The beautiful bonkers and the (yes, really) relevance of Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Having said that, it is very much a Marvel movie, of course. It continues Wanda Maximoff's journey from "WandaVision", picks up where "Spider-Man: No Way Home" left off, and of course, gives us a Steven Strange who has been integral in saving the world but has grown a good bit since we first met him years ago. Even so, Raimi and Michael Waldron (co-writer and creator of the "Loki" series) show us a guy who still has a bit of figuring out to do.
In some ways, the movie is as much about Wanda, though, and I've read some not-unjustified criticism that this might be a barrier to fully understanding the scope and stakes of the film at hand; that if you haven't seen "WandaVision" there might be a fair amount of emotional beats that aren't going to land and this costs the movie in moments lost to exposition. I don't disagree with this. However, I also think that this is the hand we've been dealt with this universe and it isn't without precedent.
The cinematic culmination of "Firefly" might not be incomprehensible to people who watch "Serenity" but aren't familiar with the series and I'm not sure how much resonance the film adaptations of "Veronica Mars" holds for people who haven't watched that estimable show. With the Marvel films, it is difficult to gauge what's going to land and what's not.
What draws me to the MCU are the characters and how they interact and how they work through their issues (or don't). As Cumberbatch said recently, these movies are the therapy sessions for these characters and that's what renders them problematic for everyone else; the ramifications of their traumas can be extensive, from destroying our planet to destroying reality itself. In our present case, it is the latter that seems to be most at risk.
I really don't want to get into recapping or spoiler territory, but suffice it to say that newcomer America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez who, at sixteen, is a formidable young actor) falls into our (is it really, though?) reality after being chased - along with another universe's Dr. Strange, interrupting Dr. Christine Palmer's wedding and the bittersweet meeting between Steven and her. This is also the first instance of heavy lifting the movie has to do.
In the first film, Christine and Steven's relationship was barely that. He was an arrogant, self-absorbed prick and she was a plucky plot device. However, Raimi and Waldron have been able to retroactively imbue the chemistry between the two with the chemistry that was lacking in Strange's first outing. Rachel Adams - a joy to watch regardless of amount of screen time allotted - has a lot more to do and is far more fleshed out and much more than merely a spirited young physician. Consequently, the scenes with Cumberbatch carry more gravitas because we see more of her character and why even or especially, a jerk like him would be attracted to her.
The clever thing is that their relationship is repositioned as not what Steven might have ever understood it to be or had the maturity to fully appreciate until this far into his life and after, well, all that Strange stuff. There was a moment early on where I rather felt that the idea of him still carrying a torch for Christine was both contrived and unearned. I think that was very much by design. The recurring question he's asked is if he's happy and when he tells Christine in the first instance that he is, you know he's lying to her and more than likely to himself. Another version of him in another universe says as much, and this is where the movie really investigates thematic complexity. The multiple Stranges across the multiple universes can be read as fragments and we could overlay a pretty solid Jungian interpretation of the self on its path toward integration and wholeness. We could do that, even if I'm not sure that's what the filmmakers had in mind.
Likewise, with Wanda, we have the mirror journey of a woman who has had everything she loved taken from her and it doesn't help that she might be the most powerful entity in the whole multiverse, with the ability to alter reality and/or rule over all of existence. None of that interests her, though. She just wants her kids. And this is where the movie has an even heavier load to bear since it has to somehow convey a season's worth of a TV series character development (let alone three Avengers films and "Captain America: Civil War") in this one film. And I can't tell how successful the film is in that regard.
I can say that Elizabeth Olsen acted her ass off. She brought remarkable depth and shading to one of the most fascinating characters in this genre. Maybe the most fascinating because Wanda is a woman who has been working through trauma and loss since we first saw her and even if her domestic bliss in Westview was illusory and a very overt form of denial (even if it was Agatha all along, Wanda in the present work is unwilling to recognize and meet her losses and the effects they've had on her - and can you blame her?), she has experienced the full range of what it means to be human in both positive and negative terms. The highs were very high and the lows are what the rest of existence has to deal with.
The spin on this, though, is that the Scarlet Witch Wanda we met in "WandaVision" and we encounter here in her most scarily powerful form is driven by a maternal need that we question at our risk. Steven, Wong, and America all challenge her on this and the more she denies that she's a monster, the more your heart kind of breaks for her.
As much as I love Olsen's performance and believe me, I do love it, I bump up against the biggest issue I do have with these flicks. She's the Scarlet Witch, the holder of the most powerful magic in the multiverse and so on and so forth. Why can't she just do what she did as Wanda Maximoff in Westview and create her own dimension where her boys can come back and live and grow (or not? would she want them to grow up)?
Naturally, we are to assume that she's under the spell of the Dark Hold, the book of world ending dark magic created by Cthon and which corrupts the reader with its usage. I don't like it, it's too pat, but again, here we are and I guess I have to settle for accepting that as why this supremely powerful being feels it necessary to kidnap the twins from another version of herself in another universe. In other words, she's going to essentially torture and inflict further trauma on another version of herself just so that she can play mommy. This is snarky and reductive and mean (because I do feel for her, really) but America Chavez et al, explicitly question Wanda as the Scarlet Witch on her logic on this.
