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shazzbaa · 7 years

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So I Saw Doctor Strange

EDIT: I just found this all typed up in my drafts from the day after I saw Doctor Strange several months ago. it’s very ramble-y and not very edited but uh,,,, im just gonna publish it, HERE, HAVE A, VERY COOLED OFF HOT TAKE?????

It was O-Kay. I’m typing up my thoughts because I can’t sleep, and also because this movie is my actual exact trope (please see figure A: my entire webcomic) and yet, while I had a nice time watching it, I kept kinda drifting out of the movie to question the choices it made.

I should also mention, I never read the comics and I never watched any cartoons with Strange in them, so I don’t really care about accuracy in that regard. All I know is that I read his origin story off wikipedia and said “man I hope this movie is good because this could really be my jam.”

ENTIRELY COMPOSED OF SPOILERS:

THINGS I LOVED:

I loved that the hospital kept coming back!! I expected it to just be his origin story and then disappear, like the theatre that scared baby batman, but every time something bad happens to him or his allies he uses his weird new magic to teleport STRAIGHT TO THE HOSPITAL, because OBVIOUSLY that’s where you go when you get hurt!! It’s what he understands and he’s comfortable in that environment and I can’t get over how happy I am with the idea that this ridiculous sorcerer keeps coming back to the ER when he gets really hurt. Also I love the juxtaposition of Dr. Strange’s frankly absurd getup (aka: my aesthetic) striding through An Actual Hospital as if he remotely belongs there. This is 100% my favourite thing about this movie.

I loved that Strange’s hands never get fixed!! He doesn’t GET MAGIC TO FIX THEM, he gets magic to give him a new purpose so that he can finally get over his inability to do surgery. This is infinitely better tbh, both in a non-ableist message sense AND in a “Shazz is happy because he still keeps this one weakness at the end and that’s the kind of thing she likes in stories” sense.

I liked the dimension-altering spell that turns all buildings into a Terrifying Conveyor Belt Of Machinery. Especially in that very first scene, it looks cool and feels like actual magic, something barely fathomable, bending the world to your will.

She kisses him on the cheek!!!!!! I’m 90% more heartwarmed by this choice -- their relationship is so strained at this point that a lips-kiss would feel forced, or inappropriate, like, Obligatory Superhero Kisses Girl Scene, but instead it’s just a moment of, “this is all still a mess but I genuinely care about you.”

Also while we’re on the subject of non-sensual physical touch, I love that the Ancient One holds his hand!!! More deep, meaningful platonic touch in movies please!!!!!!!

I like a lot of the little goofy banter -- “oh, you joined a cult,” and Strange whining about how nobody will name anything after him because his name is Strange. But I’m a sucker for this stuff (see: my entire webcomic).

THINGS IM REALLY MAD ABOUT:

okay but how do you take FREAKIN MAGIC and turn it into SWORDFIGHTING??? who looks at all of psionics and goes “hey lets all play soulknifes.” Seriously tho, there’s like two cool spells and everything else is the exact same choreography you’d expect if they were using staves or fisticuffs and that’s JUST A DANG SHAME!!!! WHERE IS YOUR IMAGINATION MARVEL

I’m not asking for all the spells to be wacky I’m just askin for it to look different from just wackin swords together and blocking them!!! THATS THE MOST BORING THING YOU COULD POSSIBLY DO WITH MAGIC!!!!

that early scene where Strange’s consciousness is getting slingshotted around while the Ancient One schools him about how much he doesn’t understand is unbelievably boring, and this is coming from someone whose biggest turn-on is slightly frail boys being terrified. Why does that scene go on so long??? He hasn’t even earned that experience and it doesn’t even look that cool.

I JUST REALISED THIS IS PROBABLY ENTIRELY COMPOSED WITH THE 3D VERSION IN MIND AND NOW IM EVEN MADDER

THINGS THAT WERE ALLLLMOST COOL BUT I FEEL ULTIMATELY UNSATISFIED:

What the heck is going on with Doctor Strange’s character arc

There’s the weird feeling throughout that Strange learns nothing and is not actually different. Like, I’m sure this isn’t exactly true, but I’m having a hard time countering that idea. He starts out an arrogant person who trusts his own judgement above anyone else’s, and then ends a slightly more polite arrogant person who trusts his own judgement above anyone else’s.

I’m gonna compare Strange to Tony Stark, because I liked Iron Man, and it felt triumphant in a way that Doctor Strange didn’t, and Tony Stark also remains arrogant throughout, but here’s the thing -- Stark’s sin in Iron Man wasn’t hubris, it’s thoughtlessness, both socially and globally. “Proof Tony Stark Has A Heart” and so on. So when Stark remains arrogant, but his beliefs are shaken and he wants to reach out to help & defend others, we don’t feel like he’s gone nowhere. Meanwhile Strange’s sin IS presented as hubris -- he didn’t believe anyone could do what he could do, and his ego is what’s constantly chided by the Ancient One. And then he continues being exactly this way, doing whatever he wants because he doesn’t trust others to guide or help him, and saves the day?? It’s just weird because it seems like maybe they didn’t actually understand what they were setting up?

