing issue, so I guess if you don't like fast films, then that would be another critical note. Yet again, though, the pacing didn't bother me in the least.

I really don't want to say anything more than I already have, so I'm going to go ahead and stop it here. The story was great, the performances were great, the action was great, and the visuals were spectacular. Raimi returned with a vengeance to the superhero genre with this movie and I'm glad that he did as he gave us one of the more unique films to be released in the MCU!

5/5 STARS