Perhaps that's the point, though. The heart wants what it wants, as E. Dickinson had it. And perhaps, as well, the chaos magic that our Wanda is in possession of actually possesses her so much that the madness in the multiverse is hers. Which brings up back to how we go this far in her character development.
Raimi's film travels at a fast clip and he is one of the very few directors who can pack a ton of stuff into two hours and it doesn't feel rushed. That, friends, is magic.
Shortly after we meet America, she, Strange, and Wong elect to go to Kamar-Taj to keep her there for safety's sake. Agreeing that the demon pursuing America and the tentacled creature that Strange dispatches in New York are the result of witchcraft as opposed to sorcery, Steven smartly decides to consult with Wanda working among her apple grove. I mean, all of this feels like it happens in the first fifteen minutes of the film.
However much time it took, Steven asks Wanda about the multiverse (it's in the trailers) and for a heartbeat, you think it might be a great reunion/team-up until Raimi reminds us that this is his picture and everything turns into a red charnel ground and Wanda tells Steven that she's going to have America's powers to traverse the multiverse whatever the cost. (Again, I just kept thinking, come on, Witch, you're supposed to be so powerful...what do you want to go and kill the kid for?)
By this point, it's also been established that America doesn't fully trust our Steven since hers tried to kill her to take her powers to fight the demon to save the universe (uh, their universe, anyway) and then we find out that it was Wanda all along who's been pursuing America.
America can't control her ability, by the way, so she and Strange wind up in these different universes by chance - apparently. And what universes! After the Scarlet Witch has laid waste to Kamar-Taj and gone full Hela Goddess of Death on those poor bastards, America gets scared and both she and Steven wind up in another New York but not before passing through a montage of other 'verses that is just plain beautiful. They even become paint at one point! And Danny Elfman's score is part of all this at so many well-tuned turns. Watching this in 3-D was one of the best decisions of my movie-going life.
In this other New York, people walk on red and Bruce Campbell is Poppa Pizza who calls out America for stealing some of his pizza balls (they did look good, but to be sure, it turns out that in many universes, food is free! just not in this one) and is very upset with Steven, accusing him of stealing the Cloak from the Strange Museum. "You're a taker!" In the first real slapsticky scene, he's about to spray mustard in Strange's face and winds up squeezing it into his. As Steven and America walk away, Bruce Poppa Pizza Campbell is reduced to punching himself in the face and banging his head on his vending cart. Bruce Freaking Campbell. Now we are in full Raimi mode.
America and Steven pass along a sidewalk demonstration of a memory replay tech that displays (and saves?) significant memories. We see Christine giving Steven his watch from the first movie and that plays a part here; it's very touching but obviously, Strange doesn't want to linger on this. We also see America's first traveling into the multiverse by which she lost her mothers. This hit surprisingly hard. It's a short scene, but these two lovely women and their daughter are launched into the void and Xochi Gomez pulls out the stops subtly and powerfully. Is there no one in the MCU that isn't a victim of separation or catastrophic loss? I guess not. If you're not damaged, you're not Marvel?
I kind of do want to pause here for a moment. By this point, Raimi has gotten this film to cover immense of ground and plot and man, oh, man, with every flourish and signature he's ever used. There are call-backs to the Evil Dead series galore in terms of dolly shots, zooms, layering of images on top of one another, irising in on irises to follow along with the Scarlet Witch taking over Wanda's body in another world, and working her Dark Hold magic, which, let's face it, could just as well be the Necromonicon from "The Evil Dead". I suspect that this may be the Marvel film that uses the most practical effects and puppetry; so many of the critters and effects had that tactile sense of having been built.
Aside from Bob Murawski, Raimi's editor since "Army of Darkness", I haven't seen any other prior associates, but I'm impressed at how much this film is of a piece with the Evil Dead series and "Drag Me to Hell"; when I first heard that Raimi was attached after Scott Derrickson's departure, I was almost worried that Marvel would want him to toe the house style a bit more. I quit worrying when Raimi and others on crew were pretty adamant that this was going to be very much a horror movie. Oh, and it is. Besides, Strange was always horror adjacent in the source material and this is evidence of that.
We quickly find out that this universe's Strange is dead. There's a statue celebrating him as "Earth's mightiest hero" for sacrificing himself to save the planet from Thanos. Steven meets up with this universe's Baron Mordo ("Carl"?) and again Chiwetel Eljiofor is just splendid. In this realm, Mordo's not out to kill Strange and there is, on the surface anyway, camaraderie. Until. Yeah, there's a big one and it gets us to the cameos and major fan service that tickled me no end. The Thursday night audience I watched with got it. All of it. From the first Bruce Campbell appearance to the post-credits Bruce Campbell appearance; they got everything in-between.
But again, Mordo drugs Steven and America, who come to in holding cells overseen by Dr. Christine Palmer. In this universe, she and Steven didn't quite work out what they were to each other but it doesn't matter; Strange is considered a danger to the universe and is brought before a cameo-laden Illuminati, all of whom die at the hand of Wanda Maximoff dreamwalking for the Scarlet Witch, en route to snatch America Chavez, etc., etc.