I think it’s a good choice that he doesn’t quite master magic throughout the course of the movie -- that fits. He’s not the Sorcerer Supreme at the end because “it’s not about you.” But it’s a timid choice, because how do you make a story where the theme is “it’s not about you” and still have the main character single-handedly save the day? You’d have to be a lot more creative than this movie was.

Strange handing the scalpel to Nick is a nice moment but it doesn’t count as paying off this arc/theme/whatever. Strange literally can’t use the scalpel and remembers that the girl he likes trusts Nick, so Nick is the best they’ve got. Strange is a smart guy who’s afraid to fail, he’s gonna make the choice that’s most likely to succeed. We already know he’ll ask for help if he has literally no other option. That’s not a payoff!

There’s a REALLY COOL thing that’s brought up halfway through where Strange freaks out that he killed a guy. He starts yelling about how he’s a doctor who swore to do no harm and I got really excited -- this is an actual redeeming character trait, a chance for Strange to Care about people in contrast to his flippant attitude at the beginning and put his brilliance to work not serving himself, but others -- and the fact that it put him in conflict with his more ruthless fellow sorcerers was also interesting. AND THEN THAT’S IT, THATS THE ENTIRETY OF THAT ISSUE, BASICALLY JUST THAT SCENE.

Like, yeah, at the end he did find a creative way to strike a deal instead (THO HE ARGUABLY DID A LOT OF HARM TO THOSE GUYS THAT GOT SUCKED INTO HELL THE DARK DIMENSION, HMM) but that sort of got lost in this OTHER theme about rule-breaking versus rigidity that got pulled in at the end.

Ultimately it feels like they had three different themes going simultaneously -- Dr. Strange has a huge ego and needs to let go of it, Dr. Strange, as a doctor, questions the sorcerers’ ruthlessness, Dr. Strange is willing to break rules that the other sorcerers aren’t. And it’s only that last one that really feels like a major theme of the movie at the end.... but it’s not really set up that way at the beginning????

//SIGHS A LOT ABOUT THE THING AT THE END OF THE MOVIE

the part where they’re Too Late and Strange turns back time so that they won’t be is cool. I’m not gonna knock that. BUT HEY THAT WAS SET UP ALREADY AND WASN’T AN ASSPULL

uggghghghghghghg like.... this is, I don’t know, it’s a genuinely smart move, and it feels like it works, but it also has that feeling of “oh, I guess this is possible then,” because it wasn’t really set up well. THATS NOT WHAT YOU WANT FOR THE CLIMACTIC END OF YOUR MOVIE!!!

Look, there’s the bones of something good here. Strange messes up by trying to do a cool thing and throwing everyone into the mirror dimension, and actually exclaims “this was a mistake” (which I expected to be a way bigger deal???) -- and then at the end he does the exact same friggin thing by jumping into a dimension with a plan that seems like it’ll make sense. So what if he learned from his mistake instead? What if he realised he’d need help understanding dimensions, and we saw him asking questions and getting guidance and finally being willing to trust that maybe someone else knows more than he can teach himself? In that moment, we could learn a little bit more about bringing different magic to different dimensions. And at the end, what if it wasn’t a split second decision by Strange to do a risky proceedure (aka, the thing he already did at the start of the movie) but instead, Strange has the idea to carry time into the dark dimension and checks his idea with the others? You could even bring the violence angle in here, if the others had some other option that would be less magically risky but involve more death, and Strange chooses the one where nobody has to die, and maybe even asks them to trust his decision -- something he never felt the need to do before. Instead of the ENTIRE TIME ISSUE feeling like kinda an asspull because it’s all a surprise, it’s the Time Loop Bargain that’s a surprise, while everything else has been firmly established.

I don’t know if this would work or be the best choice. But like!!! these are things that feel like they could’ve been worked with a little more to make the whole movie feel more cohesive!!! instead of having one theme, and then dropping it and picking up a different theme, and then kinda fumbling that into another theme, and not being sure where to put any exposition or character development.

I really like that Strange is kinda.... not physically amazing. Like, he’s been taught how to fight, but it’s clear he’s leaning a lot on his cloak for the fancier stuff and he’d still definitely get beat up without help. This is obviously like.. my character type, but wouldn’t it be cool if he were just a smiiiiiiidge older?? Like, a little frailer, can’t really fight that well without magical help? NO? JUST ME?????????

okay I think that’s everything. thats my opinion of dr strange

#im not puttin it in the tag b/c dont tag ur hate kids #even tho honestly i enjoyed this movie #LIKE #IM GONNA WATCH THE SEQUEL STILL PROBABLY #Shazz has opinions again #text post

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