Wanda gets the girl and takes her to Wundagore (this is a whole other trip; it's where the original text of the Dark Hold was inscribed by Cthon before it was copied into book form; said book destroyed at Kumar-Taj and Wong used by Wanda to go there and finish the spells to get to America). Steven and Christine are left to wander through a decaying universe as realities come barreling into one another in a studied and quite beautiful series of landscapes. Steven finds the Strange of this world who failed to protect it, using the Dark Hold himself.
A particularly fantastic conflict ensues where both sorcerers battle each other with musical notes and staffs. Our Steven vanquishes other Steven and uses the Dark Hold to save America. Christine reluctantly assists, keeping watch over his physical form as he resurrects the first alternative Strange that entered our world with America at the beginning, dead as a doornail and brought back to life as a zombie in the finest Raimi style. It's GLORIOUS!
Zombie Strange puts the souls of the damned to work for him, gets to Wanda, Wong, and America and is able to show America that she can control her power (and then some; we saw earlier that she's got quite a punch!) They're only able to control Wanda for so long before she breaks free and even America doesn't seem to be a match for her, but as the kid says, "I can't beat you, but I can give you what you want" and opens a portal to wherever other Wanda and her kids are. Scarlet Witch Wanda descends into their reality, dispatching their Wanda and frightening the kids no end.
When the boys start pleading for her not hurt them, Scarlet Witch Wanda begins to get a clue. She tells them she's not a monster, but follows their gaze over to their mother lying unconscious and bloody. They run to their mom who comes to and approaches her Scarlet Witch version now kneeling. To call this one of the most tender moments of an actor toward herself is an understatement. The boys' Wanda strokes Scarlet Witch Wanda's cheek and tells her to know that the boys will be loved.
America closes the portal to that world and the Scarlet Witch knows that she has to destroy the Dark Hold at Wundagore. Strange, Wong, and America split to Kumar-Taj as we watch the temple collapse in on itself and take Wanda with it (this may be very much in doubt; "WandaVision" won't be coming back for a second season, but given the success of this film, it looks like she's likely surviving).
America is taken on as a student at Kamar-Taj under Wong's tutelage. Steven asks Wong if he's happy and he replies that while maybe someplace in the multiverse he is, he is mostly grateful for being here in this one. The grace note of Strange bowing to him rounds out the lesson of humility and acceptance he's found on his journey here. There is a touching farewell to America from Steven who returns to New York and of course, this being both Marvel and Raimi, is not going to end on a rosy note. Cut to Steven walking out on a nice fall day and with a strident guitar note, collapsing in front of a car in crosswalk and looking up toward the camera with a third eye! The Dark Hold is not done with Strange, after all.
But wait, that's not all! The mid-credits scene with Charlize Theron appearing and telling Strange that he caused an incursion and it needs to be fixed did it for me. She's Clea! Dormammuu's niece and in the comics, Strange's pupil, then wife, and the Sorceress Supreme of her dimension. Most of all, though, IT'S CHARLIZE THERON! I didn't think she could get any cooler. I am proved wrong.
So what to do with all this? The relevance I alluded to in the title of this entry may not have been intentional, but stay with me.
I, for one, am over the moon with what I've seen. It's been way too long for Raimi's return to the big screen, Cumberbatch maybe taking Downey's place as the eminence gris for the MCU in this phase, and maybe Olsen gets bumped up to a greater leadership role? These are what-ifs and inconsequential to the casual fan. Which brings me to the next line of query.
We are entering a real world fraught with the endangerment of the rights of same sex people and parents. With this release of this film that hints at darkness in other worlds, we have real-life darkness in the form of denying women in the United States the right to abortion and by extension, birth control, healthcare, and agency over their own bodies. Right now, if every woman became the Scarlet Witch, I would sign up to join their coven, if I could. Seriously, we have a film released by the most influential entertainment concern telling a story of a young Latinx woman, the daughter of two mothers, who is now an immigrant to a new universe.
These themes were relevant and pertinent when this film was being produced; now, though, I don't think it's a stretch to see this popcorn movie par excellence as a rebuttal to what a bunch of old men and one very duplicitous woman "serving" (they're not: they're abusing their power) on the country's highest court have in mind for the country. Raimi's film is certainly about loss and the search for happiness, but whether intentional or not, it is also carrying along themes of empowerment and the ability to follow one's heart, find one's path.
Raimi may not be an explicitly political filmmaker, but this movie and I'll argue others like it are going to challenge the power holders in this country just by existing. Movies carrying even a tangential message of inclusion and empowerment are de facto shouts of counter narratives to these so-called "leaders" in our world. Just to be clear, I don't think Wanda, Christine, or America would be on board with what's going on in the halls of power right now.
However, while we don't have those beings in our "real" world, everyone does have magic and strength inside them. We may not wear capes, we may not have magic spells, but we do have voices and organization. Maybe we can't zip a multihued surrealistic spacescape of images, but there is great depth and limitless dimensions and possibilities right here, right now.
Time to exercise some magic and the superpowers of solidarity and engagement.
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